G  E  O  H  G  JS      G  A  N  N  E  T  T '  S 


E0. 


';'  • 


THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


OT 


HOEACE   MANN. 


EDITED    BY 

MRS.    MARY    MANN. 


IN  FIVE    VOLUMES. 
VOL.  HI. 


BOSTON : 
HORACE     B.     FULLER, 

(SUCCESSOR  TO  WALKER,  FULLEU,  &  CO.,) 
245   WASHINGTON   STREET. 

1868. 


ANNUAL  REPORTS 


ON 


EDUCATION. 


BOSTON: 
HORACE     B.     FULLER, 

(Successor  to  Walker,  Fuller.  &  Co.,) 

No.    245,    WASHINGTON    STREET. 

1868. 


Entered,  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1807,  by 

Mas.   .MARY   3IAXN, 
In  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  District  of  Massachusetts. 


BOSTON  :    COKNHILL    I'KESS. 

STKREOTYI'EU   A.VD    PRINTED   BY   OEO.   C.    RAND   it   AVERT. 


Stack 

CV«.c 


S/3/M 

PREFACE. 


THE  present  volume  consists  of  only  such  portions  of 
the  ten  remaining  Reports  of  the  Secretary  as  are  now 
of  universal  interest.  If  published  entire,  they  would 
fill  two  such  volumes  as  the  present.  The  statistics 
omitted  give  the  condition  of  Massachusetts,  in  an  edu- 
cational point  of  view,  between  the  years  1837  and  1848, 
and  are  not  of  general  interest  at  the  present  time. 
The  people  of  the  State  can  find  them,  when  needed, 
in  the  public  archives.  The  portions  selected  contain 
the  views  of  Mr.  Mann  upon  great  points  which  concern 
all  societies  alike. 

The  appropriations  made  by  the  towns  for  public 
schools  increased,  under  the  administration  of  the  Board 
of  Education,  from  $400,000  in  1837  to  $749,943.45 
in  1848.  This  sum  was  exclusive  of  the  cost  of  school- 
houses,  school-books,  libraries,  apparatus,  &c.,  and  was 
expended  solely  for  the  compensation  of  teachers,  for 
their  board,  and  for  fuel  for.  the  schools. 

In  18-37,  there  were  three  thousand  five  hundred  and 
ninety-one  female  teachers  in  the  common  schools.  In 


1850958 


Vlll  PREFACE. 

Those  which  stood  near  the  bottom  of  the  list  one  year 
rose  immediately  (except  in  a  few  benighted  corners  of 
the  State)  to  a  higher  point.  Somerville  and  Brighton 
ranked  above  all  the  other  towns.  Boston  never  stood 
first  on  the  list,  but  at  times  was  second,  then  third, 
sixth,  fifteenth.  The  abstracts  of  school-returns  made 
from  the  reports  of  the  school-committees  of  each  town 
occupied  Mr.  Mann  for  four  or  five  months  of  the  year. 
A  mass  of  documents,  sometimes  amounting  to  six  thou- 
sand written  pages,  were  thoroughly  read,  sifted,  and 
selected  from.  The  character  of  these  reports  rose  in 
value  under  his  earnest  appeals  to  the  committees,  upon 
whom,  in  the  last  resort,  the  welfare  of  the  schools  de- 
pends ;  and  the  abstracts  have  been  considered  the  most 
valuable  body  of  information  ever  contributed  to  the 
cause  of  education,  and  have  been  sought  by  all  the 
States  and  by  all  countries.  The  mode  of  teaching  and 
governing  in  each  school  is  given,  and  thus  all  parts  of 
the  State  were  enabled  to  compare  notes,  and  profit  by 
each  other's  wisdom,  or  be  warned  by  each  other's  fail- 
ures. Some  of  these  yearly  abstracts  make  volumes  of 
five  hundred  pages,  and  were  a  very  laborious  work  to 
prepare,  in  order  not  to  contain  repetitions;  but  their 
value  compensated  for  the  labor  to  one  who  was  so  ear- 
nest in  the  prosecution  of  his  work.  It  was  all  done  by 
his  own  hand,  as  tho  small  salary  of  the  office  made  it 
impossible  to  hire  assistance. 

The  Graduated  Tables  were  at  one  time  prepared  at 
the  State  House,  but  so  inaccurately,  that  Mr.  Mann  was 


PREFACE.  IX 

obliged  to  resume  the  preparation  of  them ;  and  for  that 
work  he  hired  assistance  at  his  own  expense. 

In  each  Annual  Report,  he  discussed  some  special  topic 
to  which  he  had  given  prominence  in  the  labors  of  the 
year.  These  discussions  alone  are  selected  for  the  pres- 
ent volume. 

The  Tenth  Report  was  republished  by  the  State  after 
Mr.  Mann  left  the  office.  It  states  all  the  provisions  of 
law  in  regard  to  the  schools,  and  these  are  amply  com- 
mented upon  by  Mr.  Mann.  But  they  are  omitted  here,  as 
many  alterations  in  the  provisions  have  since  been  made. 
Their  interest  now  lies  chiefly  in  their  historical  value. 
The  best  history  of  a  State  or  country  is  the  history  of 
its  ideas.  To  the  moralist  and  the  legislator,  therefore, 
this  Report  has  an  indestructible  value,  because  it 
yields  up  the  secret  of  the  strength  of  Massachusetts. 
The  only  selection  made  from  it  is  the  general  view 
given  of  the  common-school  system  of  Massachusetts. 


CONTENTS. 


REPORT    FOR    1839. 

PAGE. 

QUALIFICATIONS  OF  TEACHERS.  —  SCHOOL  LIBRARIES.  — 
WHAT  SHALL  BE  THE  READING  MATTER  ?  —  IMPOR- 
TANCE OF  UNION  SCHOOLS  IN  ORDER  TO  EQUALIZE  THE 
BENEFITS  OF  EDUCATION  TO  CHILDREN  OF  ALL  AGES  ; 
OF  THE  THOROUGH  PROFICIENCY  OF  THE  TEACHERS  IN 
COMMON-SCHOOL  STUDIES;  OF  PUNCTUAL  ATTENDANCE 
OF  THE  CHILDREN  ;  OF  A  MANIFESTATION  OF  PARENTAL 
INTEREST  IN  THE  SCHOOLS 1 

REPORT    FOR    1841. 

THE  EFFECT  OF  EDUCATION  UPON  THE  WORLDLY  FOR- 
TUNES OF  MEN 92 

REPORT    FOR    1842. 

THE  STUDY  OF  PHYSIOLOGY  IN  THE  SCHOOLS.  —  DISSER- 
TATION UPON  THE  SUBJECT 129 

REPORT    FOR    1843. 

VISITATION  AND  DESCRIPTION  OF  EUROPEAN  SCHOOLS. — 
DEAF-MUTES  TAUGHT  TO  SPEAK  SUCCESSFULLY  .  .  230 

REPORT    FOR    1845. 

DUTIES  OF  THE  FUTURE.  —  SCHOOL  MOTIVES  AND  SCHOOL 
VICES.  —  EQUALITY  OF  SCHOOL  PRIVILEGES  .  .  .  419 


Xll  CONTENTS. 


REPORT    FOR    1846. 

PAGE. 

THE  COMMON-SCHOOL  SYSTEM  OF  MASSACHUSETTS   .        .     523 


REPORT    FOR    1847. 

THE  POWEE  OF  COMMON  SCHOOLS  TO  REDEEM  THE  STATE 
FROM  SOCIAL  VICES  AND  CRIMES  559 


REPORT    FOR    1848. 

THE  CAPACITY  OF  THE  COMMON-SCHOOL  SYSTEM  TO  IM- 
PROVE THE  PECUNIARY  CONDITION,  AND  ELEVATE  THE 
INTELLECTUAL,  MORAL,  AND  RELIGIOUS  CHARACTER,  OF 
THE  COMMONWEALTH  .  ...  .  640 


ANNUAL   REPORTS 


SECRETARY  OF  THE  BOARD  OF  EDUCATION. 


REPORT  FOR  1839. 

GENTLEMEN,  — 

...  I  FEEL  fully  justified  in  affirming  that  the  prospects 
of  the  rising  generation  are  daily  gi'owing  brighter  by  means 
of  the  increasing  light  which  is  shed  upon  them  from  our 
Common  Schools.  I  refer  here,  more  particularly,  to  such 
proofs  as  are  hardly  susceptible  of  being  condensed  into 
statistical  tables,  or  even  of  being  presented  as  isolated 
facts :  these  speak  for  themselves.  But  I  refer  to  such 
indications  of  returning  health  as  prove  to  the  watchful 
attendant  that  the  crisis  of  the  malady  has  passed.  Stronger 
feelings  and  firmer  convictions  of  the  importance  of  our 
Common  Schools  are  taking  possession  of  the  public  mind; 
and,  Avhere  they  have  not  yet  manifested  themselves  in  any 
outward  and  visible  improvement,  they  are  silently  and 
gradually  working  to  that  end. 

In  determining  the  rate  of  annual  advancement,  however, 
which  the  friends  of  this  cause  are  authorized  reasonably  to 
expect,  it  should  not  be  forgotten  that  all  improvements  in 
the  system  depend  ultimately  upon  the  people  themselves, 
and  upon  the  school  officers,  whom,  in  their  several  towns 


2  ANNUAL    REPORTS    ON   EDUCATIOX. 

and  districts,  they  see  fit  to  elect.  All  improvements  in  the 
schools,  therefore,  suppose  and  require  a  simultaneous  and 
corresponding  improvement  in  public  sentiment,  and  in  the 
liberality  of  the  citizens,  who,  by  a  major  vote,  from  year  to 
year,  measure  out  the  pecuniary  means  for  their  support,  and 
elect  the  officers  who  are  to  superintend  the  application  of 
those  means.  Progress  which  must  be  so  thorough  must 
necessarily  be  slow.  But  the  thoroughness  is  a  compensa- 
tion for  the  slowness;  for,  when  a  revolution  is  once  wrought, 
it  will  be  enduring.  The  Legislature,  having  conferred  upon 
the  Board  of  Education  no  authority  as  to  the  amount  of 
money  to  be  raised,  the  teachers  to  be  employed,  the  books, 
apparatus,  or  other  instruments  of  instruction  to  be  used,  the 
condition  of  the  houses  in  which  the  schools  are  taught,  nor, 
indeed,  as  to  any  other  subject,  which  can,  in  the  slightest 
degree,  abridge  the  power  or  touch  the  property  of  towns  or 
districts,  the  responsibility,  in  all  these  respects,  continues  to 
rest,  where  it  always  has  rested,  and  where,  it  is  to  be  hoped, 
it  always  will  rest,  with  the  towns  and  districts  themselves. 
On  these  points,  encouragement  may  be  highly  beneficial: 
compulsion  would  counterwork  its  own  purposes. 

Hence,  it  is  obvious,  that  if  the  Board  or  the  Legislature 
should  devise  and  promulgate  the  wisest  system  imaginable, 
and  define  the  exact  processes  by  which  it  could  be  executed, 
and  all  its  fruits  realized,  the  administration  of  that  system 
must  still  be  left  with  the  local  authorities.  In  the  last  stage 
of  the  process,  and  at  the  very  point  where  the  means  are 
applied  to  the  objects,  they  must  pass  through  the  hands  of 
the  town  and  district  officers,  and  of  the  teachers  whom  they 
employ.  In  our  system  of  public  instruction,  therefore,  it  is 
emphatically  true,  that  the  influences  flowing  from  the  Legis- 
lature, or  from  any  advisory  body,  may  have  their  quality 
entirely  changed  by  being  assimilated  to  the  character  and 
views  of  the  men  through  whose  hands  they  eventually 
pass;  just  as  the  nutritious  juices  which  ascend  from  the 
roots  of  a  tree  may  lose  their  original  properties,  and  be  made 


REPORT   FOR    1839.  3 

to  produce  fruits  of  various  flavor,  according  to  the  nature 
of  the  ingrafted  scions  through  whose  transforming  pores 
they  flow.  Wherever,  therefore,  we  find  improvements  in 
the  schools,  it  is  a  gratifying  proof  that  higher  views  are 
prevailing  in  the  community  in  which  those  improvements 
originate. 

I  advert  to  these  facts  respecting  the  authority,  or  rather 
the  want  of  authority,  in  the  Board,  and  their  entire  depend- 
ence npon  the  efficient  co-operation  of  the  public,  because  I 
occasionally  meet  with  misapprehensions  respecting  their 
office  and  powers  and  consequent-  duties;  some  persons 
looking  to  the  Board  for  action  in  matters  of  which  they 
have  not  the  slightest  official  cognizance,  and  others  deplor- 
ing their  possession  of  powers,  of  which  there  is  no  trace  nor 
indication  to  be  found,  cither  in  the  law  which  created  them, 
or  in  any  of  their  official  or  unofficial  proceedings. 

.  .  .  To  those  whose  views  of  public  and  private  duty  can 
never  be  satisfied  by  any  thing  short  of  a  universal  education 
for  the  people,  it  will  be  gratifying  to  be  informed,  that  a 
new  interest  has  been  excited,  during  the  last  year,  in  behalf 
of  the  children  of  persons  employed  npon  our  public  works. 
This  class  of  children,  heretofore,  has  not  shared  in  the  pro- 
visions for  education  made  by  our  laws,  and  has  rarely  been 
embraced  in  any  of  the  numerous  plans  for  moral  improve- 
ment, devised  and  sustained  by  private  charity  ;  and  hence 
they  have  been  growing  up  in  the  midst  of  our  institutions, 
uninstructed  even  in  those  rudiments  of  knowledge,  without 
which  self-education  is  hardly  practicable.  During  the  last 
year,  a  few  inhabitants  of  the  town  of  Middlefield  (which  is 
situated  in  the  western  part  of  Hampshire  County),  commis- 
erating the  destitute  condition  of  the  children  along  the  line 
of  the  railroad  in  their  vicinity,  took  active  measures  to 
supply  them  with  the  means  of  instruction.  A  gentleman 
of  that  town,  Mr.  Alexander  Ingham,  was  the  first  to  engage 
in,  and  has  been  most  active  in  carrying  on,  this  Samaritan 
enterprise.  The  good  example  extended;  and  a  considerable 


4  ANNUAL    REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

number  of  children  along  the  line  of  work  were  soon  gath- 
ered, either  into  the  public  schools,  or,  where  that  was  im- 
practicable, into  schools  established  expressly  for  them,  at 
private  expense.  At  the  Common-school  Convention  in  the 
county  of  Hampden,  held  in  the  month  of  August  last,  the 
condition  of  these  children,  and  the  necessity  of  some  further 
measures  in  their  behalf,  constituted  one  of  the  topics  of  in- 
quiry and  discussion.  A  committee  was  appointed,  of  which 
Mr.  Ingham  was  chairman,  to  collect  the  facts  of  the  case. 
From  this  committee,  I  have  learned  that  there  were,  in  the 
month  of  September  last,  more  than  three  hundred  children, 
between  the  ages  of  four  and  sixteen,  belonging  to  the  labor- 
ers on  the  railroad  west  of  Connecticut  River,  who  were  not 
considered  as  entitled  to  the  privileges  of  the  public  schools, 
or  were  in  such  a  local  situation  as  not  to  be  able  to  attend 
them.  A  pregnant  fact  also,  in  relation  to  the  subject,  is, 
that,  in  the  enumeration  of  all  the  children  of  all  ages,  be- 
longing to  that  class  of  people,  "  a  large  proportion  of  them 
are  under  the  age  of  four  years."  Owing  to  efforts  since 
made  by  private  individuals,  a  very  large  majority  of  all 
these  children,  who  are  of  a  suitable  age,  are  now  enjoying 
the  benefits  of  Common-school  education. 

Another  subject,  respecting  which  I  have  sought  for  infor- 
mation from  all  authentic  sources,  and  to  which  I  have  given 
especial  attention  in  my  circuit  through  the  State,  is  the 
observance  or  non-observance  of  the  law  "  for  the  better  in- 
struction of  youth  employed  in  manufacturing  establish- 
ments." This  law  was  enacted  in  April,  1836,  and  was  to 
take  effect  on  the  first  day  of  April,  1837.  The  substance  of 
its  provisions  is,  that  no  owner,  agent,  or  superintendent 
of  any  manufacturing  establishment,  shall  etnploy  any  child, 
under  the  age  of  fifteen  years,  to  labor  in  such  establishment, 
unless  such  child  shall  have  attended  some  public  or  private 
day  school,  where  instruction  is  given  by  a  legally  qualified 
teacher,  nt  least  three  months  of  the  twelve  months  next 
preceding  any  and  every  year  in  which  such  child  shall  be 


REPORT   FOR   1839.  5 

so  employed.  The  penalty  for  each  violation  is  fifty  dollars. 
The  law  has  now  been  in  operation  sufficiently  long  to  make 
manifest  the  intentions  of  those  to  whom  its  provisions  ap- 
ply, and  whether  those  humane  provisions  are  likely  to  be 
observed  or  defeated.  From  the  information  obtained,  I  feel 
fully  authorized  to  say,  that,  in  the  great  majority  of  cases, 
the  law  is  obeyed.  But  it  is  my  painful  duty  also  to  say, 
that,  in  some  places,  it  has  been  uniformly  and  systematically 
disregarded.  The  law  is  best  observed  in  the  largest  manu- 
facturing places.  In  several  of  the  most  extensive  manufac- 
turing villages  and  districts,  all  practicable  measures  are  taken 
to  prevent  a  single  instance  of  violation.  Some  establish- 
ments have  conducted  most  generously  towards  the  schools; 
and,  in  one  case  (at  "Waltham),  a  corporation,  besides  pay- 
ing its  proportion  of  taxes  for  the  support  of  the  public 
schools  in  the  town,  has  gratuitously  erected  three  school- 
houses, —  the  last  in  1837,  a  neat,  handsome,  modern  stoue 
building,  two  stories  in  height, —  and  maintained  schools 
therein,  at  a  charge,  in  the  whole,  upon  the  corporate  funds, 
of  a  principal  sum  of  more  than  seven  thousand  dollars.  It 
would  be  improper  for  me  here  to  be  more  particular  than 
to  say,  that  these  generous  acts  have  been  done  by  the 
"Boston  Manufacturing  Company;"  though  all  will  regret 
that  the  identity  of  the  individual  members  who  have  per- 
formed these  praiseworthy  deeds  should  be  lost  in  the  gen- 
erality of  the  corporate  name. 

Comparatively  speaking,  there  seems  to  have  been  far 
greater  disregard  of  the  law  by  private  individuals  and  by 
small  corporations,  especially  where  the  premises  are  rented 
from  year  to  year,  or  from  term  to  term,  than  by  the  owners 
or  agents  of  large  establishments.  Private  individuals,  rent- 
ing an  establishment  for  one  or  for  a  few  years,  —  intending 
to  realize  from  it  what  profits  they  can,  and  then  to  abandon 
it,  and  remove  from  the  neighborhood  or  town  where  it  is 
situated,  —  may  be  supposed  to  feel  less  permanent  interest 
in  the  condition  of  the  people  who  are  growing  up  around 


6  ANNUAL   REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

them;  and  they  are  less  under  the  control  of  public  opinion 
in  the  vicinity.  But,  without  seeking  an  explanation  of  the 
cause,  there  cannot  be  a  doubt  as  to  the  fact. 

It  is  obvious  that  the  consent  of  two  parties  is  necessary 
to  the  infraction  of  this  law,  and  to  the  infliction  of  this  high- 
est species  of  injustice  upon  the  children  whom  it  was  de- 
signed to  protect.  Not  only  must  the  employer  pursue  a 
course  of  action  by  which  the  godlike  powers  and  capacities 
of  the  human  soul  are  wrought  into  thorough-made  products 
of  ignorance  and  misery  and  vice  with  as  much  certainty 
and  celerity  as  his  raw  materials  of  wool  or  cotton  are 
wrought  into  fabrics  for  the  market  by  his  own  machinery, 
but  the  parent  also  must  be  willing  to  convert  the  holy  rela- 
tion of  parent  and  child  into  the  unholy  one  of  master  and 
slave,  and  to  sell  his  child  into  ransomless  bondage  for  the 
pittance  of  money  he  can  earn.  Yet,  strange  to  say,  there 
are  many  parents,  not  only  of  our  immigrant,  but  of  our  na- 
tive population,  so  lost  to  the  sacred  nature  of  the  relation 
they  sustain  towards  the  children  whom  they  have  brought 
into  all  the  solemn  realities  of  existence,  that  they  go  from 
town  to  town,  seeking  opportunities  to  consign  them  to  un- 
broken, bodily  toil,  although  it  involves  the  deprivation  of 
all  the  means  of  intellectual  and  moral  growth;  thus  pan- 
dering to  their  own  vicious  appetites  by  adopting  the  most 
efficient  measures  to  make  their  offspring  as  vicious  as  them- 
selves. 

If,  in  a  portion  of  the  manufacturing  districts  in  the  State, 
a  regular  and  systematic  obedience  is  paid  to  the  law,  while, 
in  other  places,  it  is  regularly  and  systematically  disregarded, 
the  inevitable  consequences  to  the  latter  will  be  obvious 
upon  a  moment's  reflection.  The  neighborhood  or  town 
where  the  lnw  is  broken  will  soon  become  the  receptacle  of 
the  poorest,  most  vicious,  and  abandoned  parents,  who  are 
bringing  up  their  children  to  be  also  as  poor,  vicious,  and 
abandoned  as  themselves.  The  whole  class  of  parents  who 
cannot  obtain  employment  for  their  children  at  one  place, 


REPORT   FOR   1839.  7 

but  are  welcomed  at  another,  will  circulate  through  the  body 
politic,  until  at  last  they  will  settle  down  as  permanent  resi- 
dents in  the  latter ;  like  the  vicious  humors  of  the  natural 
body,  which,  being  thrown  off  by  every  healthy  part,  at  last 
accumulate,  and  settle  upon  a  diseased  spot.  Every  breach 
of  this  law,  therefore,  inflicts  direct  and  positive  injustice,  not 
only  upon  the  children  employed,  but  upon  all  the  industri- 
ous and  honest  communities  in  which  they  are  employed ; 
Localise  its  effect  will  be  to  fill  those  communities  with 
paupers  and  criminals,  or,  at  least,  with  a  class  of  persons, 
who,  without  being  absolute,  technical  paupers,  draw  their 
subsistence  in  a  thousand  indirect  ways  from  the  neighbor- 
hood where  they  reside ;  and,  without  being  absolute  crimi- 
nals in  the  eye  of  the  law,  still  commit  a  thousand  injurious, 
predatory  acts,  more  harassing  and  annoying  to  the  peace 
and  security  of  a  village  than  many  classes  of  positive 
crimes. 

While  water-power  only  is  used  for  manufacturing  pur- 
poses, a  natural  limit  is  affixed,  in  every  place,  to  the  exten- 
sion of  manufactories.  The  power  being  all  taken  up  in  any 
place,  the  further  investment  of  capital,  and  the  employment 
of  an  increased  number  of  operatives,  must  cease.  While 
we  restrict  ourselves  to  the  propulsion  of  machinery  by 
water,  therefore,  it  is  impossible  that  we  should  have  such 
an  extensive  manufacturing  district  as,  for  instance,  that  of 
Manchester  in  England,  because  we  have  no  streams  of  suffi- 
cient magnitude  for  the  purpose.  But  Massachusetts  is  al- 
ready the  gi-eatest  manufacturing  State  in  the  Union.  Her 
best  sites  are  all  taken  up ;  and  yet  her  disposition  to  manu- 
facture appears  not  to  be  checked.  Under  such  circum- 
stances, it  seems  not  improbable  that  steam-power  will  be 
resorted  to.  Indeed,  this  is  already  done  to  some  extent. 
Should  such  improvements  be  made  in  the  use  of  steam,  or 
such  new  markets  be  opened  for  the  sale  of  manufactured 
products,  that  capitalists,  by  selecting  sites  where  the  ex- 
pense of  transportation,  both  of  the  raw  material  and  of  the 


8  ANNUAL   REPORTS   ON    EDUCATION. 

finished  article,  may  be  so  reduced  as,  on  the  whole,  to  make 
it  profitable  to  manufacture  by  steam,  then  that  agency  will 
be  forthwith  employed ;  and,  if  steam  is  employed,  there  is 
no  assignable  limit  to  the  amount  of  a  manufacturing  popu- 
lation that  may  be  gathered  into  a  single  manufacturing 
district.  If,  therefore,  we  would  not  have,  in  any  subsequent 
time,  a  population  like  that  of  the  immense  city  of  Manches- 
ter, where  great  numbers  of  the  laboring  population  live  in 
the  filthiest  streets,  and  mostly  in  houses  which  are  framed 
back  to  back,  so  that,  in  no  case,  is  there  any  yard  behind 
them,  but  all  ingress  and  egress,  for  all  purposes,  is  between 
the  front  side  of  the  house  and  the  public  street,  —  if  we 
would  not  have  such  a  population,  we  must  not  only  have 
preventive  laws,  but  we  must  see  that  no  cupidity,  no  con- 
tempt of  the  public  welfare  for  the  sake  of  private  gain,  is 
allowed  openly  to  violate  or  clandestinely  to  evade  them. 
It  would,  indeed,  be  most  lamentable  and  self-contradictory, 
if,  with  all  our  institutions  devised  and  prepared  on  the  hy- 
pothesis of  common  intelligence  and  virtue,  we  should  rear  a 
class  of  children  to  be  set  apart,  and,  as  it  were,  dedicated 
to  ignorance  and  vice. 

After  presenting  to  the  Board  one  further  consideration,  I 
will  leave  this  subject.  It  is  obvious  that  children  of  ten, 
twelve,  or  fourteen  years  of  age  may  be  steadily  worked  in 
our  manufactories,  without  any  schooling,  and  that  this  cruel 
deprivation  may  be  persevered  in  for  six,  eight,  or  ten  years, 
and  yet,  during  all  this  period,  no  very  alarming  outbreak 
shall  occur  to  rouse  the  public  mind  from  its  guilty  slumber. 
The  children  are  in  their  years  of  minority,  and  they  have  no 
control  over  their  own  time  or  their  own  actions.  The  bell 
is  to  them  what  the  water- wheel  and  the  main  shaft  are  to 
the  machinery  which  they  superintend.  The  wheel  revolves, 
and  the  machinery  must  go ;  the  bell  rings,  and  the  children 
must  assemble.  In  their  hours  of  work,  they  are  under  the 
police  of  the  establishment :  at  other  times,  they  are  under 
the  police  of  the  neighborhood.  Hence  this  state  of  things 


REPORT  FOR   1839.  9 

may  continue  for  years,  and  the  peace  of  the  neighborhood 
remain  undisturbed,  except,  perhaps,  by  a  few  nocturnal  or 
sabbath-day  depredations.  The  ordinary  movements  of  so- 
ciety may  go  on  without  any  shocks  or  collisions ;  as,  in  the 
human  system,  a  disease  may  work  at  the  vitals,  and  gain  a 
fatal  ascendency  there,  before  it  manifests  itself  on  the  sur- 
face. But  the  punishment  for  such  an  offence  will  not  be 
remitted  because  its  infliction  is  postponed.  The  retribution, 
indeed,  is  not  postponed,  it  only  awaits  the  full  completion 
of  the  offence  ;  for  this  is  a  crime  of  such  magnitude,  that  it 
requires  years  for  the  criminal  to  perpetrate  it  in,  and  to  fin- 
ish it  off  thoroughly  in  all  its  parts.  But  when  the  children 
pass  from  the  condition  of  restraint  to  that  of  freedom, 
from  years  of  enforced  but  impatient  servitude  to  that  inde- 
pendence for  which  they  have  secretly  pined,  and  to  which 
they  have  looked  forward,  not  mei'ely  as  the  period  of  eman- 
cipation, but  of  long-delayed  indulgence;  when  they  become 
strong  in  the  passions  and  propensities  that  grow  up  spon- 
taneously, but  are  weak  in  the  moral  powers  that  control 
them,  and  blind  in  the  intellect  which  foresees  their  ten- 
dencies ;  when,  according  to  the  course  of  our  political  insti- 
tutions, they  go,  by  one  bound,  from  the  political  nothingness 
of  a  child  to  the  political  sovereignty  of  a  man,  —  then,  for 
that  people  who  so  cruelly  neglected  and  injured  them,  there 
will  assuredly  come  a  day  of  retribution.  It  scarcely  needs 
to  be  added,  on  the  other  hand,  that  if  the  wants  of  the  spir- 
itual nature  of  a  child,  in  the  successive  stages  of  its  growth, 
are  duly  supplied,  then  a  regularity  in  manual  employment 
is  converted  from  a  servitude  into  a  useful  habit  of  diligence, 

O 

and  the  child  grows  up  in  a  daily  perception  of  the  wonder- 
working power  of  industry,  and  in  the  daily  realization  of  the 
trophies  of  victorious  labor.  A  majority  of  the  most  useful 
men  who  have  ever  lived  were  formed  under  the  happy 
necessity  of  mingling  bodily  with  mental  exertion. 

But  by  far  the  most  important  subject  respecting  which  I 
have  sought  for  information  during  the  year  remains  to  be 


10  ANNUAL    REPORTS    ON   EDUCATION. 

noticed.  "While  we  are  in  little  danger  of  over-estimating 
the  value  of  Common  Schools,  yet  we  shall  err  egregiously 
if  we  regard  them  as  ends,  and  not  as  means.  A  forgetful- 
ness  of  this  distinction  would  send  the  mass  of  our  children 
of  both  sexes  into  the  world  scantily  provided  either  with 
the  ability  or  the  disposition  to  perform  even  the  most  ordi- 
nary  duties  of  life.  Common  Schools  derive  their  value  from 
the  fact  that  they  are  an  instrument  more  extensively  appli- 
cable to  the  whole  mass  of  the  children  than  any  other  in- 
strument ever  yet  devised.  They  are  an  instrument  by 
which  the  good  men  in  society  can  send  redeeming  intlu- 

O  * 

ences  to  those  children  who  suffer  under  the  calamity  of 
vicious  parentage  and  evil  domestic  associations.  The  world 
is  full  of  lamentable  proofs  that  the  institution  of  the  family 
may  exist  for  an  indefinite  number  of  generations  without 
mitio'atinsc  the  horrors  of  barbarism.  But  the  institution  of 

~  O 

Common  Schools  is  the  offspring  of  an  advanced  state  of 
civilization,  and  is  incapable  of  co-existing  with  barbarian  life, 
because,  should  barbarism  prevail,  it  would  destroy  the 
schools;  should  the  schools  prevail,  they  would  destroy  bar- 
barism. They  are  the  only  civil  institution  capable  of  ex- 
tendin<>-  its  beneficent  arms  to  embrace  and  to  cultivate  in  all 

O 

parts  of  its  nature  every  child  that  comes  into  the  world. 
Nor  can  it  be  forgotten  that  there  is  no  other  instrumentality 
which  has  done  or  can  do  so  much  to  inspire  that  universal 
reverence  for  knowledge  which  incites  to  its  acquisition. 
Still,  these  schools  are  means,  and  not  ends.  They  confer 
instruments  for  the  acquisition  of  an  object,  but  they  are  not 
the  object  itself.  As  they  now  are,  or,  indeed,  are  ever  likely 
to  become,  our  young  men  and  young  women  will  be  most 
insufficiently  prepared  to  meet  the  various  demands  which 
life  will  make  upon  them,  if  they  possess  nothing  but  what 
these  schools  bestow. 

Libraries.  —  After  the  rising  generation  have  acquired  hab- 
its of  intelligent  reading  in  our  schools,  what  shall  they  read? 


REPORT    FOR   1839.  11 

for,  with  no  books  to  rend,  the  power  of  reading  will  be  use- 
less ;  and,  with  bad  books  to  read,  the  consequences  will  be  as 
much  worse  than  ignorance  as  wisdom  is  better.  What 
books,  then,  are  there  accessible  to  the  great  mass  of  the 
children  in  the  State,  adapted  to  their  moral  and  intellectual 
wants,  and  fitted  to  nourish  their  minds  with  the  elements 
of  uprightness  and  wisdom  ? 

Let  any  person  go  into  one  of  our  country  towns  or  dis- 
tricts of  average  size,  consisting,  as  most  of  them  do,  of  an 
agricultural  population,  interspersed  with  mechanics,  and 
here  and  there  a  few  manufacturers,  and  inquire  from  house 
to  house  what  books  are  possessed,  and  he  will  probably  find 
the  Scriptures  and  a  few  school-books  in  almost  every  family. 
These  are  protected  by  law,  even  in  the  hands  of  an  insol- 
vent; so  that  the  poor  are  as  secure  in  their  possession  as  the 
rich.  In  the  houses  of  professional  men,  —  the  minister,  the 
lawyer,  the  physician,  —  he  would  find  small  professional 
libraries,  intermixed  with  some  miscellaneous  works  not  of 
a  professional  character ;  in  the  houses  of  religious  persons,  a 
few  religious  books  of  this  or  that  class,  according  to  the  faith 
of  the  owner;  in  the  houses  of  the  more  wealthy,  where 
wealth  is  fortunately  combined  with  intelligence  and  good 
taste,  some  really  useful  and  instructive  books  ;  but  where  the 
wealth  is  unfortunately  united  with  a  love  of  display,  or  with 
feeble  powers  of  thought,  he  would  find  a  few  elegantly- 
bound  annuals,  and  novels  of  a  recent  emission.  What  he 
would  find  in  other  houses  —  and  these  the  majority  —  would 
be  few,  and  of  a  most  miscellaneous  character ;  books  which 
had  found  their  way  thither  rather  by  chance  than  by  de- 
sign, and  ranging  in  their  character  between  very  good  and 
very  bad.  Rarely,  in  such  a  town  as  I  have  supposed,  will  a 
book  be  found  which  treats  of  the  nature,  object,  and  abuses 
of  different  kinds  of  governments,  and  of  the  basis  and  con- 
stitution and  fabric  of  our  own  ;  or  one  on  economical  or  sta- 
tistical science  ;  or  a  treatise  on  general  ethics  and  the  phi- 
losophy of  the  human  mind ;  or  popular  or  intelligible  expla- 


12  ANNUAL    REPORTS    ON   EDUCATION. 

nations  of  the  applications  of  science  to  agriculture  and  the 
useful  arts,  or  the  processes  by  which  the  latter  are  made  so 
eminently  serviceable  to  man.  Rarely  will  any  book  be 
found  partaking  of  the  character  of  an  encyclopaedia,  by  a 
reference  to  which,  thousands  of  interesting  questions,  as  they 
daily  arise,  might  be  solved,  and  great  accessions  to  the  stock 
of  valuable  knowledge  be  imperceptibly  made ;  quite  as  rarely 
will  any  books  containing  the  lives  of  eminent  British  or 
American  statesmen  be  found,  or  books  treating  of  our  ante- 
Revolutionary  history ;  and,  most  rarely  of  all,  will  any  book 
be  found  on  education,  —  education  at  home,  physical,  intel- 
lectual, and  those  rudiments  of  a  moral  and  religious  educa- 
tion in  which  all  agree,  —  the  most  important  subject  that 
can  possibly  be  named  to  parent,  patriot,  philanthropist,  or 
Christian.  And  in  the  almost  total  absence  of  books  adapted 
to  instruct  parents  how  to  educate  their  children,  so  there  are 
quite  as  few  which  are  adapted  to  the  capacities  of  the  chil- 
dren themselves,  and  might  serve,  in  some  secondary  degree, 
to  supply  the  place  of  the  former.  Some  exceptions  would, 
of  course,  be  expected  where  so  many  particulars  are  grouped 
under  so  few  heads ;  but  from  all  I  have  been  able  to  learn, 
after  improving  every  opportunity  for  inquiry  and  corre- 
spondence, I  am  led  to  believe,  that,  as  it  regards  the  private 
ownership  of  books,  the  above  may  be  taken  as  a  fair  medium 
for  the  State.  In  small  towns,  almost  wholly  rural  in  their 
occupation,  the  books,  though  fewer,  may  generally  be  bet- 
ter; while  in  cities  and  large  towns,  though  more  numerous, 
yet  a  larger  proportion  of  them  is  worse.  Whatever  means 
exist,  then,  either  for  inspiring  or  for  gratifying  a  love  of 
reading  in  the  great  mass  of  the  rising  generation,  are  mainly 
to  be  found,  if  found  at  all,  in  public  libraries. 

As  the  tastes  and  habits  of  the  future  men  and  women,  in 
regard  to  reading,  will  be  only  an  enlargement  and  expan- 
sion of  the  tastes  and  habits  of  the  present  children,  it  seemed 
to  me  one  of  the  most  desirable  of  all  facts,  to  learn,  as  far  as 
practicable,  under  what  general  influences  those  tastes  and 


REPORT   FOR    1839.  13 

habits  are  now  daily  forming.  For  who  can  think,  without 
emotion,  and  who  can  remain  inactive  under  the  conviction, 
that  every  day  which  now  passes  is,  by  the  immutable  law 
of  cause  and  effect,  predestinating  the  condition  of  the  com- 
munity twenty,  thirty,  or  forty  years  hence ;  that  the  web 
of  their  character  and  fortunes  is  now  going  through  the 
loom,  to  come  out  of  it,  at  that  time,  of  worthy  or  of  worth- 
less quality,  beautified  with  colors  and  shapes  of  excellence, 
or  deformed  by  hideousness,  just  according  to  the  kind  of 
the  woof  which  we  are  daily  weaving  into  its  texture?  Every 
book  which  a  child  reads  with  intelligence  is  like  a  cast  of 
the  weaver's  shuttle,  adding  another  thread  to  the  indestruc- 
tible web  of  existence. 

In  the  general  want  of  private  libraries,  therefore,  I  have 
endeavored  to  learn  what  number  of  public  libraries  exist ; 
how  many  volumes  they  contain,  and  what  are  their  general 
character,  scope,  and  tendency ;  how  many  persons  have  ac- 
cess to  them,  or,  which  is  the  most  material  point,  how  many 
persons  do  not  have  access  to  them  ;  and,  finally,  how  many 
of  the  books  are  adapted  to  prepare  children  to  be  free  citi- 
zens and  men,  fathers  and  mothers,  even  in  the  most  limited 
signification  of  those  vastly  comprehensive  words.  It  seemed 
to  me,  therefore,  that  nothing  could  have  greater  interest  or 
significance  than  an  inventory  of  the  means  of  knowledge, 
and  the  encouragements  to  self-education,  possessed  by  the 
present  and  the  rising  generation. 

Simultaneously  with  this  inquiry  I  have  pursued  a  collat- 
eral one,  not  so  closely,  although  closely,  connected  with  the 
main  object.  A  class  of  institutions  has  lately  sprung  up  in 
this  State,  universally  known  by  the  name  of  Lyceums,  or 
Mechanics'  Institutes,  before  some  of  which  courses  of  Popu- 
lar Lectures,  on  literary  or  scientific  subjects,  are  annually 
delivered,  while  others  possess  libraries  and  reading-rooms, 
and  in  a  very  few  cases  both  these  objects  are  combined. 
These  institutions  have  the  same  general  purpose  in  view  as 
public  libraries,  viz.  that  of  diffusing  instructive  and  enter- 


14  ANNUAL    EEPORTS    ON   EDUCATION. 

taining  knowledge,  and  of  exciting  a  curiosity  to  acquire  it ; 
though  they  are  greatly  inferior  to  libraries  in  point  of  effi- 
ciency. As  the  proportion  of  young  persons  who  attend 
these  lectures  and  frequent  these  reading-rooms,  compared 
with  the  whole  number  of  attendants,  is  much  greater  than 
the  proportion  they  bear  to  the  whole  people,  the  institutions 
may  justly  be  regarded  as  one  of  the  means  now  in  opera- 
tion for  enlightning  the  youth  of  the  State.  At  any  rate,  an 
inventory  of  the  means  of  general  intelligence  which  did  not 
include  these  institutions  would  justly  be  regarded  as  incom- 
plete. 

For  the  purpose  of  obtaining  authentic  information  on  the 
above-mentioned  subjects,  I  addressed  to  school  committees 
and  other  intelligent  men  residing,  respectively,  in  every 
town  in  the  Commonwealth,  a  few  inquiries,  by  which  I  as- 
certained that,  omitting  the  ten  Circulating  Libraries,  con- 
taining about  twenty-eight  thousand  volumes,  it  appears  that 
the  aggregate  of  volumes  in  the  public  libraries  of  all  kinds 
in  the  State  is  about  three  hundred  thousand.  This  is  also 
exclusive  of  the  Sabbath-school  Libraries,  which  will  be  ad- 
verted to  hereafter.  To  these  three  hundred  thousand  vol- 
umes but  little  more  than  one  hundred  thousand  persons,  or 
one-seventh  part  of  the  population  of  the  State,  have  any 
risen t  of  access,  while  more  than  six  hundred  thousand  have 

O  * 

no  right  therein. 

Of  the  towns  heard  from,  there  are  one  hundred  (almost 
one  third  of  the  whole  number  in  the  State)  which  have 
neither  a  town,  social,  nor  district  school  library  therein. 
What  strikes  us  with  amazement,  in  looking  at  these  facts,  is 
the  inequality  with  which  the  means  of  knowledge  are  spread 
over  the  surface  of  the  State;  a  few  deep,  capacious  reser- 
voirs, surrounded  by  broad  wastes.  It  has  long  been  a  com- 
mon remark  that  many  persons  read  too  much  ;  but  here  we 
have  proof  how  many  thousands  read  too  little.  For  the 
poor  man  and  the  laboring  man  the  art  of  printing  seems 
hardly  yet  to  have  been  discovered. 


REPORT   FOR   1839.  15 

The  next  question  respects  the  character  of  the  books  com- 
posing the  libraries,  and  their  adaptation  to  the  capacities 
and  mental  condition  of  children  and  youth.  In  regard  to 
this  point  there  is,  as  might  be  expected,  but  little  diversity 
of  statement.  Almost  all  the  answers  concur  in  the  opinion 
that  the  contents  of  the  libraries  are  not  adapted  to  the  intel- 
lectual and  moral  wants  of  the  young ;  an  opinion  which  a 
reference  to  the  titles  in  the  catalogues  will  fully  sustain. 
With  very  few  exceptions  the  books  were  written  for  adults, 
for  persons  of  some  maturity  of  mind,  and  possessed  already 
of  a  considerable  fund  of  infoi'mation ;  and,  therefore,  they 
could  not  be  adapted  to  children,  except  through  mistake. 
Of  course,  in  the  whole  collectively  considered  there  is  every 
kind  of  books ;  but  probably  no  other  kind,  which  can  be 
deemed  of  a  useful  character,  occupies  so  much  space  upon 
the  shelves  of  the  libraries  as  the  historical  class.  Some  of 
the  various  histories  of  Greece  and  Rome;  the  History  of 
Modern  Europe,  by  Russell ;  of  England,  by  Hume  and  his 
successors ;  Robertson's  Charles  V. ;  Mayor's  Universal  His- 
tory ;  the  numerous  histories  of  Napoleon,  and  similar  Avorks, 
constitute  the  staple  of  many  libraries.  And  how  little  do 
these  books  contain  which  is  suitable  for  children!  How 
little  do  they  record  but  the  destruction  of  human  life,  and 
the  activity  of  those  misguided  energies  of  men  Avhich  have 
hitherto  almost  baffled  the  beneficent  intentions  of  Nature 
for  human  happiness !  Descriptions  of  battles,  sackings  of 
cities,  and  the  captivity  of  nations,  follow  each  other  Avith 
the  quickest  moA7ement,  and  in  an  endless  succession.  Almost 
the  only  glimpses  which  Ave  catch  of  the  education  of  youth 
present  them  as  engaged  in  martial  sports,  and  in  mimic  feats 
of  arms,  preparatory  to  the  grand  tragedies  of  battle  ;  exer- 
cises and  exhibitions,  which,  both  in  the  performer  and  the 
spectator,  cultivate  all  the  dissocial  emotions,  and  turn  the 
whole  current  of  the  mental  forces  into  the  channel  of  de- 
structiveness.  The  reader  sees  inventive  genius,  not  em- 
ployed in  perfecting  the  useful  arts,  but  exhausting  itself  in 


16  ANNUAL   REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

the  manufacture  of  implements  of  war ;  he  sees  rulers  and 
legislators,  not  engaged  in  devising  comprehensive  plans  for 
universal  welfare,  but  in  levying  and  equipping  armies  and 
navies,  and  extorting  taxes  to  maintain  them ;  thus  dividing 
the  whole  mass  of  the  people  into  the  two  classes  of  slaves 
and  soldiers,  enforcing  the  degradation  and  servility  of  tame 
animals  upon  the  former,  and  cultivating  the  ferocity  and 
bloodthirstiness  of  wild  animals  in  the  latter.  The  highest 
honors  are  conferred  upon  men  in  whose  rolls  of  slaughter 
the  most  thousands  of  victims  are  numbered ;  and  seldom 
does  woman  emerge  from  her  obscurity,  indeed,  hardly 
should  we  know  that  she  existed,  but  for  her  appearance  to 
grace  the  triumphs  of  the  conqueror.  What  a  series  of  facts 
would  be  indicated  by  an  examination  of  all  the  treaties  of 
peace  which  history  records  !  they  would  appear  like  a  grand 
index  to  universal  plunder.  The  inference  which  children 
would  legitimately  draw  from  reading  like  this  would  be,  that 
the  tribes  and  nations  of  men  had  been  created  only  for  mu- 
tual slaughter,  and  that  they  deserved  the  homage  of  posteri- 
ty for  the  terrible  fidelity  with  which  their  mission  had  been 
fulfilled.  Rarely  do  these  records  administer  any  antidote 
against  the  inhumanity  of  the  spirit  they  instil.  In  the  im- 
mature minds  of  children,  unaccustomed  to  consider  events 
under  the  relation  of  cause  and  effect,  they  excite  the  con- 
ception of  magnificent  palaces  or  temples  for  bloody  conquer- 
ors to  dwell  in,  or  in  which  to  offer  profane  worship  for 
inhuman  triumphs,  without  a  suggestion  of  the  bondage  and 
debasement  of  the  myriads  of  slaves,  who,  through  lives  of 
privation  and  torture,  were  compelled  to  erect  them  ;  they 
present  an  exciting  picture  of  long  trains  of  plundered  wealth, 
going  to  enrich  some  city  or  hero,  without  an  intimation,  that, 
by  industry  and  the  arts  of  peace,  the  same  wealth  could 
have  been  earned  more  cheaply  than  it  was  robbed ;  they 
exhibit  the  triumphal  return  of  warriors,  to  be  crowned  with 
honors  worthy  of  a  god,  while  they  take  the  mind  wholly 
away  from  the  carnage  of  the  battle-field,  from  desolated 


REPORT   FOR   1839.  17 

provinces  and  a  mourning  people.  In  all  this,  it  is  true, 
there  are  many  examples  of  the  partial  and  limited  virtue 
of  patriotism,  but  few  only  of  the  complete  virtue  of  philan- 
thropy. The  courage  held  up  for  admiration  is  generally  of 
that  animal  nature  which  rushes  into  danger  to  inflict  injury 
upon  another;  but  not  of  that  divine  quality  which  braves 
peril  for  the  sake  of  bestowing  good,  —  attributes,  than  which 
there  are  scarcely  any  two  in  the  souls  of  men  more  differ- 
ent, though  the  baseness  of  the  former  is  so  often  mistaken 
for  the  nobleness  of  the  latter.  Indeed,  if  the  past  history 
of  our  race  is  to  be  much  read  by  children,  it  should  be  re- 
written ;  and  while  it  records  those  events  which  have  con- 
travened all  the  principles  of  social  policy,  and  violated  all 
the  laws  of  morality  and  religion,  there  should,  at  least,  be 
some  recognition  of  the  great  truth,  that  among  nations,  as 
among  individuals,  the  highest  welfare  of  all  can  only  be 
effected  by  securing  the  individual  welfare  of  each  :  there 
should  be  some  parallel  drawn  between  the  historical  and 
the  natural  relations  of  the  race ;  so  that  the  tender  and 
immature  mind  of  the  youthful  reader  may  have  some  op- 
portunity of  comparing  the  right  with  the  wrong,  and  some 
option  of  admiring  and  emulating  the  former  instead  of  the 
latter.  As  much  of  history  now  stands,  the  examples  of  right 
and  wrong,  whose  nativity  and  residence  are  on  opposite 
sides  of  the  moral  universe,  are  not  merely  brought  and 
shuffled  together,  so  as  to  make  it  difficult  to  disti aguish 
between  them,  but  the  latter  are  made  to  occupy  almost  the 
whole  field  of  vision ;  while  the  existence  of  the  former  is 
scarcely  noticed.  It  is  as  though  children  should  be  taken 
to  behold,  from  afar,  the  light  of  a  city  on  fire,  and  directed 
to  admire  the  splendor  of  the  conflagration,  without  a  thought 
of  the  tumult  and  terror  and  death  reigning  beneath  it. 

Another  very  considerable  portion  of  these  libraries,  espe- 
cially where  they  have  been  recently  formed  or  replenished, 
consists  of  novels,  and  all  that  class  of  books  which  is  com- 
prehended under  the  familiar  designations  of  "fictions," 


18  ANNUAL   REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

"  light  reading,"  "  trashy  works,"  "  ephemeral,"  or  "  babble 
literature,"  &c.  This  kind  of  books  has  increased  immeasu- 
rably within  the  last  twenty  years.  It  has  insinuated  itself 
into  public  libraries,  and  found  the  readiest  welcome  with 
people  who  are  not  dependent  upon  libraries  for  the  books 
they  peruse.  Aside  from  newspapers,  I  am  satisfied  that  the 
major  part  of  the  unprofessional  reading  of  the  community  is 
of  the  class  of  books  above  designated.  Amusement  is  the  ob- 
ject, —  mere  amusement,  as  contradistinguished  from  instruc- 
tion in  the  practical  concerns  of  life;  as  contradistinguished 
from  those  intellectual  and  moral  impulses,  which  turn  the 
mind,  both  while  reading  and  after  the  book  is  closed,  to 
observation  and  comparison  and  reflection  upon  the  great 
realities  of  existence. 

That  reading  merely  for  amusement  has  its  fit  occasions 
and  legitimate  office,  none  will  deny.  The  difficulty  of  the 
practical  problem  consists  in  adhering  to  that  line  of  reason- 
able indulgence,  which  lies  between  mental  dissipation  on 
the  one  hand,  and  a  denial  of  all  relaxation  on  the  other. 
Life  is  too  full  of  solemn  duties  to  be  regarded  as  a  long  play- 
day  ;  while  incessant  toil  lessens,  the  ability  for  useful  labor. 
In  feeble  health,  or  after  sickness,  or  severe  bodily  or  mental 
labor,  an  amusing,  captivating,  enlivening  book,  which  levies 
no  tax  upon  the  powers  of  thought  for  the  pleasure  it  gives, 
is  a  delightful  resource.  It  is  medicinal  to  the  sick,  and  re- 
cuperative to  the  wearied  mind.  Especially  is  this  the  case 
where  a  part  only  of  the  faculties  have  been  intensely  ex- 
erted. Then,  to  stimulate  those  which  have  lain  inactive 
brings  the  quickest  relief  to  those  which  have  been  laboring. 
It  is  not  repose  to  them,  merely ;  but  repose,  as  it  were,  tran- 
quillized by  music.  But  the  difference  is  altogether  incalcu- 
lable and  immense  between  reading  such  books  as  an  amuse- 
ment only,  and  reading  them  as  restorers  from  fatigue  or  as 
soothers  in  distress ;  between  indulging  in  them  as  a  relaxa- 
tion or  change  from  deep  mental  engrossment,  and  making 
their  perusal  a  common  employment  or  business.  One 


REPORT   FOR    1839.  19 

yates,  the  other  strengthens  and  restores ;  one  disables  from 
the  performance  of  duty,  the  other  is  one  of  the  readiest 
preparations  for  a  return  to  it.  In  reading  merely  for  amuse- 
ment, the  mind  is  passive,  acquiescent,  recipient  merely. 
The  subjects  treated  are  not  such  as  task  its  powers  of 
thought.  It  has  no  occasion  to  bring  forth  and  re-examine 
its  own  possessions;  but  it  is  wafted  unresistingly. along, 
through  whatever  regions  the  author  chooses  to  bear  it.  It 
is  tliis  passiveness,  this  surrendering  of  the  mind,  that  consti- 
tutes the  pernicious  influence  of  reading  for  amusement,  when 
carried  to  excess ;  because  a  series,  a  reiteration,  of  eiforts  is 
just  as  indispensable,  in  order  to  strengthen  any  faculty  of  the 
intellect,  as  a  series  of  muscular  exercises  is  to  strengthen  any 
limb  of  the  body:  and,  in  reading  for  amusement,  these  ef- 
forts are  not  made.  Even  when  we  read  the  most  instructive 
books,  and  transfer  to  our  own  minds  the  knowledge  they  con- 
tain, the  work  is  but  half  done.  Most  of  their  value  consists  in 
the  occasions  they  furnish  to  the  reader  to  exert  all  his  oAvn 
vigor  upon  the  subject,  and,  through  the  law  of  mental  asso- 
ciation, to  bring  all  his  own  faculties  to  act  upon  it.  A 
stream  of  thought  from  his  own  mind  should  mingle  with  the 
stream  that  comes  from  the  book.  Such  reading  creates 
abilitv,  while  it  communicates  knowledge.  The  greatest 

•t   t  O  O 

accumulation  of  facts,  until  the  comparing  and  the  foreseeing 
faculties  have  acted  upon  them,  is  as  useless  as  a  telescope  or 
a  watch  would  be  in  the  hands  of  a  savasre.  Single  ideas 

O  O 

may  be  transferred  from  an  author  to  a  reader;  but  habits  of 
thinking  are  intransferable :  they  must  be  formed  within  the 
reader's  own  mind,  if  they  are  ever  to  exist  there.  Actual 
observation,  within  its  field,  is  better  than  reading;  but  the 
advantage  of  reading  consists  in  its  presenting  a  field  almost 
infinitely  larger  and  richer  than  any  actual  observation  can 
ever  do:  yet  if  the  reader  does  not  take  up  the  materials 
presented,  and  examine  them  one  by  one,  and  learn  their 
qualities  and  relations,  he  will  not  be  able  to  work  them  into 
any  productions  of  his  own ;  he  will  be  like  a  savage  who 


20  ANNUAL   EEPORTS   ON  EDUCATION. 

has  passed  through  the  length  of  a  civilized  country,  and  just 
looked  at  its  machinery,  its  ships  and  houses,  who,  when  he 
returns  home,  will  not  be  able  to  make  a  better  tool,  or  build 
a  better  canoe,  or  construct  a  better  cabin,  than  before.  It  is 
his  own  hand-work,  on  the  materials  of  his  art,  which,  after 
thousands  of  trials  and  experiments,  at  last  turns  the  rude 
apprentice  into  such  an  accomplished  artisan,  that  his  hand 
instantaneously  obeys  his  will,  and,  in  executing  the  most 
ingenious  works,  he  loses  the  consciousness  of  volition  ;  and 
so  it  is  by  energetic,  long-continued  mental  application  to  the 
elements  of  thought,  that  the  crude  and  meagre  conceptions 
of  a  child  are  refined  and  expanded  and  multiplied  into  the 
sound  judgment  and  good  sense  of  a  man  of  practical  wis- 
dom. Something,  without  doubt,  is  referable  to  the  endow- 
ments of  Nature ;  but  with  the  mass  of  men  much  more  is 
attributable  to  that  richest  of  all  Nature's  endowments,  the 
disposition  to  self-culture  through  patient,  long-sustained 
effort.  No  man,  therefore,  who  has  not  made  these  efforts 
times  innumerable,  and  profited  in  each  succeeding  case  by 
the  error  or  imperfection  of  the  preceding,  has  any  more  right 
to  expect  the  possession  of  wisdom,  discretion,  foresight,  than 
the  novice  in  architecture  or  in  sculpture  has  to  expect  that, 
in  his  first  attempt,  he  shall  be  able  to  equal  the  Church  of 
St.  Peter's,  or  chisel  a  perfect  statue  of  Apollo.  Now  the 
bane  of  making  amusement  the  sole  object  of  one's  reading, 
and  the  secret  of  its  influence  in  weakening  the  mind,  consist 
in  its  superseding  or  discarding  all  attendant  exertion  on  the 
part  of  the  reader.  Without  this  exertion,  the  power  of  clear, 
orderly,  coherent  thought,  the  power  of  seeing  whether  means 
have  been  adapted  to  ends,  becomes  inactive,  and  at  length 
withers  away  like  a  palsied  limb;  while,  at  the  same  time, — 
the  attention  being  hurried  over  a  variety  of  objects,  between 
which  Nature  has  established  no  relations,  —  a  sort  of  vola- 
tility or  giddiness  is  inflicted  upon  the  mind,  so  that  the 
general  result  upon  the  whole  faculties  is  that  of  weakness 
and  faintness  combined. 


REPORT   FOR    1839.  21 

What  gives  additional  importance  to  this  subject  is  the  fact, 
that  by  far  the  most  extensive  portion  of  this  reading  for 
amusement  consists  of  the  perusal  of  fictitious  works.  The 
number  of  books  and  articles,  which,  under  the  names  of  ro- 
mances, novels,  tales  in  verse  or  prose,  —  from  the  elaborate 
work  of  three  volumes  to  the  hasty  production  of  three  chap- 
ters or  three  pages,  —  is  so  wide-spread  and  ever-renewing,  that 
any  computation  of  them  transcends  the  power  of  the  human 
faculties.  They  gush  from  the  printing-press.  Their  authors 
are  a  nation.  When  speaking  of  the  reading  public,  we  must 
be  understood  with  reference  to  the  subject-matter  of  the  read- 
ing. In  regard  to  scientific  works  on  government,  political 
economy,  morals,  philosophy,  the  reading  public  is  very  small. 
Hardly  one  in  fifty,  amongst  adults,  belongs  to  it.  For  works 
of  biography,  travels,  history,  it  is  considerably  larger.  But  in 
reference  to  fictitious  works,  it  is  large  and  astonishingly  active. 
It  requires  so  little  acquaintance  with  our  language,  and  so 
little  knowledge  of  sublunary  things  and  their  relations,  to 
understand  them  ;  and  the  inconvenience  of  failing  to  under- 
stand a  word,  a  sentence,  or  a  page,  is  so  trivial ;  so  exactly  do 
they  meet  the  case  of  minds  that  are  ignorant,  indolent,  and  a 
little  flighty,  that  they  are  welcomed  by  vast  numbers.  Other 
books  are  read  slowly,  commenced,  laid  aside,  resumed,  and 
perused  in  intervals  of  leisure.  These  are  run  through  with 
almost  incredible  velocity.  Take  a  work  on  morals,  of  the 
same  size  with  a  novel ;  the  reading  of  the  former  will  occupy 
a  month,  the  latter  will  be  despatched  without  intervening 
sleep.  Of  works  unfolding  to  us  the  structure  of  our  own 
bodies,  and  the  means  of  preserving  health,  and  of  the  consti- 
tution of  our  own  minds,  and  the  infinite  diversity  of  the  spirit- 
ual paths,  which  the  mind  can  traverse,  each  bringing  after  it, 
its  own  peculiar  consequences  ;  of  works  laying  open  the  com- 
plicated relations  of  society,  illustrative  of  the  general  duties 
belonging  to  all,  and  of  the  special  duties  arising  from  special 
positions  ;  of  works  making  us  acquainted  with  the  beneficent 
laws  and  properties  of  Nature,  and  their  adaptations  to  supply 


22  ANNUAL    REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

our  needs  aud  enhance  our  welfare,  —  of  works  of  these 
descriptions,  editions  of  a  few  hundred  copies  only  are  printed, 
and  then  the  types  are  distributed,  in  despair  of  any  further 
demand ;  while  of  fictitious  works,  thousands  of  copies  are 
thrown  off  at  first,  and  they  are  stereotyped  in  confidence  that 
the  insatiable  public  will  call  for  new  supplies.  It  was  but  a 
few  years  after  the  publication  of  Sir  Walter  Scott's  poems 
and  novels,  that  fifty  thousand  copies  of  many  of  them  had 
been  sold  in  Great  Britain  alone.  Under  the  stimulus  which 
he  applied  to  the  public  imagination,  the  practice  of  novel-read- 
ing has  grown  to  such  extent,  that  his  imitators  and  copyists 
have  overspread  a  still  wider  field,  and  covered  it  to  a  greater 
depth.  In  this  country,  the  reading  of  novels  has  been  still 
more  epidemic,  because,  in  most  parts  of  it,  so  great  a  portion 
of  the  people  can  read,  and  because,  owing  to  the  exteusiveness 
of  the  demand,  they  have  been  afforded  so  cheaply,  that  the 
price  of  a  perusal  has  often  been  less  than  the  value  of  the 
light  by  which  they  were  read. 

To  give  some  idea  of  the  difference  in  the  sales  of  different 
kinds  of  works,  it  may  be  stated,  that  of  some  of  Bulwer's  and 
Marryatt's  novels,  from  ten  to  fifteen  thousand  copies  have  been 
sold  in  this  country  ;  Avhile  of  that  highly  valuable  and  instruc- 
tive work,  Sparks's  "American  Biography,"  less  than  two  thou- 
sand copies,  on  an  average,  have  been  sold  ;  and  of  Prescott's 
"  Ferdinand  and  Isabella,"  only  about  thirty-six  hundred.  The 
latter  is  considered  a  remarkably  large  sale,  and  is  owing,  in 
no  inconsiderable  degree,  to  the  superior  manner  in  which  that 
interesting  history  was  written. 

No  discerning  person  who  has  arrived  at  middle  age,  and 
has  been  at  all  conversant  with  society,  can  have  failed  to 
remark  the  effect  upon  mind  and  character  of  reading  frivo- 
lous books,  when  pursued  as  a  regular  mental  employment,  and 
not  as  an  occasional  recreation  ;  the  lowered  tone  of  the  facul- 
ties, the  irregular  sallies  of  feeling,  the  want  of  a  power  of  con- 
tinuous thought  on  the  same  subject,  and  the  imperfect  views 
taken  of  all  practical  questions,  —  an  imperfection  compounded 


REPORT   FOR   1839.  23 

by  including  things  not  belonging  to  the  subject,  and  by  omit- 
ting things  which  do.  Any  such  person  will  be  able  to  give  his 
attestation  to  the  fact,  and  be  willing  to  advance  it  into  an  axiom, 
that  light  reading  makes  light  minds. 

So  far  as  it  respects  fictitious  writings,  the  explanation  of 
their  weakening  and  dispersive  influence  is  palpable  to  the 
feeblest  comprehension.  All  men  must  recognize  the  wide  dis- 
tinction between  intellect  and  feeling,  between  ideas  and  emo- 
tions. These  two  classes  of  mental  operations  are  inherently 
distinct  from  each  other  in  their  nature  ;  they  are  called  into 
activity  by  different  classes  of  objects  ;  they  are  cultivated  by 
different  processes  ;  and  as  one  or  the  other  predominates  in  the 
mental  constitution,  widely  different  results  follow  both  in  conduct 
and  character.  All  sciences  are  the  offspring  of  the  intellect. 
On  the  other  hand,  there  cannot  be  poetry  or  eloquence  without 
emotion.  From  the  intellect  come  order,  demonstration,  inven- 
tion, discovery  ;  from  the  feelings,  enthusiasm,  pathos,  and 
sublime  sentiments  in  morals  and  religion.  The  attainments 
of  the  greatest  intellect  are  gathered  with  comparative  slow- 
ness, but  each  addition  is  a  permanent  one.  The  process  re- 
sembles that  by  which  material  structures  are  reared,  which 
are  laboriously  built  up,  brick  by  brick,  or  stone  by  stone,  but, 
when  once  erected,  are  steadfast  and  enduring.  But  the  feel- 
ings, on  the  other  hand,  are  like  the  unstable  elements  of  the 
air  or  ocean,  which  are  suddenly  roused  from  a  state  of  tran- 
quillity into  vehement  commotion,  and  as  suddenly  subside  into 
repose.  "When  rhetoricians  endeavor  to  excite  more  vivid  con- 
ceptions of  truth  by  means  of  sensible  images,  they  liken  the  pro- 
ductions of  the  intellect  to  the  solidity  and  stern  repose  of  time- 
defying  pyramid  or  temple  ;  but  they  find  symbols  for  the  feel- 
ings and  passions  of  men  in  the  atmosphere,  which  obeys  the 
slightest  impulse,  and  is  ready  to  start  into  whirlwinds  or  tem- 
pest at  once.  To  add  to  the  stock  of  practical  knowledge, 
and  to  increase  intellectual  ability,  requires  voluntary  and 
long-sustained  effort ;  but  feelings  and  impulses  are  often  spon- 
taneous, and  always  susceptible  of  being  roused  into  action  by 


24  ANNUAL   REPORTS    ON   EDUCATION. 

a  mere  glance  of  the  eye,  or  the  sound  of  a  voice  To  become 
master  of  an  exact,  coherent,  full  set,  or  complement  of  ideas, 
on  any  important  subject,  demands  fixed  attention,  patience, 
study ;  but  emotions  or  passions  flash  up  suddenly,  and  while 
they  blaze  they  are  consumed.  In  the  mechanical  and  useful 
arts,  for  instance,  a  knowledge  of  the  structure  and  quality  of 
materials,  of  the  weight  and  motive  power  of  fluids,  of  the  laws 
of  gravitation,  and  their  action  upon  bodies  in  a  state  of  motion 
or  rest,  is  acquired  by  the  engineer,  the  artisan,  the  machinist, 
—  not  by  sudden  intuition,  but  by  months  and  years  of  steady 
application.  Arithmetic,  or  the  science  of  numbers  ;  geometry, 
or  the  science  of  quantities ;  astronomy,  and  the  uses  of  astro- 
nomical knowledge  in  navigation,  must  all  have  been  profoundly 
studied,  — the  almost  innumerable  ideas  which  form  these  vast 
sciences  must  have  been  discovered  and  brought  together,  one 
by  one,  —  before  any  mariner  could  leave  a  port  on  this  side 
of  the  globe,  and  strike,  without  failure,  the 'smallest  town  or 
river  on  the  opposite  side  of  it.  And  the  same  principle  is  no 
less  true  in  regard  to  jurisprudence,  to  legislation,  and  to  all 
parts  of  social  economy,  so  far  as  they  are  worthy  to  be  called 
sciences.  But  that  part  of  the  train  of  our  mental  operations 
which  we  call  the  emotions  or  affections,  those  powers  of  our 
spiritual  constitution  denominated  the  propensities  and  senti- 
ments, Avhich  give  birth  to  appetite,  hope,  fear,  grief,  love, 
shame,  pride,  at  the  very  first,  produce  a  feeling,  which  is 
perfect  or  complete  of  its  kind.  An  infant  cannot  reason,  but 
may  experience  as  perfect  an  emotion  of  fear  as  an  adult. 
Mankind,  for  thousands  of  years,  have  been  advancing  in  the 
attainments  of  intellect ;  but  the  fathers  of  the  race  had  feel- 
ings as  electric  and  impetuous  as  any  of  their  latest  descend- 
ants. In  every  intellectual  department,  therefore,  there  must 
be  accurate  observation  in  collecting  the  elementary  ideas,  — 
these  ideas  must  be  compared,  arranged,  methodized,  in  the 
mind,  —  each  faculty,  which  has  cognizance  of  the  subject, 
taking  them  up  individually,  and,  as  it  were,  handling,  assort- 
ing, measuring,  weighing  them,  until  each  one  is  marked  at  its 


REPORT  FOR   1839.  25 

true  value,  and  arranged  in  its  right  place,  so  that  they  may 
stand  ready  to  be  reproduced,  and  to  be  embodied  in  any  out- 
ward fabric  or  institution,  in  any  work  of  legislation  or  philoso- 
phy, which  their  possessor  may  afterwards  wish  to  construct. 
Such  intellectual  processes  must  have  been  performed  by  every 
man  who  has  ever  acquired  eminence  in  the  practical  business 
of  life,  or  who  has  ever  made  any  great  discovery  in  the  arts 
or  sciences,  except,  perhaps,  in  a  very  few  cases,  where  dis- 
covery has  been  the  result  of  happy  accident.  It  is  this  per- 
severance in  studying  into  the  nature  of  things,  in  unfolding 
their  complicated  tissues,  discerning  their  minutest  relations, 
penetrating  to  their  centres,  that  has  made  such  men  as  Lord 
Bacon,  Sir  Isaac  Newton,  Dr.  Franklin,  Watt,  Fulton,  Sir 
Humphry  Davy,  and  Dr.  Bowditch,  —  men,  the  light  of  whose 
minds  is  now  shed  over  all  parts  of  the  civilized  world  as  dif- 
fusively and  universally  as  the  light  of  the  sun,  and  as  endur- 
ing as  that  light.  And  so  it  is  in  all  the  other  departments  of 
life,  whether  higher  or  humbler  ;  not  more  in  the  case  of  the 
diplomatist,  who  is  appointed  an  ambassador  to  manage  a  diffi- 
cult negotiation  at  a  foreign  court,  than  in  that  of  the  agent 
who  is  chosen  by  a  town,  because  of  his  good  sense  and 
thorough  knowledge  of  affairs,  to  conduct  a  municipal  contro- 
versy. It  is  to  such  habits  of  thought  and  reflection  upon  the 
actual  relations  of  things  as  they  exist,  and  as  God  has  consti- 
tuted them,  that  we  are  indebted  for  the  men  who  know  how  to 
perform  each  day  the  duties  of  each  day,  and,  in  any  station, 
the  duties  of  that  station ;  men,  who,  because  of  their  clear- 
sightedness and  wisdom,  are  nominated  as  arbitrators  or  um- 
pires by  contending  parties,  or  whose  appearance  in  the  jury- 
box  is  hailed  by  the  counsellors  and  suitors  of  the  court ;  men 
whose  work  has  not  to  be  done  over  again,  and  whose  books  or  re- 
ports do  not  need  errata  as  large  as  themselves.  But  the  feelings 
or  emotions,  so  far  from  being  dependent  on  these  intellectual 
habits  for  their  vividness  and  energy,  are  even  more  vivid  and 
energetic  when  freed  from  control  and  direction.  The  intellect 
hems  in  the  feelings  by  boundaries  of  probability  and  natural- 


26  ANNUAL    REPORTS    ON   EDUCATION. 

ness.  It  opposes  barriers  of  actual  and  scientific  truth  to  their 
devious  wanderings  and  flights.  It  shows  what  things  can  be, 
and  what  things  cannot  be,  and  thus  ai-rests  the  imagination 
when  it  would  otherwise  soar  or  plunge  into  the  impossible  and 
the  preternatural.  The  savage,  with  his  uncultivated  intellect, 
has  fields  for  the  roamings  of  fancy,  which  can  have  no  exist- 
ence to  the  philosopher ;  just  as  an  idolater  has  an  immensity 
for  the  creations  of  his  superstition,  which  to  the  enlightened 
Christian  is  a  nonentity. 

Now,  it  is  the  feelings,  and  not  the  intellect,  —  the  excitable 
or  spontaneously-active  powers  of  the  mind,  and  not  its  steady, 
day-laboring  faculties,  —  which  the  great  body  of  fictitious 
works  appeals  to  and  exercises.  Were  the  whole  mass  of 
these  works  analyzed,  and  reduced  to  its  component  elements, 
nineteen  parts  in  every  twenty  would  be  found  addressed  to  the 
emotions  and  feelings,  and  not  to  the  reason  and  judgment. 
Their  main  staple  and  texture  are  a  description  of  the  passions 
of  love,  jealousy,  hope,  fear,  remorse,  revenge,  rapture,  de- 
spair, —  the  whole  constituting  a  dark  ground  of  guilt  and 
misery,  occasionally  illumined  by  a  crossing  beam  of  ecstatic 
joy  or  almost  superhuman  virtue.  But  the  trials  and  tempta- 
tions described  are  rarely  such  as  any  human  being  will  full 
into ;  and  the  virtues  celebrated  are  such  as  few  will  ever 
have  an  opportunity  to  achieve.  Hence  sympathy  and  aver- 
sion, desire  and  apprehension,  are  kept  at  the  highest  tension  ; 
but  it  is  upon  incidents  and  scenes  outside  of  actual  life,  not 
in  this  world,  and  often  not  capable  of  being  transferred  to  it. 
In  the  mean  time,  the  understanding  sleeps  ;  the  intellect  is  laid 
aside.  Those  faculties  by  which  we  comprehend  our  position 
in  life  and  our  relations  to  society,  —  by  which  we  discover 
what  our  duty  is,  and  the  wisest  way  to  perform  it, — have 
nothing  to  do.  The  mind  surrenders  itself  to  the  interest  and 
excitement  of  the  story,  while  the  powers  by  which  we  discern 
tendencies  and  balance  probabilities  are  discarded  ;  nay,  those 
sober  thoughts  are  unwelcome  intruders  which  come  to  break 
the  delusion,  and  to  repress  an  insane  exhilaration  of  the  feel- 


REPORT   FOR   1839.  27 

ings,  —  until,  at  last,  the  diseased  and  infatuated  mind  echoes 
that  pagan  saying,  so  treasonable  to  truth,  that  it  would  prefer 
to  go  wrong  with  one  guide  rather  than  right  with  another,  — 
as  though,  in  a  universe  which  an  all-wise  Being  has  formed, 
any  thing  could  be  as  well  as  to  go  right.  In  the  reports  of 
some  of  the  French  hospitals  for  lunatics,  the  reading  of 
romances  is  set  down  as  one  of  the  standing  causes  of  in- 
sanity. 

It  is  the  perusal  of  this  class  of  works  as  a  regular  or  prin- 
cipal mental  employment,  of  which  I  am  speaking ;  and  it  is 
easy  for  any  one  acquainted  with  the  laws  of  the  human 
mind,  and  with  the  causes  which  foster  or  stint  its  growth,  to 
predict  the  effect  of  such  reading  both  upon  the  will  and  the 
capacity  to  perform  the  every-day  duties  and  charities  of  life. 
Could  all  temporal  duties  be  written  down  in  a  catalogue,  we 
should  find  that  private,  domestic,  in-door  duties  would  consti- 
tute vastly  the  greatest  number.  The  social  duties,  growing  out 
of  relationship,  friendship,  and  neighborhood,  would  make  up  the 
next  largest  and  most  important  class  ;  for,  while  all  others  only 
call  upon  us  occasionally,  the  demands  of  these  are  perpetual. 
Now.  for  the  appropriate  and  punctual  discharge  of  these  nume- 
rous and  ever-recurring  duties,  a  knowledge  of  all  the  scenes 
and  incidents,  the  loves  and  hates,  the  despairs  and  raptures, 
contained  in  all  the  fictions  ever  written,  is  about  as  fit  a  prepa- 
ration, as  a  knowledge  of  all  the  "•  castles  in  the  air,"  ever  built 
by  visionaries  and  dreamers,  would  be  to  the  father  of  a  house- 
less family,  who  wished  to  erect  a  dwelling  for  their  shelter,  but 
was  wholly  ignorant  both  of  the  materials  and  the  processes 
necessary  for  the  work.  And  the  reason  is,  that,  in  the  region 
of  fiction,  the  imagination  can  have  every  thing  in  its  own  way  ; 
it  can  arrange  the  course  of  events  as  it  pleases,  and  still 
bring  out  the  desired  results.  But  in  actual  life,  where  the  law 
of  cause  and  effect  pervades  all,  links  all,  determines  all,  the 
appropriate  consequences  of  good  or  evil  follow  from  their  an- 
tecedents with  inevitable  certaiuty.  The  premises  of  sound 
or  false  judgments,  of  right  or  wrong  actions,  being  given,  the 


28  ANNUAL   REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

course  of  Nature  and  Providence  predestines  the  conclusions  of 
happiness  or  misery,  from  which  we  cannot  escape.  Hence 
the  mind  —  which,  in  the  world  of  imagination,  has  been  re- 
lieved from  all  responsibility  for  consequences,  being  rigorously 
held  to  abide  by  consequences  whenever  it  descends  to  sublu- 
nary aifairs,  and  being  ignorant  of  the  connection  between  causes 
and  effects  —  finds  all  its  judgments  turned  into  folly,  and  all 
its  acts  terminating  in  disaster  or  ruin. 

Nor  are  the  moral  effects  of  this  kind  of  reading,  when 
systematically  pursued,  less  pernicious  than  the  intellectual ; 
for  it  will  be  found  that  those  who  squander  their  sympathies 
most  prodigally  over  distresses  that  were  never  felt  are  the 
firmest  stoics  over  calamities  actually  suffered.  The  invete- 
rate novel-reader  will  accompany  heroes  and  heroines  to  the 
ends  of  the  earth,  and  in  tears  bewail  their  fancied  misfortunes  ; 
while  he  can  command  the  serenest  equanimity  over  sufferings 
in  the  next  street  or  at  the  next  door.  The  continued  contem- 
plation of  pain,  without  any  accompanying  effort  to  relieve  it, 
forms  the  habit  of  dissociating  feeling  from  action,  and  pre- 
sents the  moral  anomaly  of  one  who  professes  to  feel  pity, 
but  withholds  succor.  In  all  healthy  minds,  judicious  action 
follows  virtuous  impulse.  Nor  do  the  splendid  heroes  of 
romance  ever  earn  their  greatness  and  their  honors  by  a 
youth  of  study  and  toil,  by  contemning  the  seductions  of  in- 
glorious ease ;  and  thus  they  never  hold  out  to  the  young 
mind  the  example  of  industry  and  perseverance  and  self- 
denial  as  the  indispensable  prerequisites  to  greatness.  Far 
more  baneful  are  the  effects,  when  characters  whose  lives  are 
immersed  in  secret  profligacy  are  varnished  to  the  eye  of  the 
world  by  Avealth  and  elegance  ;  or  when  audacious  criminals 
are  endowed  with  such  shining  attractions  of  wit,  talent,  and 
address,  as  cause  the  sympathy  of  the  reader  to  outweigh  his 
abhorrence. 

But  if  it  is  unfortunate  that  so  many  people  should  addict 
themselves  to  the  reading  of  fiction,  because  their  minds  are 
immature  and  unbalanced,  and  have  no  touchstone  whereby 


REPORT  FOR    1389.  29 

they  can  distinguish  between  what  is  extravagant,  marvellous, 
and  supernatural,  and  -what,  from  its  accordance  to  the 
standard  of  nature,  is  simple,  instructive,  and  elevating;  it 
is  doubly  unfortunate  that  so  many  excellent  young  persons 
should  be  misled  into  the  same  practice,  either  from  a  laudable 
desire  to  maintain  some  acquaintance  with  what  is  called 
the  literary  world,  and  to  furnish  themselves  with  materials 
for  conversation,  or  from  a  vague  notion  that  such  reading 
alone  will  give  a  polish  to  the  mind,  and  adorn  it  with  the 
graces  of  elegance  and  refinement.  In  endeavoring  to  elucidate 
the  manner  in  which  this  indulgence  entails  weakness  upon  the 
understanding,  and  unfits  it  for  a  wise,  steady,  beneficent 
course  of  life,  in  a  world  so  abounding  as  this  is  in  solemn  reali- 
ties and  obligations,  I  would  most  sedulously  refrain  from 
uttering  a  word  in  disparagement  of  a  proportionate  and 
measured  cultivation  of  what  are  called  polite  literature  and 
the  polite  arts  in  all  their  branches.  While  we  have  senti- 
ments and  affections,  as  well  as  thoughts  and  ideas  ;  Avhile,  in 
the  very  account  of  the  creation  of  the  world,  it  is  said  that 
some  things  were  made  to  be  pleasant  to  the  sight,  and  others 
good  for  sustenance  ;  and  while  our  spiritual  natures  are  en- 
dowed with  susceptibilities  to  enjoy  the  former,  as  well  as 
with  capacities  to  profit  by  the  later,  —  any  measures  for  the 
elevation  of  the  common  mind,  which  do  not  recognize  the 
existence  and  provide  for  the  cultivation  of  the  first  class  of 
powers,  as  well  as  for  the  second,  would  form  a  community 
of  men,  wholly  uncouth  and  rugged  in  their  strength,  and 
almost  uuamiable,  however  perfect  might  be  their  recti- 
tude. The  mind  of  every  man  is  instinct  with  capacities 
above  the  demands  of  the  workshop  or  the  field,  —  capacities 
which  are  susceptible  of  pure  enjoyments  from  music  and  art, 
and  all  the  embellishments  of  civilized  life,  and  whose  indul- 
gence would  lighten  the  burden  of  daily  toil.  All  have  sus- 
ceptibilities of  feeling  too  subtile  and  evanescent  to  find  any 
medium  of  utterance,  except  in  the  language  of  poetry  and 
art,  and  too  refined  to  be  called  into  being,  but  by  the  creations 


30  ANNUAL    REPORTS    ON   EDUCATION. 

of  genius.  The  culture  of  these  sensibilities  makes  almost  as 
important  a  distinction  between  savage  and  civilized  man,  as 
the  training  of  the  intellect;  and  without  such  cultivation, 
though  the  form  of  humanity  may  remain,  it  will  be  disrobed 
of  many  of  its  choicest  beauties.  Still,  in  a  world,  where,  by 
the  ordinations  of  Providence,  utility  outranks  elegance ; 
•where  harvests  to  sustain  life  must  be  cultivated  before  gar- 
dens are  planted  to  gratify  taste  ;  where  all  the  fascinations  of 
regal  courts  are  no  atonement  for  the  neglect  of  a  single  duty.  — 
in  such  a  world,  no  gentility  or  gracefulness  of  mind  or  man- 
ners, however  exquisite  and  fascinating,  is  any  substitute  im- 
practical wisdom  and  benevolence.  Without  copious  resources 
of  useful  knowledge  in  our  young  men  and  young  women  ; 
without  available,  applicable  judgment  and  discretion,  ade- 
quate to  the  common  occasions  and  ready  for  the  emergencies 
of  life,  —  the  ability  to  quote  poetic  sentiments,  aud  expatiate 
on  passages  of  fine  writing,  or  a  connoisseurship  in  art,  is  but 
mockery.  Hence  it  is  to  be  regretted  that  so  many  excellent 
young  persons,  emulous  of  self-improvement,  should  commit 
the  error  of  supposing  that  an  acquaintance  with  the  institu- 
tions of  society,  with  the  real  wants  and  conditions  of  their 
fellow-men,  and  with  the  means  of  relieving  them,  can  be 
profitably  exchanged  for  a  knowledge  of  the  entire  universe  of 
fiction  ;  or  that  it  is  wise,  in  their  hours  of  study,  to  neglect 
the  wonderful  works  of  the  Creator,  in  order  to  become  famil- 
iar with  the  fables  of  men.  Intellect  must  lay  a  foundation, 
and  rear  a  superstructure,  before  taste  can  adorn  it.  Without 
solid  knowledge  and  good  sense,  there  is  uo  substance  into 
which  ornament  or  accomplishment  can  be  inwrought.  It  is 
impossible  to  polish  vacuity,  or  give  a  lustre  to  the  surface  of 
emptiness. 

One  other  general  remark  is  applicable  to  a  large  portion  of 
this  class  of  works.  Most  of  them  were  written  in  Great 
Britain  for  British  readers.  Hence  they  suppose  and  repre- 
sent a  state  of  society  where  wealth  outranks  virtue,  and 
birth  takes  precedence  of  talent,  except  in  extraordinary  cases 


REPORT   FOR    1839.  31 

of  mental  endowment  or  attainment.  They  describe  two 
classes  of  men,  which  we  never  ought  to  have,  —  one  class, 
whose  distinction  and  elevation  are  founded  on  the  adventitious 
circumstances  of  birth  or  fortune,  and  another  class  who  are 
the  ignorant,  degraded  dependants  upon  the  former,  —  but 
they  do  not  describe  any  class  of  industrious,  intelligent,  exem- 
plary, just,  and  benevolent  men,  so  alive  to  the  rights  of  others, 
that  under  no  temptation  would  they  become  lords,  and  so  con- 
scious of  their  own,  that  under  no  force  would  they  remain 
slaves,  —  a  class  of  men  which  we  ought  to  have,  and,  with  a 
proper  use  of  the  blessings  Heaven  has  given  us,  we  may 
have.  Surely,  such  books  do  not  contain  the  models  according 
to  which  the  youth  of  a  Republic  should  be  formed. 

I  should  have  felt  myself  wholly  unwarranted  in  thus  com- 
menting upon  the  prevalence  of  amusing  and  fictitious,  com- 
pared with  useful  reading,  and  upon  the  pernicious  conse- 
qiiences  of  indulgence  in  it,  were  it  not  that  the  children  of 
the  State  are  now  growing  up  in  this  very  condition  of  things, 
and  under  circumstances,  too,  which  will  lead  them  to  commit 
the  same  error,  and,  of  course,  to  suffer  the  same  evil,  except 
some  new  inducements  can  be  found  to  win  them  from  it.  The 
number  of  these  works,  with  the  number  of  their  readers,  is 
now  rapidly  increasing, —  not  absolutely  only,  but  relatively, 
and  in  proportion  to  other  and  useful  works.  The  materials  of 
which  they  are  composed  have  now  been  so  often  wrought 
over,  that  moderately  imitative  powers  are  amply  sufficient  for 
recasting  them  in  slightly  modified  forms :  originality  aud 
invention  have  ceased  to  be  necessary.  The  cheapness,  too, 
of  this  class  of  works,  gives  them  a  preference,  not  only  for 
circulating,  but  for  town  and  social  libraries.  I  have  been 
surprised  at  finding  such  numbers  of  them  in  the  catalogues 
of  the  latter.  I  have  heard  of  but  one  town  or  social 
library  from  which  they  ha.ve  been  peremptorily  excluded 
by  an  article  in  the  constitution.  The  by-laws  of  one  other 
library  set  up  a  certain  standard  for  books,  and  empower  a 
committee  to  burn  all  the  nonconformists ;  that  is,  the  noncon- 


32  ANNUAL    REPORTS    ON   EDUCATION. 

forming  books.  In  other  places,  authority  to  dispose  by  sale 
of  trivial  or  pernicious  books  is  given  ;  and  this  leads  me  to 
another  subject  in  regard  to  the  reading  of  the  community, 
not  less  important  than  the  preceding. 

This  subject  is  presented  by  the  question,  What  do  those  per- 
sons read,  who  have  not  yet  risen  to  the  point  of  appreciating 
and  admiring  the  better  class  of  fictions  and  of  recent  literary 
woi'ks?  A  taste  for  the  better  kinds  of  light  reading  presup- 
poses a  preference,  in  the  reader's  mind,  of  what  belongs  to  the 
spiritual  over  what  belongs  to  the  merely  animal  part  of  our 
nature,  —  of  mental  over  sensual  gratifications.  A  knowledge, 
too,  of  some  of  the  more  obvious  phenomena  of  the  material 
world,  and  of  the  operations  of  the  human  mind,  has  made 
many  books  ridiculous  and  contemptible,  which  once  were  con- 
sulted as  oracles,  and  filled  their  readers  with  terror  and  rever- 
ential awe.  The  fictions  of  the  last  century,  whose  texture 
consists  of  events  monstrous  and  supernatural,  whose  ma- 
chinery is  ghosts,  hobgoblins,  demons,  and  demi-gods,  —  written 
from  one  end  to  the  other  in  defiance  not  merely  of  experience, 
but  of  possibility,  and  adapted  to  the  lowest  ignorance,  —  these, 
in  rare  instances  only,  have  been  republished.  They  have 
been  driven  from  shelves  and  tables  upon  which  the  feeblest 
ray  of  the  light  of  science  has  been  cast.  Yet,  even  within 
the  last  year,  large  editions  of  dream-books  and  fortune- 
tellers have  been  published.  But  there  is  a  kind  of  reading 
in  the  community,  wholly  unknown  to  the  publishers  of  fash- 
ionable novels  and  of  the  better  sort  of  ephemeral  literature. 
To  those  who  have  not  been  in  the  way  of  knowing,  nor  in  the 
habit  of  reflecting,  what  kind  of  reading  is  most  congenial  and 
welcome  to  the  least  educated  portion  of  the  people.  Jiud 
through  what  channels  they  are  supplied,  the  facts  which  have 
existed  and  still  exist  must  be  a  source  of  alarm.  Numerous 
itinerant  booksellers  are  constantly  on  the  circuit  of  the  coun- 
try, offering  from  door  to  door  such  books  as,  in  the  advan- 
cing knowledge  and  changing  tastes  of  the  times,  are  no  longer 
salable  at  the  bookstore,  nor  inquired  for  at  the  circulating 


REPORT   FOR   1839.  33 

library.  The  precise  extent  of  this  traffic  it  is  impossible  to 
determine ;  yet,  from  all  I  can  learn,  I  am  satisfied  it  is  car- 
ried on  to  a  very  considerable  degree,  especially  in  inland 
towns  and  in  the  purlieus  of  populous  places.  One  gentleman 
informed  me,  that,  in  the  vicinity  of  a  manufacturing  village 
where  he  lived,  he  had  seen  half  a  dozen  of  these  book-peddlers 
in  a  fortnight.  In  communications  received  on  the  subject  of 
established  libraries,  mention  of  similar  facts  has  occasionally 
been  made,  although  that  was  not  one  of  the  subjects  on  which 
information  was  sought.  During  the  last  autumn,  I  saw  in  a 
beautiful,  inland  town  the  consents  of  a  peddler's  vehicle,  un- 
laden, and  arranged  in  a  stall  by  the  side  of  the  street.  I  took 
occasion  carefully  to  examine  the  books  thus  exposed  for  sale. 
Amongst  several  hundred  volumes,  there  were  not  more  than 
two  or  three  books  which  any  judicious  person  would  ever  put 
into  the  hands  of  a  child  after  he  could  read.  The  rest  con- 
sisted of  the  absurdest  novels  of  the  last  century,  of  stories  of 
buccaneers,  of  pirates  and  murderers,  of  shipwrecks,  of  New- 
gate calendars,  and  accounts  of  other  exciting  and  extraordi- 
nary trials,  of  different  sizes  and  prices  to  meet  the  ability  of 
purchasers.  On  a  temporary  counter  were  spread  out  bundles 
of  songs,  in  single  sheets,  some  patriotic,  some  profane,  and 
some  obscene,  —  to  be  sold  for  a  cent  apiece.  Amongst  the 
books  were  Volney's  "  Ruins"  and  Paine's  "Age  of  Reason." 
At  the  time  of  this  exposition  for  sale,  a  literary  festival,  occupy- 
ing two  days,  was  held  in  the  same  village  ;  on  which  occasion, 
profound,  philosophical,  literary,  and  religious  discourses  were 
delivered  to  intelligent  and  gratified  audiences.  The  stall 
where  the  books  were  sold  was  within  a  stone's-throw  of  the 
church  where  the  anniversary  was  celebrated.  Both  exercises 
went  on  together.  The  thought,  irrepressible  on  the  occasion, 
was,  how  much  of  that  immense  difference  between  those  who 
listened  with  delight  to  the  eloquence  of  the  discourses  and  ap- 
preciated the  instruction  they  gave,  and  those  who  purchased 
the  moral  venom  to  satisfy  the  cravings  of  a  natural  appetite, 
to  which  no  entertainment  of  better  things  had  ever  been 

3 


34  ANNUAL   REPORTS    ON   EDUCATION. 

offered,  —  how  much  of  this  immense  difference  was  perfectly 
within  the  power,  and  therefore  within  the  responsibility,  of 
society.  Surely  sucli  taste,  and  such  books  at  once  to  gratify 
and  aggravate  it,  are  not  the  means  Avherewith  the  children  in 
a  free  government,  and  of  a  Christian  people,  are  to  lay  the 
ever-during  foundations  of  conduct  and  character. 

How  few  parents  there  are,  who,  in  looking  back  to  the  days 
of  their  own  childhood  and  minority,  find  no  occasion  to  la- 
ment,—  now  when  the  injury  is  irreparable,  —  the  want  of 
eai'ly  opportunities  for  laying  up  a  store  of  valuable  knowl- 
edge, and  the  loss  of  time, « —  now  irrecoverable,  —  conse- 
quent upon  that  want !  How  many  feel,  daily,  that  their 
power  of  thinking,  and  especially  of  expressing  their  thoughts 
in  speech  or  in  writing,  has,  all  their  life  long,  been  obstructed 
and  deadened,  from  an  absence  of  facilities  for  information 
and  of  incitements  to  study  in  early  life.  For  the  parents 
themselves,  these  regrets  come  too  late.  The  losses  belong  to 
a  class  for  which  even  repentance  brings  no  remedy.  And 
the  question  is,  whether  these  same  parents  shall  suffer  their 
own  children  to  grow  up  under  a  similar  privation,  to  be 
doomed  in  their  turn,  when  they  become  men  and  women,  to 
the  same  melancholy  retrospect  and  to  the  same  unavailing 
regrets. 

The  people  of  this  State  are,  and  must  of  necessity  con- 
tinue to  be,  an  industrious  people,  or  they  cannot  subsist. 
Wealthy  as  the  State  is  justly  supposed  to  be,  yet  if  all  the 
property  in  it,  both  real  and  personal,  were  equally  divided 
amongst  all  its  inhabitants,  it  would  not  amount  to  more  than 
four  hundred  dollars  apiece.  How  soon  would  all  this  be  gone, 
even  to  the  very  soil  we  tread  on,  without  the  annual  replenish- 
iugs  of  industry  !  Our  soil  furnishes  nothing  of  spontaneous 
growth,  and  its  unrelenting  ruggedness  can  be  propitiated  only 
by  the  offerings  of  industry.  Our  people,  therefore,  as  a  peo- 
ple, cannot  go  abroad  for  information,  —  for  that  enlargement 
of  mind  and  that  acquaintance  with  affairs  which  comes  from 
foreign  travel,  whim  pursued  with  an  inquiring  spirit  and  an 


REPORT   FOR   1839.  35 

open  eye.  If  the  necessity  of  their  condition  debars  them  from 
visiting  other  states  or  countries  in  quest  of  knowledge,  then 
knowledge  must  be  brought  to  them,  —  to  their  own  doors  and 
fire-sides,  —  or  ignorance  is  the  only  alternative,  —  the  igno- 
rance of  childhood  darkening  into  the  deeper  ignorance  of 
manhood,  with  all  its  jealousies  and  its  narrow-mindedness, 
and  its  superstitions,  and  its  penury  of  enjoyments,  —  poor 
amid  the  intellectual  and  moral  riches  of  the  universe,  blind 
in  the  splendid  temple  which  God  has  builded,  and  famishing 
amid  the  profusions  of  Omnipotence.  The  minds,  then,  of 
our  people,  should  travel,  though  their  bodies  remain  at  home  ; 
and,  for  these  journeyings  and  voyages,  books  are  an  ever-ready 
and  costless  vehicle. 

With  a  rugged  and  unproductive  soil,  Massachusetts  is  also 
by  far  the  most  densely  populated  State  in  the  Union.  Hence, 
for  the  temporal  and  material  prosperity  of  her  people,  —  for 
their  subsistence  even, —  they  are  obliged  to  form  an  alliance 
with  the  great  agencies  of  Nature,  as  auxiliaries  in  their  labor. 
But  Nature  bestows  her  mighty  forces  of  wind  and  water  and 
steam,  only  upon  those  who  seek  them  through  intelligence  and 
skill.  The  same  circumstances,  therefore,  which  seem  to  have 
marked  out  this  State  as  a  place  of  great  mechanical,  manu- 
facturing, and  commercial  industry,  draw  after  them  the  neces- 
sity of  such  a  wide  range  of  knowledge,  as,  though  always  valu- 
able, would  not  otherwise  be  so  indispensable.  To  fit  the  peo- 
ple for  prosecuting  these  various  branches  of  business  with 
success  —  or  even  to  rescue  them  from  making  shipwreck  of 
their  fortunes  —  they  must  become  acquainted  with  those 
mechanical  laws  that  pervade  the  material  world.  They  must 
become  intelligent  machinists,  millwrights,  shipwrights,  engi- 
neers —  not  craftsmen  merely,  but  men  who  understand  the 
principles  upon  which  their  work  proceeds  ;  so  that,  by  the 
skilful  preparation  and  adjustment  of  machinery,  the  sleepless 
and  gigantic  forces  of  Nature  may  perform  their  tasks.  They 
must  know  the  nature  and  action  of  the  elements.  They  must 
kuow  the  properties  of  the  bodies  used  in  their  respective 


36  ANNUAL   REPORTS   ON  EDUCATION. 

branches  of  business,  and  the  processes  by  which  rude  mate- 
rials can  most  cheaply  be  converted  into  polished  fabrics. 
They  must  know  the  countries  whence  foreign  products  are 
imported,  whither  domestic  products  are  exported,  the  course 
of  trade,  the  laws  of  demand  and  supply,  what  articles  depend 
on  the  permanent  wants  of  mankind,  and  therefore  will  always 
be  in  demand,  and  what  depend  upon  caprice  or  fashion,  and 
therefore  are  certain  to  be  discarded  soon,  for  the  very  reason 
that  they  are  now  in  vogue.  Now,  all  these  lead  out,  by  im- 
perceptible steps,  into  mechanical  philosophy,  the  applications 
of  science  to  the  useful  arts,  civil  geography,  navigation,  com- 
merce, political  economy,  and  the  relations  which  nations  bear 
to  each  other.  Although  an  individual  might  learn  to  perform 
a  task  or  execute  an  agency  in  one  of  these  departments, 
empirically,  that  is,  by  a  knowledge  of  the  modes  of  proceed- 
ing, but  in  ignorance  of  the  principles  on  which  the"  process 
depends,  yet  such  individuals  never  originate  improvements  or 
inventions.  Like  the  Chinese,  the  end  of  a  hundred  years,  or 
of  a  hundred  generations,  finds  them  in  the  spot  they  occupied 
at  the  beginning. 

Of  those  engaged  in  agriculture,  —  an  interest  intrinsically 
important  and  elevated,  — it  may  be  said,  that  just  in  propor- 
tion as  the  soils  they  cultivate  are  more  sterile  should  the 
minds  of  the  cultivators  be  more  fertile  ;  for,  in  a  series  of 
years,  the  quantity  of  the  harvests  depends  quite  as  much  upon 
the  knowledge  and  skill  of  the  cultivator  as  upon  the  richness 
of  the  soil  he  tills.  Take  the  year  round,  and  the  farmer  has 
as  many  leisure  hours  as  any  class  of  men  ;  and  he  has  this 
advantage  over  many  others,  that  his  common  round  of  occu- 
pations does  not  engross  all  his  powers  of  thought,  so  that, 
wei'e  his  mind  previously  supplied  with  a  fund  of  facts,  he 
might  be  meditating  as  he  works,  and  growing  Aviser  and  richer 
together. 

In  fine,  there  is  not,  and  the  constitution  of  things  has  made 
it  impossible  that  there  should  be,  any  occupation  or  employ- 
ment whatever,  where  an  extended  knowledge  of  its  principles, 


REPORT   FOR   1839.  87 

or  of  its  kindred  departments,  would  not  improve  products, 
abridge  processes,  diminish  cost,  and  impart  dignity  to  the 
pursuit. 

And  how  without  books,  as  the  grand  means  of  intellectual 
cultivation,  are  the  daughters  of  the  State  to  obtain  that  knowl- 
edge on  a  thousand  subjects,  which  is  so  desirable  in  the 
character  of  a  female,  as  well  as  so  essential  to  the  discharge 
of  the  duties  to  which  she  is  destined  ?  Young  men,  it  may 
be  said,  have  a  larger  circle  of  action  ;  they  can  mingle  more 
in  promiscuous  society,  —  at  least,  they  have  a  far  wider  range 
of  business  occupations,  —  all  of  which  stimulate  thought, 
suggest  inquiry,  and  furnish  means  for  improvement.  But  the 
sphere  of  females  is  domestic.  Their  life  is  comparatively 
secluded.  The  proper  delicacy  of  the  sex  forbids  them  from 
appearing  in  the  promiscuous  marts  of  business,  and  even  from 
mingling,  as  actors,  in  those  less  boisterous  arenas,  where 
mind  is  the  acting  agent,  as  well  as  the  object  to  be  acted  upon. 
If,  then,  she  is  precluded  from  these  sources  of  information, 
and  these  incitements  to  inquiry ;  if,  by  the  unanimous  and 
universal  opinion  of  civilized  nations,  when  she  breaks  away 
from  comparative  seclusion  and  retirement,  she  leaves  her 
charms  behind  her ;  and  if,  at  the  same  time,  she  is  debarred 
from  access  to  books,  by  what  means,  through  what  channels, 
is  she  to  obtain  the  knowledge  so  indispensable  for  the  fit  dis- 
charge of  maternal  and  domestic  duties,  and  for  rendering  her- 
self ail  enlightened  companion  for  intelligent  men  ?  Without 
books,  except  in  cases  of  extraordinary  natural  endowment, 
she  will  be  doomed  to  relative  ignorance  and  incapacity.  Nor 
can  her  daughters,  in  their  turn,  escape  the  same  fate ;  for 
their  minds  will  be  weakened  by  the  threefold  cause  of  trans- 
mission, inculcation,  and  example.  Steady  results  follow  from 
steady  causes ;  under  such  influences,  therefore,  if  not  avert- 
ed, the  generations  must  deteriorate  from  the  positive  to  the 
superlative  in  mental  feebleness  and  imbecility. 

But  far  above  and  beyond  all  special  qualifications  for 
special  pursuits  is  the  importance  of  forming  to  usefulness  and 


38  ANNUAL    REPORTS    ON   EDUCATION. 

honor  the  capacities  which  are  common  to  all  mankind.  The 
endowments  that  belong  to  all  are  of  far  greater  consequence 
than  the  peculiarities  of  any.  The  practical  farmer,  the  inge- 
nious mechanic,  the  talented  artist,  the  upright  legislator  or 
judge,  the  accomplished  teacher,  should  be  only  modifications 
or  varieties  of  the  original  man.  The  man  is  the  trunk  ;  occu- 
pations and  professions  are  only  diiferent  qualities  of  the  fruit 
it  should  yield.  There  are  more  of  the  same  things  to  be 
taught  to  all,  and  learned  by  all,  than  there  are  of  different 
things  to  be  imparted,  distributively,  to  classes  consisting  of  a 
few.  The  development  of  the  common  nature  ;  the  cultivation 
of  the  germs  of  intelligence,  uprightness,  benevolence,  truth, 
that  belong  to  all,  —  these  are  the  principal,  the  aim,  the  end  ; 
while  special  preparations  for  the  field  or  the  shop,  for  the 
forum  or  the  desk,  for  the  land  or  the  sea,  are  but  incidents. 

In  the  first  place,  it  is  requisite  that  every  man,  considered 
merely  as  a  man,  and  without  reference  to  station  or  occupa- 
tion, should  know  something  of  his  own  bodily  structure  and 
organization,  of  whose  marvellous  workmanship  it  is  said,  that 
it  is  fearfully  aud  wonderfully  made,  —  ii-onderfully,  because 
the  infinite  wisdom  and  skill,  manifested  in  the  adjustment 
and  expansion  of  his  frame,  tend  to  inspire  the  mind  with 
devotion  and  a  religious  awe ;  and  fearfully,  because  its 
exquisite  mechanism  is  so  constantly  exposed  to  peril  and 
destruction  from  all  the  objects  and  elements  around  him, 
that  precaution  or  fear  is  the  hourly  condition  of  his  exist- 
ence. 

Did  each  individual  know,  —  what,  with  a  few  suitable 
books,  he  might  easily  learn,  —  on  what  observances  and  con- 
ditions the  Creator  of  the  body  has  made  its  health  and  strength 
to  depend  ;  did  he  know  that  his  corporeal  frame  is  a  general 
system,  made  up  by  the  union  of  many  particular  systems,  — 
the  nervous,  the  muscular,  the  bony,  the  arterial,  the  venous, 
the  pulmonary,  the  digestive ;  that  all  these  bear  certain 
fixed  relations  to  each  other,  aud  to  the  objects  and  elements 
of  the  external  world,  —  it  is  inconceivable  how  much  of 


REPORT   FOR    1839.  39 

disease  and  pain  and  premature  death  would  be  averted,  — 
from  how  much  imposition  he  Avould  be  saved,  and  how  much 
the  powers  of  useful  labor,  and  the  common  length  of  life, 
would  be  increased.  Even  from  the  extension  of  knowledge 
on  these  subjects  within  the  last  century,  the  average  length  of 
life  has  increased  one  quarter ;  and  yet  it  now  reaches  to  but 
little  more  than  half  of  threescore  years  and  ten.  How  many 
persons,  annually,  are  killed  by  the  carbonic  gas  of  burning 
charcoal,  when,  did  they  know  of  its  existence,  or  how  it  is 
formed,  they  would  as  soon  swallow  arsenic  as  inhale  it ! 
How  much  property  is  annually  destroyed  by  spontaneous  com- 
bustion, through  an  ignorance  of  the  circumstances  that  cause 
it !  What  a  population  of  spectres  and  ghosts  and  appari- 
tions has  been  driven  from  the  abodes  of  all  intelligent  men, 
and  might  be  annihilated  with  regard  to  all  mankind,  by  a 
knowledge  of  the  reflection  and  refraction  of  light,  and  of  a 
few  other  simple  laws  of  Nature  !  Those  terrific  races,  that 
once  swarmed  the  earth,  have  ceased  their  visits  where  a  few 
of  those  principles  of  science  are  understood,  which  every 
child,  if  supplied  with  the  means,  might  easily  learn.  How 
pertinaciously  have  the  most  diffusive  blessings  been  resisted, 

—  such   as  the  use  of  lightning  conductors,  and  vaccination, 

—  because  devout   but  ignorant  people  supposed,  that  to  ward 
off  death,  when  it  came  under  violent  forms,  was   an   impious 
defiance   of  the  will  of  Heaven !     as    though  it  were  not  the 
primary  will  of  Heaven  that  we  should  use  the  means  of  self- 
preservation  which  it  has  graciously  given  us.     It  is  not  long 
since,  that,  in  one  of  our  most  intelligent  cities,  a  splendid  granite 
church  took  fire  ;   and  when  it  was  found  impossible  to  extin- 
guish the  flames  in  its  interior,  the  chief-engineer  forbade  the 
engine-men  to  play  upon  the  walls,  because   he  well  knew  that 
water  thrown  upon  heated  granite  would  decompose  it,  and   he 
wished  to  save  the  materials ;  but  hundreds    of   others,  igno- 
rant of  this  fact,  but  only  knowing  that  the  engineer  belonged 
to  a  different  religious  denomination  from  the  worshippers  at 
the  church,  attributed  the  prohibition  to   his  spite  against  an 


40  AXXUAL   REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

opposing  sect  of  Christians  ;  and,  while  he  took  the  measure 
which  alone  could  save  the  property,  they  supposed  he  was 
maliciously  delighting  himself  with  the  sight  of  its  destruction. 
In  Scotland,  during  the  last  century,  the  introduction  of  mills 
for  winnowing  grain  was  violently  opposed.  The  whole 
argument  took  a  theological  cast.  It  was  urged,  on  one  side, 
that  the  use  of  a  winnowing  mill  Avas  a  resistance  of  the 
Divine  "Will,  because  it  prevented  the  wind  from  "  blowing 
Avhere  it  listeth."  But,  on  the  other  side,  it  was  gravely 
answered,  that  to  prevent  the  wind  from  "  blowing  where  it 
listeth,"  only  contravened  the  will  of  the  "Prince  of  the  power 
of  the  air,"  and  was  therefore  not  only  lawful,  but  laudable. 
Profit  and  convenience  coming  to  the  support  of  the  latter 
argument,  it  prevailed.  These  are  specimens  only  of  the 
most  gross  and  sottish  ignorance.  Its  less  palpable  forms  are 
indefinitely  more  numerous,  and  their  consequences,  in  the 
aggregate,  indefinitely  more  disastrous.  Let  any  one  read 
such  a  work  as  that  of  Dick  "  On  the  Diffusion  of  Usi-ful 
Knowledge,"  and  he  will  be  able  to  form  some  idea  how  inti- 
mately the  private,  personal  happiness  of  a  people  is  connected 
with  its  intelligence. 

But  these  illustrations  are  endless.  The  real  fact  to  be 
pondered  is,  that,  without  diffusing  information  amongst  the 
people,  we  shall  go  on  in  the  same  way,  smiling  at  the  follies 
of  the  last  generation,  and  furnishing  anecdotes  for  the  next. 
There  are  innumerable  ways  in  which  a  knowledge  of  the 
material  world  would  gladden  the  obscurest  dwelling  in  the 
land,  and  disburden  the  heart  of  the  humblest  individual  of 
fears,  anxieties,  and  sorrows.  There  are  innumerable  ways  in 
winch  an  instructed  and  enlightened  man  turns  the  course 
of  Nature  to  his  profit  and  delight  and  daily  comfort,  which 
an  ignorant  man  would  no  more  think  of  than  a  savage  would 
think  of  burning  anthracite  coal  in  the  winter  to  warm  him, 
and  of  preserving  ice  over  summer  to  cool  him. 

All  children  might  learn  something  of  Natural  History. 
This  department  presents  an  immense  variety  of  objects,  cal- 


REPORT   FOB   1839.  41 

dilated  to  develop  their  observing  and  comparing  faculties,  at 
a  period  of  life  when  these  faculties  are  more  active  than  ever 
afterwards,  and  to  store  the  mind  with  an  abundance  of  mate- 
rials for  the  judging  and  reasoning  powers  to  act  upon.  To 
portions  of  this  class  of  objects,  divines  and  moralists  are  per- 
petually referring,  in  order  to  illustrate  the  power  and  wisdom 
and  perfections  of  God  ;  and  yet,  how  nearly  lost  are  all  such 
illustrations  upon  minds  that  know  nothing  of  those  laws  of 
vegetable  life  which  clothe  "  the  lilies  of  the  field  "  in  a  beauty 
beyond  the  regal  glory  of  Solomon,  nor  of  that  animal 
mechanism  that  saves  the  "  sparrow  "  from  falling ! 

The  biography  of  great  and  good  men  is  one  of  the  most 
efficient  of  all  influences  in  forming  the  character  of  children ; 
for,  as  they  are  prone  to  imitate  what  they  admire,  it  uncon- 
sciously directs,  while  it  delights  them.  Let  the  mind  be  sup- 
plied with  definite,  exact  ideas  on  any  subject,  and  we  all 
know  by  experience,  that,  when  an  analogous  case  arises,  the 
related  ideas  with  which  we  were  familiar  before  will  instan- 
taneously spring  up  in  the  mind  by  the  law  of  association. 
And  when  correct  ideas  present  themselves  spontaneously  in 
this  way,  they  are,  to  say  the  least,  far  more  likely  to  be  em- 
bodied in  action,  than  if  they  had  first  to  be  laboriously  sought 
out.  Especially  is  this  true  in  emergencies ;  and  how  many 
of  the  follies  and  imprudences  of  men  are  first  committed  on 
emergencies,  so  sudden  as  to  exclude  reflection !  On  such 
occasions,  to  have  prototypes  of  moral  excellence  in  the  mind 
is  something  like  having  precedents  or  examples  in  the  practi- 
cal concerns  or  business  of  life.  Although  it  is  a  great  ti'uth, 
that  all  miuds  have  the  capacity  of  distinguishing  between 
right  and  wrong,  yet  life  presents  innumerable  instances  where 
the  application  of  these  principles  is  attended  with  serious 
difficulty :  in  such  cases,  mere  ignorance  is  always  the 
source  of  error,  and  often  of  ruin.  And  how  many  excellent 
men  have  lived,  how  many  illustrious  examples  have  been  set, 
of  which  only  a  very  few  of  the  more  favored  children  of  this 
State  have  ever  heard  !  all  others,  therefore,  being  not  so 


42  ANNUAL   REPORTS    ON   EDUCATION. 

much  as  invited  to  follow  in  the  same  radiant  paths.  Why 
should  the  examples  of  benevolence,  of  probity,  of  devotion  to 
truth,  be  lost  to  so  many  of  our  children,  whom  they  might 
fire  with  a  corresponding  love  of  excellence?  Here  are  real 
examples  of  real  men,  and  are,  therefore,  possible  and  imita- 
ble ;  and,  to  the  unsophisticated  mind  of  a  child,  there  is  as 
great  a  difference  between  real  and  fictitious  personages  as 
there  is  to  a  merchant  between  real  and  fictitious  paper.  There 
never  was  such  an  argument  in  favor  of  furnishing  biographi- 
cal aud  scientific  truth  for  children,  and  against  that  mass  of 
fictions  which  are  given  them  for  true  stories,  and  not  as  media 
or  illustrations  merely,  as  the  simple  question,  which  ingenu- 
ous children  so  often  a<k.  when  reading  or  hearing  a  narrative, 
Is  it  true  f  It  ought  to  be  remembered,  that  in  all  the  objects 
and  operations  of  Nature,  and  in  the  lives  of  genuine  men.  we 
converse  with  God  and  with  the  course  of  his  providence  at 
first  hand,  and  not  with  mock-shows  and  counterfeits  and 
hearsays. 

There  is  another  kind  of  reading,  which  all  must  admit  to 
be  of  the  very  highest  importance  to  our  citizens,  and  of  which 
they  are  almost  universally  ignorant ;  I  mean  our  ante-Revolu- 
tionary history.  Few,  even  of  our  educated  men,  can  claim 
any  familiarity  with  it ;  yet  there  our  free  institutions  germi- 
nated. Never,  in  any  other  place,  nor  at  any  other  time,  have 
the  great  principles  of  civil  and  religious  liberty  been  so  ably 
discussed,  or  been  sustained  by  such  heroic  trials  aud  sacrifices, 
as  between  the  first  colonization  of  this  country  and  the  peace 
of  1783.  Our  country's  independence,  the  birth  of  a  free 
people,  —  one  of  the  greatest  epochs  in  the  history  of  the  human 
race,  —  was  the  result.  Every  boy  who  is  not  ruined  by  a  false 
course  of  instruction  passes  through  a  state  of  mind,  between 
the  ages  of  sixteen  and  twenty-one,  when  a  study  of  the  princi- 
ples and  deeds  recorded  in  that  history  would  give  him  some 
adequate  idea  what  liberty  and  law  are,  what  they  have  cost, 
and  what  they  are  worth. 

But,  when  we  turn  from  the  outward  and  material  world  to 


REPOET   FOR   1839.  43 

the  inward  and  spiritual  life,  a  wider  field  for  improvement 
opens  before  us  ;  for  out  of  the  invisible  recesses  of  the  mind 
come  all  the  mighty  changes  wrought  by  human  power.  When 
an  uninstructed  person  looks  upon  the  outward  form  of  a  man, 
he  thinks  nothing  of  the  skilfully-adjusted  organs,  nor  of  the 
mysterious  functions  of  vitality,  within  it.  The  vibrating 
nerves,  which  convey  sensation  and  volition,  the  contracting 
muscle,  the  flowing  blood,  the  health  and  strength  giving  pro- 
cesses of  nutrition,  the  dilating  lungs,  with  their  adaptations  to 
each  other,  are  all  hidden  from  his  untaught  gaze.  So,  when 
an  ignorant  man  regards  the  operations  of  the  mind,  he  discerns 
only  a  tumultuary,  conflicting  tide  of  wishes  and  terrors,  of 
pleasures  and  pains,  of  doubts  and  purposes,  rising,  contending, 
and  subsiding,  without  order  or  law.  He  takes  no  cognizance 
of  the  different  powers  and  faculties  with  which  he  has  been  en- 
dowed, of  their  relative  supremacy,  of  their  different  spheres  of 
action,  nor  of  their  adaptations  to  his  temporal  condition  ;  and 
hence,  when  he  obeys  their  impulses,  it  is  without  the  approval 
of  conscience  ;  and  when  he  commands  them,  it  is  without  the 
discriminations  of  reason.  Every  child,  towards  the  close  of 
his  minority,  has  time  and  capacity  enough,  could  he  be  fur- 
nished with  the  means,  to  acquire  much  of  the  knowledge  en- 
joined in  that  ancient  precept,  so  universally  celebrated  and 
sanctioned,  "  Know  thyself." 

But,  after  all,  those  blessings  of  knowledge,  combined  with 
well-directed  feelings,  which  cannot  be  enumerated,  are  infi- 
nitely more  than  any  language  can  express.  The  greater  pro- 
portion of  the  stream  of  every  man's  life  is  hidden  in  the  silent 
breast,  and  never  emerges  into  utterance  or  action.  Much  as 
any  one  may  be  in  the  company  of  the  world,  he  is  much  more 
in  the  company  of  his  own  consciousness  only.  It  is  the  per- 
petual inflowing  of  his  secret  reflections  and  emotions  that 
mingles  sweet  or  bitter  waters  in  the  stream  of  every  man's 
existence.  Whatever  reaches  the  fountains  of  this  stream,  is, 
as  far  as  possible,  to  be  remembered  in  plans  for  human  ame- 
lioration. Few  men  have  battles  to  fight,  or  senates  to  per- 


44  ANNUAL    REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

suade,  or  kingdoms  to  rule ;  but  all  have  a  spirit  to  be  con- 
trolled, and  to  be  brought  into  subjection  to  the  social  and 
divine  law.  The  intellect  forces  the  great  problems  of  exist- 
ence and  futurity  and  destiny  upon  all ;  and  none  will  question 
that  much  depends  upon  human  means,  whether  a  man  shall  go 
through  the  world  and  out  of  it,  elated  by  delusive  hopes,  or 
tormented  by  causeless  fears. 

Among  the  agencies  that  operate  to  these  momentous  ends, 
books,  certainly,  occupy  a  conspicuous  place.  Whoever  has 
read  modern  biography,  with  a  philosophic  eye  to  the  causes  of 
the  extraordinary  characters  it  records,  must  have  observed  the 
frequent  references  that  are  made  to  some  book,  as  turning  the 
stream  of  life  at  some  critical  point  in  its  course.  In  one  of 
Dr.  Franklin's  letters,  he  says,  that,  when  a  boy,  he  met  with 
a  book  entitled  "  Essays  to  do  Good,"  which  led  to  such  a  train 
of  thinking,  as  had  an  influence  on  his  conduct  through  life. 
Sir  Walter  Scott,  in  his  writings  and  letters,  makes  repeated 
and  repeated  mention  of  the  fact,  that  he  owed  his  power  of 
painting  past  times  to  the  books  which  he  read  when  young. 
The  notorious  Stephen  Burroughs,  a  native  of  a  neighboring 
State,  relates  in  his  autobiography,  that  he  was  inflamed  with 
military  ardor  by  the  perusal  of  "  Guy,  Earl  of  Warwick  ; " 
that  he  ran  away  from  his  father  three  times,  —  once  before 
he  was  fourteen  years  of  age,  —  and  enlisted  in  a  regiment  of 
artillery.  Twice  he  was  reclaimed,  but,  at  last,  he  succeeded 
in  escaping,  and  in  the  camp,  it  has  been  sometimes  said, 
commenced  his  life  of  ignominy.  Whoever  looks  deeper,  sees 
that  that  ignominious  life  commenced  when  he  was  reading  a 
pernicious  book.  It  would  be  easy  to  fill  pages  with  similar  facts. 
"  When  I  see  a  house,"  says  Dr.  Franklin,  "  well  furnished 
with  books  and  newspapers  "  (of  course  he  meant  instructive, 
and  not  mere  partisan  ones),  "  there  I  see  intelligent  and  well- 
informed  children  ;  but,  if  there  are  no  books  nor  papers,  the 
children  are  ignorant,  if  not  profligate."  It  has  been  fre- 
quently remarked  by  observing  men,  that  towns  in  which  good 
libraries  have  been  established  show  a  population  of  intelli- 


REPORT   FOR    1839.  45 

gence  superior  to  that  of  towns  where  none  has  existed.  In  a 
number  of  towns,  recent  attempts  to  establish  libraries  for 
grown  people  have  utterly  failed.  The  men  and  women,  not 
having  acquired  a  taste  for  useful  reading  when  children,  have 
lost  it  for  life.  Let  the  same  course  be  followed  in  regard  to 
the  present  children,  and  time  is  not  more  certain  to  bring  the 
day  when  they  shall  be  men  and  women,  than  it  is  to  bring  the 
same  feelings  of  indifference  towards  mental  improvement. 
On  the  other  hand,  I  have  never  heard  of  a  well-selected 
library  for  children  which  has  failed  from  their  want  of  inte- 
rest in  it. 

And  iu  what  way,  except  by  furnishing  good  libraries  to  the 
people  at  large,  can  the  reading  of  frivolous  and  useless  books, 
of  novels  of  the  baser  sort,  and  of  that  contaminating  and 
pestilential  class  of  works  which  is  now  hawked  around  the 
country,  creating  moral  diseases,  or  inflaming  and  aggravating 
where  it  finds  them,  be  prevented  ?  These  books  no  law  can 
destroy  or  reach.  No  power  of  persuasion  can  ever  induce 
those  who  have  acquired  a  love  of  reading  them  to  aban- 
don what  gives  them  pleasure,  without  some  equivalent  of 
pleasure  is  proffered  in  its  stead.  But  a  supply  of  good  books 
would  confer  far  more  than  an  equivalent.  It  would  prove  a 
remedy  where  the  disease  exists,  and  an  antidote  where  it 
threatens.  Let  good  books  be  read,  and  the  taste  for  reading 
bad  ones  will  slough  oif  from  the  minds  of  the  young,  like 
gangrened  flesh  from  a  healing  wound.  Nor  will  any  severity 
of  legislative  enactment,  nor  any  vigilance  in  the  administra- 
tion of  the  law,  ever  succeed  iu  the  extirpation  of  gaming, 
shows,  circuses,  theatres,  and  many  low  and  gross  forms  of 
indulgence,  without  the  introduction  of  some  moral  and  intel- 
lectual substitutes. 

For  the  purpose  of  carrying  out  a  plan  of  improvement,  co- 
extensive with  the  wants  of  the  community,  and  with  the  limits 
of  the  State,  no  system  can  be  devised  at  all  comparable  with 
the  existing  arrangement  of  school  districts.  Here  are  corpo- 
rate bodies,  known  to  the  law,  already  organized  and  in  ope- 


46  ANNUAL   REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION.      • 

ration.  The  schoolhouses  are  central  points  of  minute  sub- 
divisions of  territory,  which,  in  the  aggregate,  embrace  every 
inch  of  ground  in  the  State.  There  are  but  few  districts  in 
the  State  which  comprise  more  than  a  space  of  two  miles 
square.  On  an  average,  they  include  less  than  that  extent  of 
territory.  Here,  then,  are  central  points,  at  convenient  dis- 
tances, distributed  with  great  uniformity  all  over  the  Common- 
wealth ;  each  one  with  a  little  group  of  children  —  the  hope 
and  treasure  of  the  State  —  dependent  upon  it  for  all  the 
means  of  public  instruction  they  are  ever  to  enjoy.  And 
these  points,  though  now  emitting  so  dim  and  feeble  a  light, 
may  be  made  luminous  and  radiant,  dispelling  the  darkness, 
and  filling  the  land  with  a  glory  infinitely  above  regal  splen- 
dor. Could  the  children,  who  are  so  widely  scattered  over  the 
surface  of  the  State,  laboring,  even  in  their  tender  years,  upon 
its  hills  and  by  its  water-falls,  —  could  they  assemble,  and 
present  themselves  before  their  rulers,  and  be,  for  a  moment, 
endued  with  a  vision  of  their  coming  fortunes,  and  speak  of 
the  life  of  toil  to  which  most  of  them  have  been  born,  of  their 
poverty  in  the  means  of  self-cultivation,  or,  what  is  worse  than 
poverty,  of  their  indifference  to  it ;  could  they  proclaim  that 
every  passing  day  is  uttering  the  irreversible  oracles  of  their 
fate,  who  could  resist  the  appeal?  And  can  the  thought  of 
such  an  appeal  penetrate  the  heart  with  less  electric  swiftness 
because  they  cannot  make  it? 

Were  any  mode  to  be  now  devised  or  discovered  by  which 
tbe  soil  of  the  State  could  be  made  to  yield  fourfold  its  pres- 
ent harvests,  with  no  additional  labor  or  expense  ;  or  by  which, 
in  some  new  mode  of  applying  water  or  steam  power,  a  given 
expenditure  of  time  and  money  would  return  quadruple  products 
in  value  or  in  quantity,  —  could  there  be  found  a  dissenting 
voice  against  its  immediate  adoption?  Yet  who  will  venture 
to  say  that  one-fourth,  or  even  one-fortieth,  part  of  the  mental 
and  moral  energies  of  our  children  is  now  put  forth  and 
expended  in  the  wisest  direction,  or  for  the  highest  objects? 
Were  the  earth  beneath  us  found  to  be  a  rich  magazine  of 


REPORT   FOR   1839.  47 

mineral  treasures,  how  speedily  would  the  spirit  of  enter- 
prise invest  its  capital  and  ply  its  enginery  in  bringing 
those  treasures  to  light,  and  in  appropriating  them  to  their 
uses !  Why  a  more  contented  wastefulness  of  moral  resources 
than  of  mineral  wealth  ?  Were  there  wide  tracts  of  the  richest 
soils  in  the  State  unreclaimed,  how  soon  would  the  hand  of 
skilful  husbandry  enter  and  till  them,  and  make  them  teem 
with  luxuriant  harvests !  Yet,  in  the  obscurest  corners  of  the 
land,  along  the  by-ways,  and  under  the  humblest  roofs,  there 
is  buried  talent,  and  the  suppressed  power  of  extended  and  god- 
like benevolence.  Could  a  library  containing  popular,  intelli- 
gible elucidations  of  the  great  subjects  of  art,  of  science,  of 
duty,  be  carried  home  to  all  the  children  in  the  Commonwealth, 
it  would  be  a  magnet  to  reveal  the  varied  elements  of  excel- 
lence now  hidden  in  their  souls. 

The  State,  in  its  sovereign  capacity,  has  the  deepest  interest 
in  this  matter.  If  it  would  spread  the  means  of  intelligence 
and  self-culture  over  its  entire  surface,  making  them  diffusive 
as  sunshine,  causing  them  to  penetrate  into  every  hamlet  and 
dwelling,  and,  like  the  vernal  sun,  quickening  into  life  the 
seeds  of  usefulness  and  worth,  wherever  the  prodigal  hand  of 
Nature  may  have  scattered  them,  it  would  call  into  existence 
an  order  of  men  who  would  establish  a  broader  basis  for  its 
prosperity,  and  give  a  brighter  lustre  to  its  name,  —  who 
would  improve  its  arts,  impart  wisdom  to  its  counsels,  and 
extend  the  beneficent  sphere  of  its  charities.  Yet  not  for  its 
own  sake  only  should  it  assume  this  work.  It  is  a  corollary 
from  the  axioms  of  its  constitution,  that  every  child  born  with- 
in its  borders  shall  be  enlightened.  In  its  paternal  character, 
the  government  is  bound,  even  to  those  who  can  make  no  re- 
quital. Sacredly  is  it  bound  to  develop  all  the  existing  capa- 
cities, and  to  insure  the  utmost  attainable  welfare,  of  that  vast 
crowd  and  throng  of  men,  who,  without  being  known,  during 
life,  beyond  their  neighboring  hills,  —  without  leaving  any 
enduring  name  behind  them  after  death,  still,  by  their  life-long 
industry,  fill  up,  as  it  were,  drop  by  drop,  the  mighty  stream 


48  ANNUAL    REPORTS    ON    EDUCATION. 

of  the  country's  prosperity.  In  the  heart  of  this  multitude 
dwell  capacities  of  good,  and  possibilities  of  evil,  wholly  tran- 
scending the  power  of  finite  imagination  to  conceive.  Here 
are  an  inconceivable  extent  and  magnitude  of  interests,  sympa- 
thies, obligations  ;  here  are  all  the  great  instincts  of  humani- 
ty, working  out  their  way  to  a  greater  or  less  measure  of  good, 
according  to  the  light  they  enjoy  ;  and,  compared  with  this 
wide  and  deep  mass  of  unrecorded  life,  all  that  emerges  into 
history  and  is  seen  of  man  is  as  nothing.  To  a  superior  being, 
to  whom  the  world  appears  as  it  really  is,  —  whose  eve  can 
see  through  it  and  round  it,  —  the  substance  of  its  weal  and  woe 
lies  here  ;  and  ought  not  the  means  of  knowledge,  and  die  in- 
citements and  the  aids  to  virtue,  to  be  co-exteusive  with  this 
vast  expanse  and  depth  of  wants  and  responsibilities  ? 

Again :  it  is  believed  that  no  barbarous  nation  has  ever  been 
known  to  history,  —  amongst  whom  any  form  of  government 
had  been  established,  —  which  had  not  adopted  specific  meas- 
ures to  educate  the  heir  of  sovereignty  for  the  discharge  of  his 
regal  duties.  And  can  the  obligation  to  prepare  for  the  respon- 
sibilities attendant  upon  power  be  less,  where  all  the  citizens, 
instead  of  one,  are  born  to  the  inheritance  of  sovereignty  ?  By 
our  institutions,  the  political  rights  of  the  father  descend  to  his 
sons  in  course  of  law.  But  the  intellectual  and  moral  qualifi- 
cations necessary  for  the  discreet  use  of  those  rights  are  in- 
transmissible by  virtue  of  any  statute.  These  are  personal, 
not  hereditary ;  and  are,  therefore,  to  be  taught  anew  and 
learned  anew  by  each  successive  generation.  Hence,  as  the 
work  of  education  is  never  done,  the  means  of  education  should 
never  be  withheld ;  as  the  former  must  be  continually  re- 
newed, the  latter  must  as  continually  be  supplied. 

The  instruction  and  pleasure  which  the  parents  themselves 
would  experience  from  the,  establishment  of  a  good  library  in 
their  respective  districts  are  too  important  to  be  forgotten,  and 
yet  are  so  obvious  as  to  need  only  a  passing  reference. 

It  seems  to  be  the  unanimous  opinion  of  the  teachers  of  all 
schools,  whether  public  or  private,  that  a  School  Library  would 


REPORT   FOR   1839.  49 

be  a  most  valuable  auxiliary  in  interesting  children  in  their  stud- 
ies. It  would  inspire  the  young  with  the  desire  to  learn,  that 
they  might  prepare  themselves  to  enjoy  what  they  saw  was 
prized  by  others.  Several  of  the  rudimental  studies  could  be 
invested,  to  the  eye  of  the  pupil,  with  new  interest  and  use- 
fulness by  its  means.  If  the  facts  or  sentiments  contained  in 
the  reading-lessons  could  be  illustrated  or  enlivened  by  some 
explanation  or  anecdote  from  the  library,  it  would  often  convert 
a  mechanical  routine  into  a  living  exercise.  If,  when  the  schol- 
ars come  to  the  name  of  Socrates  or  Luther  or  Howard,  they 
could  turn  to  a  Biographical  Dictionary,  and  find  a  summary  of 
the  lives  and  deeds  of  these  men,  and  ascertain  their  place  in 
chronology  and  in  geography,  it  would  give  a  sense  of  reality 
to  the  business  of  the  school,  while,  at  the  same  time,  it  would 
acquaint  them  with  important  facts.  And  so  of  ancient  or  for- 
eign customs  and  manners,  of  memorable  events,  of  remarkable 
phenomena  in  Nature,  &c.  Pupils,  who,  in  their  reading,  pass 
by  names,  references,  allusions,  without  searching,  at  the  time, 
for  the  facts  they  imply,  not  only  forego  valuable  information, 
which  they  may  never  afterwards  acquire,  but  they  contract  a 
habit  of  being  contented  with  ignorance.  Under  the  influence 
of  such  a  habit,  the  ardent  desire  for  knowledge,  which  Nature 
kindles  in  the  breast  of  children,  will  soon  be  extinguished,  and 
they  will  come  to  resemble  the  irrational  creation,  which,  with- 
out thought  or  emotion,  passes  by  objects  of  the  greatest  curi- 
osity and  wonder. 

Again :  access  to  some  library  seems  indispensable,  in  all 
schools  where  any  attention  is  paid  to  composition.  The  ability 
to  express  ideas  in  writing,  with  vigor  and  perspicuity,  is  now 
deemed  so  valuable,  that,  in  many  places,  Composition  has  been 
added  to  the  list  of  Common-school  studies.  But  the  earlier 
exercises  of  children,  in  composing  (however  it  may  be  with 
the  later),  can  consist  of  little  more  than  rendering  other  men's 
thoughts  in  their  own  language.  If  the  most  distinguished 
authors  desire  to  consult  books  before  they  attempt  the  discus- 
sion of  great  subjects,  then  to  require  children  to  write  compo- 


50  ANNUAL   REPORTS   ON  EDUCATION. 

sition,  without  supplying  them  with  some  resources  whence  to 
draw  their  materials,  is  absurdly  to  suppose,  not  only  that  they 
are  masters  of  a  select  and  appropriate  diction  in  which  to 
clothe  their  thoughts  and  feelings,  but  also  that  they  possess  a 
degree  of  originality  which  even  the  ablest  writers  do  not 
claim. 

For  these  and  other  reasons,  some  of  the  most  judicious  and 
successful  teachers  have  carried  into  school  any  little  collection 
of  books  belonging  to  themselves,  and  have  realized  great  bene- 
fit from  it.  Such  collections,  however,  must  generally  be 
scanty,  and  can  rarely,  if  ever,  be  the  most  appropriate  and 
useful ;  besides,  such  a  practice  is,  at  least,  liable  to  misuse. 
But  a  well-selected  library,  —  such  as  that  which  is  now  in  a 
course  of  preparation  under  the  auspices  of  the  Board,  — 
in  which  all  possible  respect  is  paid  to  the  right  of  private 
judgment  on  questions  concerning  which  an  unhappy  differ- 
ence of  opinion  prevails  amongst  the  best  men  in  the  commu- 
nity, —  such  a  library  would  avoid  all  danger,  and  increase 
every  benefit.  Every  legitimate  excitement  or  encouragement 
brought  to  bear  upon  our  children  in  the  schools,  not  only  quick- 
ens progress,  but  diminishes  the  occasion  for  discipline. 

Finally,  from  all  I  have  heard  and  learned,  it  is  my  belief 
that  the  Legislature  can  do  no  one  thing  which  shall  be  so  ac- 
ceptable to  the  friends  of  Common-school  education  in  Massa- 
chusetts, as  to  devise  some  plan  by  which  a  school  library  shall 
be  placed  in  every  district  school  in  the  State.  By  the  accom- 
plishment of  an  object  so  permanently  useful,  they  will  win  not 
only  a  sincere,  but  a  lasting  gratitude.  Many  of  the  districts 
are  small ;  and  without  some  assistance,  they  may  not,  for  a 
long  time,  perhaps  never,  obtain  a  library  by  their  own  means. 
When  we  consider  that  the  average  number  of  all  the  scholars, 
in  all  the  public  schools,  is  less  than  fifty  for  each,  and  also 
how  many  large  schools  there  are  in  Boston  and  other  cities, 
and  in  the  central  districts  of  large  towns,  we  shall  at  once  per- 
ceive how  many  small  schools  there  must  be.  In  the  majority 
of  instances,  the  small  schools  are  in  the  exterior  districts  of  the 


REPORT   FOR    1839.  51 

towns.  They  draw  but  little  money,  because  of  the  small  num- 
ber of  scholars  which  they  contain.  Hence,  they  have  short 
schools,  and  seldom  give  large  compensation  to  teachers.  The 
fact  that  the  schools  are  small  proves  that  the  lands  of  the  dis- 
trict are  not  very  fertile,  and  also  that  it  is  not  a  place  of  much 
trade  or  business ;  otherwise  the  population  would  be  denser 
and  the  schools  larger.  Their  means,  therefore,  cannot  be  very 
abundant ;  and  hence  the  necessity  for  assistance.  There  is 
another  consideration  which  must  have  great  weight  with  all, 
who  desire,  as  far  as  practicable,  to  furnish  equivalents  for 
natural  disadvantages.  The  project  of  libraries  for  schools  has 
lately  been  so  much  discussed,  and  has  found  such  general  favor 
with  the  public,  that  rich  and  populous  school  districts  will  not 
long  remain  without  them.  This  class  of  large  and  wealthy 
districts  have  much  the  largest  schools  ;  they  are  able  to  offer 
more  liberal  compensation  to  teachers  ;  and  if,  in  addition  to 
these  advantages,  they  possess  libraries  also,  while  the  districts 
less  favorably  circumstanced  in  point  of  wealth  and  population 
are  destitute  of  them,  the  inequality  of  condition  and  privi- 
leges already  existing  will  be  still  further  increased.  Every 
well-wisher  of  his  kind  will  more  cordially  co-operate  in  meas- 
ures which  bring  forward  those  who  are  in  the  rear,  than  with 
measures  which  still  carry  farther  onward  those  already  in  ad- 
vance. Poverty  ought  never  to  be  a  bar  against  the  attainment 
of  that  degree  of  knowledge  which  is  necessary  for  the  intelli- 
gent performance  of  every  duty  in  life. 

After  the  munificent  endowment  by  the  State  of  two  of  its 
colleges,  and  many  of  its  academies,  it  is  thought  that  the  time 
has  arrived  when  something  should  be  done  for  the  broader  insti- 
tution of  the  schools.  Whatever  claims  may  be  made  by  the 
friends  of  colleges  and  academies  in  their  behalf,  they  cannot 
deny  that  the  Common  School  is  still  more  important,  because 
on  this  basis  the  welfare  of  the  whole  people  more  immediately 
rests.  When  the  State  endowed  its  first  university,  and  visited 
it  from  time  to  time,  for  almost  two  centuries,  with  substantial 
proofs  of  its  liberality,  it  surely  did  not  mean  to  establish  a  law 


52  AXSUAL   REPORTS   ON    EDUCATION. 

of  primogeniture  in  its  favor,  and  to  disinherit  the  younger 
members  of  the  family,  that  is,  the  Common  Schools.  It  is 
expected,  too,  by  the  friends  of  the  schools  throughout  the 
State,  that  those  who  have  received  benefits  and  enjoyed  the 
honors  of  a  university  education,  —  which  is  claimed  to  exert 
a  harmonizing  and  liberalizing  effect  upon  the  mind  and  char- 
acter, —  will  not  themselves  refute  the  claim  by  a  want  of 
liberality  towards  the  only  institutions  where  the  masses  can 
be  benefited. 

Amongst  all  the  letters  which  I  have  received  on  the  subject 
of  libraries,  not  one  man  in  his  individual  capacity,  and  but 
one  board  of  school-committee  men,  has  questioned  their  desira- 
bleness and  utility.  And  the  reason  assigned  in  the  latter 
case  was,  that  the  town  to  which  the  committee  belonged 
already  possessed  a  sufficient  number  of  books  accessible  to  all 
its  inhabitants.  The  conventions  held  in  the  different  coun- 
ties have  approved  and  recommended  the  plan  by  votes,  which, 
with  two  exceptions,  had  not  a  dissenting  voice  ;  and  in  neither 
of  the  excepted  cases  was  there  more  than  half  a  dozen  nega- 
tive votes.  Probably  so  entire  a  unanimity  would  not  be  found 
to  exist  on  any  other  subject  whatever. 

In  view  of  these  facts  and  considerations,  I  cannot  close  this 
Report  without  suggesting  to  the  Board  the  expediency  of  in- 
viting the  special  attention  of  the  Legislature  to  this  subject, 
as  one  which  has  an  important  bearing  upon  the  welfare  of  the 
present  age,  and  a  bearing  still  more  important  upon  the  wel- 
fare of  coming  generations. 

.  .  .  On  inspecting  the  laws  of  the  Commonwealth  which 
provide  for  public  instruction,  two  grand  features  stand  con- 
spicuously forth  ;  viz.,  that  the  benefits  of  a  Common-school 
education  shall  be  brought  within  the  reach  of  every  child  iu 
the  State,  however  poor ;  and  that  the  property  of  the  State 
shall  support  a  system  of  schools  adequate  to  confer  this  uni- 
versal education.  These  provisions  are  fundamental  and  or- 
ganic. They  have  been  in  existence  from  the  very  infancy  of 
the  colony,  —  a  period  of  about  two  centuries,  —  during  all 


REPORT   FOR    1839.  53 

which  time  the  statute-book  furnishes  no  instance  of  their 
repeal  or  modification.  The  mode  of  administration  has  been 
changed,  but  not  the  original  basis  of  the  system.  The  prin- 
ciples have  reigned  supreme  throughout,  that  the  property  of 
the  citizens,  whether  it  represented  children  or  not,  should  sup- 
port the  schools  ;  and  that  all  children,  whether  they  repre- 
sented property  or  not,  should  possess  the  means  of  education. 

.  .  .  The  advantages  of  Union  Schools  may  be  briefly 
stated  under  the  following  heads  :  —  1.  Economy  of  the  plan. 
2.  Management  and  Discipline. 

.  .  .  The  plan  of  Union  Districts  commends  itself,  on  the 
score  of  economy,  to  every  man  who  desires  to  make  a  given 
amount  of  money  accomplish  more  good,  or  to  derive  an 
equal  amount  of  good  from  less  money.  In  my  Report  on 
Schoolhouses,  pp.  30,  31,  it  is  arithmetically  proved,  that, 
where  four  districts  can  be  united  for  this  purpose,  a  given 
sum  of  money,  which  now  sustains  four  summer  schools 
taught  by  females,  and  four  winter  schools  taught  by  males, 
only  four  months  each,  would,  under  the  proposed  arrange- 
ment, maintain  the  four  summer  schools  six  months  each,  and 
a  winter  school  eight  months  instead  of  four ;  would  give  the 
master  $35  a  month  instead  of  $25,  and  would  still  leave  in 
the  treasury  an  unexpended  balance  of  $20.  The  demonstra- 
tion as  to  the  economy  of  the  plan  being  there  wrought  out, 
and  open  to  the  inspection  of  any  one  who  will  examine  it, 
I  leave  this  topic  with  a  single  statement  illustrative  of  the 
necessity  of  adopting  some  immediate  and  efficient  remedy. 
In  my  circuit  last  autumn  through  a  part  of  the  State  which  I 
had  not  visited  before,  I  saw  six  schoolhouses  all  situated  on 
the  same  road,  the  extreme  ones  of  which  were  but  a  mile 
and  a  half  .apart,  and  of  course  only  three-fourths  of  a  mile 
from  a  central  point.  In  these  the  uniform  practice  had  been 
to  employ  six  females  in  summer  and  six  males  in  winter. 
And  thus,  as  it  regards  the  winter  schools,  the  wages  and 
board  of  six  men  had  been  paid,  and  fuel  for  six  fires  provided, 
when  one  male  principal,  who  might  liave  received  and  been 


54  ANNUAL  REPORTS   ON  EDUCATION. 

worthy  of  the  most  liberal  salary,  —  with  suitable  female  assist- 
ants if  necessary,  —  might  have  accomplished  ten  times  the  good 
at  a  greatly  reduced  expense.  All  this  was  acknowledged  as 
soon  as  pointed  out,  and  assurances  of  a  change  gratefully 
given.  How  great  would  be  the  gain,  if  the  spirit  of  economy, 
which  is  so  often  active  at  the  town-meeting  when  the  money  for 
schools  is  granted,  could  be  transferred  to  its  expenditure  by  a 
wiser  mode  of  appropriation  ! 

In  regard  to  management  and  discipline,  a  more  trying  situa- 
tion, to  a  person  of  judgment  and  good  feelings,  cannot  well  be 
conceived,  than  that  of  having  the  sole  charge  of  a  school  of 
sixty,  seventy,  or  eighty  scholars,  of  all  ages,  where  he  is 
equally  exposed  to  censure  for  the  indulgences  that  endanger 
good  order,  and  for  the  discipline  that  enforces  it.  One  of  the 
inquiries  contained  in  the  circular  letter  to  the  school  commit- 
tees, in  1838,  was  respecting  the  ages  of  the  children  attending 
our  public  schools.  By  the  answers,  it  appeared,  that,  in  very 
many  places,  the  schools  were  attended  by  scholars  of  all  ages, 
between  four  years  and  twenty,  and,  in  some  places,  by  those 
between  two  years  and  a  half  and  twenty-five  ;  and  thus  the 
general  regulations  of  the  school,  as  to  order,  stillness,  and  the 
observance  of  a  code  of  fixed  laws,  were  the  same  for  infants 
but  just  out  of  their  cradles,  and  for  men  who  had  been  en- 
rolled seven  years  in  the  militia.  Now,  nothing  can  be  more 
obvious  than  that  the  kind  of  government  appropriate  and 
even  indispensable  for  one  portion  of  these  scholars  was  fla- 
grantly unsuitable  for  the  other.  The  larger  scholars,  with  a 
liberal  recess,  can  keep  their  seats  and  apply  their  minds  for 
three  consecutive  hours.  But  to  make  small  children  sit  both 
dumb  and  motionless,  for  three  successive  hours,  with  the 
exception  of  a  brief  recess  and  two  short  lessons,  is  an  infrac- 
tion of  every  law  which  the  Creator  has  impressed  upon  both 
body  and  mind.  There  is  but  one  motive  by  which  this  violence 
to  every  prompting  of  nature  can  be  committed,  and  that  is  an 
overwhelming,  stupefying  sense  of  fear.  If  the  world  were 
offered  to  these  children  as  a  reward  for  this  prolonged  silence 


REPORT   FOR   1839.  55 

and  inaction,  they  would  spurn  it :  the  deep  instinct  of  self- 
preservation  alone  is  sufficient  for  the  purpose.  The  irrepa- 
rable injury  of  making  a  child  sit  straight  and  silent  and  mo- 
tionless for  three  continuous  hours,  with  only  two  or  three 
brief  respites,  cannot  be  conceived.  Its  effect  upon  the  body 
is  to  inflict  severe  pain,  to  impair  health,  to  check  the  free  cir- 
culations in  the  system  (all  which  lead  to  dwarfislmess), 
and  to  misdirect  the  action  of  the  vital  organs,  which  leads  to 
deformity.  In  regard  to  the  intellect,  it  suppresses  the  activity 
of  every  faculty  ;  and  as  it  is  a  universal  law  in  regard  to  them 
all,  that  they  acquire  strength  by  exercise,  and  lose  tone  and  vigor 
by  inaction,  the  inevitable  consequence  is,  both  to  diminish  the 
number  of  thing?  they  will  be  competent  to  do,  and  to  disable 
them  from  doing  this  limited  number  so  well  as  they  otherwise 
might.  lu  regard  to  the  temper  and  morals,  the  results  are  still 
more  deplorable.  To  command  a  child  whose  mind  is  furnished 
with  no  occupation  to  sit  for  a  long  time  silent  in  regard  to  speech, 
and  dead  in  regard  to  motion,  when  every  limb  and  organ  aches 
for  activity ;  to  set  a  child  down  in  the  midst  of  others,  whose 
very  presence  acts  upon  his  social  nature  as  irresistibly  as  gravi- 
tation acts  upon  his  body,  and  then  to  prohibit  all  recognition  of 
or  communication  with  his  fellows,  —  is  subjecting  him  to  a 
temptation  to  disobedience,  which  it  is  alike  physically  and 
morally  impossible  he  should  wholly  resist.  What  observing 
person  who  has  ever  visited  a  school  where  the  laws  of  bodily 
and  mental  activity  were  thus  violated  has  failed  to  see  how 
keenly  the  children  watch  the  motions  of  the  teacher ;  how 
eagerly,  the  first  moment  when  his  face  is  turned  from  them, 
or  any  person  or  object  intervenes  to  screen  them  from  his 
view,  they  seize  upon  the  occasion  to  whisper,  laugh,  chaffer, 
make  grimaces,  or  do  some  other  thing  against  the  kuo\vu  laws 
of  the  school?  Every  clandestine  act  of  this  kind  cultivates 
the  spirit  of  deception,  trickery,  and  fraud  ;  it  leads  to  the  for- 
mation, not  of  an  open  and  ingenuous,  but  of  a  dissembling, 
wily,  secretive  character.  The  evil  is  only  aggravated  when 
the  teacher  adopts  the  practice  of  looking  out  under  his  eye- 


56  ANNUAL    REPORTS    OX   EDUCATION. 

brows,  as  it  is  called,  or  of  glancing  at  them  obliquely,  or  of 
•wheeling  suddenly  round,  in  order  to  detect  offenders  in  the 
act  of  transgression.  Such  a  course  is  a  practical  lesson  in 
artifice  and  stratagem,  set  by  the  teacher ;  and  the  conse- 
quence is,  that  to  entrap  on  the  one  side  and  elude  on  the  other 
soon  becomes  a  matter  of  rivalry  and  competition  between 
teacher  and  pupils.  Probably  it  is  within  the  recollection  of 
most  persons,  that,  after  the  close  of  some  school-terms,  both 
teacher  and  pupils  have  been  heard  to  boast,  —  the  one  how 
many  he  had  insuared,  the  others  how  often  they  had  escaped  ; 
thus  presenting  the  spectacle  of  the  moral  guide  of  our  youth, 
and  the  moral  subjects  of  his  charge,  boasting  of  mutual  cir- 
cumvention and  disiugenuousness. 

Teachers  who  manage  schools  with  a  due  observance  of  those 
laws  with  which  the  Creator  has  pervaded  the  human  system. 
are  accustomed,  when  scholars  have  become  restless  and  uneasy, 
to  send  them  out  to  run,  or  in  some  way  to  take  exercise,  un- 
til the  accumulation  of  muscular  and  nervous  energy,  which 
prompted  their  uneasiness,  is  expended.  They  will  then  return 
to  the  schoolroom  to  sit  with  composure,  or  to  study  with 
diligence  and  vigor. 

I  have  deemed  this  matter  of  so  much  consequence,  and 
have  found,  in  some  places,  such  inveterate  false  habits  and 
modes  of  thinking  respecting  it,  that  I  have  desired  to  fortify 
my  own  views  by  those  of  gentlemen  whose  authority  none 
will  venture  to  question.  Accordingly,  I  have  obtained  the 
opinions  of  some  of  the  most  eminent  physicians  and  physiolo- 
gists in  the  State,  and  have  selected  three  from  the  number  to 
be  placed  in  the  Appendix.* 

The  remedies  for  these  various  evils  are  the  establishment 
of  Union  Schools,  wherever  the  combined  circumstances  of 
territory  and  population  will  allow  ;  the  consolidation  of  two 
or  more  districts  into  one,  where  the  union  system  is  impracti- 

*  The  letters  referred  to  are  from  Dr.  S.  B.  Woodard,  Principal  of  the  State 
Lunatic  Hospital  at  Worcester;  Dr.  James  Jackson,  of  Boston  ;  and  Dr.  S.  G. 
Howe,  Principal  of  the  Perkins  Blind  Institution,  South  Boston.  They  entirely 
coulirm  Mr.  Mann's  views. 


REPORT   FOR    1839.  57 

cable ;  and,  Avhere  the  population  is  so  sparse  as  to  prevent 
either  of  these  courses,  there  to  break  in  upon  the  routine  of 
the  school,  either  by  confining  the  young  children  for  a  less 
number  of  hours,  or  by  giving  to  them  two  recesses  each  half- 
day.  The  health  of  the  body  must  be  preserved,  because  it  is 
the  only  medium  through  which  the  brightest  intellect  and  the 
purest  morals  can  bless  the  world. 

If  it  were  possible  to  measure  or  gauge  the  quantity  and 
quality  of  instruction  which  the  teacher  could  give  under  the 
union  system,  compared  with  that  which  he  can  give  in  a 
school  composed  of  scholars  of  all  ages,  and  in  all  stages  of 
advancement,  no  further  proof  in  favor  of  a  classification  of 
the  children  into  divisions  of  older  and  younger  would  be 
needed.  ,  A  teacher  well  versed  in  the  better  modes  of  instruc- 
tion, which  are  beginning  to  be  adopted,  will,  in  most  branches, 
teach  each  one,  of  a  class  of  twenty,  more  in  the  same  time 
than  he  could  teach  any  one  individual  of  the  same  class. 
What  an  accession  to  his  usefulness,  that  is,  to  the  improve- 
ment of  the  children,  would  thus  be  gained !  And  is  it  not  an 
unpardonable  waste  of  means,  where  it  can  possibly  be  avoided, 
to  employ  a  man,  at  $25  or  $30  a  month,  to  teach  the  alpha- 
bet, when  it  can  be  done  much  better,  at  half-price,  by  a 
female  teacher? 

The  Union  School  is  found  to  improve  all  the  schools  in  the 
constituent  districts.  The  children  in  the  lower  schools  look 
upward  to  the  higher  with  ambition,  and  labor  more  earnestly, 
that  they  may  be  prepared  to  enter  it.  So  far  as  my  knowl- 
edge extends,  no  districts  which  have  adopted  could  be  induced 
to  abandon  it. 

...  A  brief  consideration  of  a  few  of  the  qualifications 
essential  to  those  who  undertake  the  momentous  task  of 
training  the  children  of  the  State  will  help  us  to  decide  the 
question,  whether  the  complaints  of  the  committees,  in  regard 
to  the  incompetency  of  teachers,  are  captious  and  unfounded ; 
or  whether  they  proceed  from  enlightened  conceptions  of  the 
nature  of  their  duties  and  office,  and  therefore  require  meas- 
ures to  supply  the  deficiency. 


58  ANNUAL   KEPORTS    ON    EDUCATION. 

1st.  One  requisite  is  a  knowledge  of  Common-school 
studies.  Teachers  should  have  a  perfect  knowledge  of  the 
rudimental  branches  which  are  required  by  law  to  be  taught 
in  our  schools.  They  should  understand,  not  only  the  rules, 
which  have  been  prepared  as  guides  for  the  unlearned,  but  also 
the  principles  on  which  the  rules  are  founded,  —  those  princi- 
ples which  lie  beneath  the  rules,  and  supersede  them  in 
practice,  and  from  which,  should  the  rules  be  lost,  they  could 
be  framed  anew.  Teachers  should  be  able  to  teach  subjects, 
not  manuals  merely. 

This  knowledge  should  not  only  be  thorough  and  critical,  but 
it  should  be  always  ready  at  command  for  every  exigency,  — 
familiar  like  the  alphabet,  so  that,  as  occasion  requires,  it  will 
rise  up  in  the  mind  instantaneously,  and  not  need  to  be  studied 
out  with  labor  and  delay.  For  instance  :  it  is  not  enough  that 
the  teacher  be  able  to  solve  and  elucidate  an  arithmetical  ques- 
tion, by  expending  half  an  hour  of  school-time  in  trying  various 
ways  to  bring  out  the  answer  ;  for  that  half-hour  is  an  impor- 
tant part  of  the  school-session,  and  the  regular  exercises  of  the 
school  must  be  shortened  or  slurred  over  to  repair  the  loss. 
Again  :  in  no  school  can  a  teacher  devote  his  whole  and  undi- 
vided attention  to  the  exercises,  as  they  successively  recur. 
Numerous  things  will  demand  simultaneous  attention.  While 
a  class  is  spelling  or  reading,  he  may  have  occasion  to  recall 
the  roving  attention  of  one  scholar ;  to  admonish  another  by 
word  or  look ;  to  answer  some  question  put  by  a  third  ;  or  to 
require  a  fourth  to  execute  some  needed  service.  Now,  if  he 
is  not  so  familiar  with  the  true  orthography  of  every  word, 
that  his  ear  will  instantaneously  detect  an  error  in  the  spelling, 
he  will,  on  all  such  occasions,  pass  by  mistakes  without  notice, 
and  therefore  without  correction,  and  thus  interweave  wrong 
instruction  with  right  through  all  the  lessons  of  the  school. 
If  he  is  not  so  familiar,  too,  both  with  the  rules  of  reading, 
and  with  the  standard  of  pronunciation  for  each  word,  that  a 
wrong  emphasis  or  cadence,  or  a  mispronounced  word,  will  jar 
his  nerves,  and  recall  even  a  wandering  attention,  then  iunu- 


REPORT   FOR    1839.  59 

merable  errors  will  glide  by  his  ovvu  ear  unnoticed,  while  they 
are  stamped  upon  the  minds  of  his  pupils.  These  remarks 
apply  with  equal  force  to  recitations  in  grammar  and  geography. 
A  critical  knowledge  respecting  all  these  subjects  should  be 
so  consciously  present  with  him,  that  his  mind  will  gratefully 
respond  to  every  right  answer  or  sign  made  by  the  scholar, 
and  shrink  from  every  wrong  one,  with  the  quickness  and 
certainty  of  electrical  attraction  and  repulsion.  In  regard  to 
the  last-named  branch,  geography,  a  study  which,  in  its 
civil  or  political  department,  is  constantly  mutable  and  progres- 
sive, the  teacher  should  understand,  and  be  able  to  explain, 
any  material  changes  which  may  have  occurred  since  the  last 
edition  of  his  text-book  ;  as,  for  instance,  the  erection  of  Iowa 
into  a  territorial  government  by  the  last  Congress  ;  or,  during 
the  last  year,  the  restitution  of  Syria  to  the  Turkish  govern- 
ment through  the  intervention  of  the  Four  European  Powers. 
This  establishment  of  a  link  between  past  events  and  present 
times,  this  realization  of  things  as  lately  done  or  now  doing, 
sheds  such  a  strong  light  upon  a  distant  scene,  as  makes  it 
appear  to  be  near  us,  and  thus  gives  to  all  the  scholars  a  new 
and  inexpressible  interest  in  their  lessons. 

However  much  other  knowledge  a  teacher  may  possess,  it 
is  uo  equivalent  for  a  mastership  in  the  rudiments.  It  is  not 
more  true  in  architecture  than  in  education,  that  the  value  of 
the  work  in  every  upper  layer  depends  upon  the  solidity  of  all 
beneath  it.  The  leading,  prevailing  defect  in  the  intellectual 
department  of  our  schools  is  a  want  of  thoroughness,  —  a 
proneness  to  be  satisfied  with  a  verbal  memory  of  rules,  instead 
of  a  comprehension  of  principles,  with  a  knowledge  of  the 
names  of  things,  instead  of  a  knowledge  of  the  things  them- 
selves ;  or,  if  some  knowledge  of  the  things  is  gained,  it  is 
too  apt  to  be  a  knowledge  of  them  as  isolated  facts,  and  unac- 
companied by  a  knowledge  of  the  relations  which  subsist 
between  them,  and  bind  them  into  a  scientific  whole.  That 
knowledge  is  hardly  worthy  of  the  name,  which  stops  with 
things,  as  individuals,  without  understanding  the  relations 


60  ANNUAL    REPORTS    ON   EDUCATIONS7. 

existing  between  them.  The  latter  constitutes  indefinitely  the 
greater  part  of  all  human  knowledge.  For  instance,  all  the 
problems  of  plane  geometry,  by  which  heights  and  distances 
are  measured,  and  the  contents  of  areas  and  cubes  ascertained, 
are  based  upon  a  few  simple  definitions  which  can  be  committed 
to  memory  by  any  child  in  half  a  day.  With  the  exception  of 
the  comets,  whose  number  is  not  known,  there  are  but  thirty 
bodies  in  the  whole  solar  system.  Yet,  on  the  relations  which 
subsist  between  these  thirty  bodies  is  built  the  stupendous 
science  of  astronomy.  How  worthless  is  the  astronomical 
knowledge  which  stops  with  committing  to  memory  thirty 
names  ! 

At  the  Normal  School  at  Barre  during  the  last  term  the 
number  of  pupils  was  about  fifty.  This  number  might  have 
been  doubled  if  the  visitors  would  have  consented  to  carry  the 
applicants  forward  at  once  into  algebra  and  chemistry  and 
geometry  and  astronomy,  instead  of  subjecting  them  to  a  thor- 
ough review  of  Common-school  studies.  One  of  the  most  cheer- 
ing auguries  in  regard  to  our  schools  is  the  unanimity  with  which 
the  committees  have  awarded  sentence  of  condemnation  against 
the  practice  of  introducing  into  them  the  studies  of  the  univer- 
sity to  the  exclusion  or  neglect  of  the  rudimeutal  branches.  By 
such  a  practice  a  pupil  foregoes  all  the  stock  of  real  knowledge 
he  might  otherwise  acquire  ;  and  he  receives,  in  its  stead,  only 
a  show  or  counterfeit  of  knowledge,  which,  with  all  intelligent 
persons,  only  renders  his  ignorance  more  conspicuous.  A 
child's  limbs  are  as  well  fitted  in  point  of  strength  to  play  with 
the  planets  before  he  can  toss  a  ball,  as  his  rniud  is  to  get  any 
conception  of  the  laws  which  govern  their  stupendous  motions 
before  he  is  master  of  common  arithmetic.  For  these  and  simi- 
lar considerations,  it  seems  that  the  first  intellectual  qualification 
of  a  teacher  is  a  critical  thoroughness,  both  in  rules  and  prin- 
ciples, in  regard  to  all  the  branches  required  by  law  to  be  taught 
in  the  Common  Schools  ;  and  a  power  of  recalling  them  in  any 
of  their  parts  with  a  promptitude  and  certainty  hardly  inferior 
to  that  with  which  he  could  tell  his  own  name. 


REPORT   FOR    1839.  61 

• 

2d.  The  next  principal  qualification  in  a  teacher  is  the  art  of 
teaching.  This  is  happily  expressed  in  the  common  phrase, 
aptness  to  teach,  which  in  a  few  words  comprehends  many  par- 
ticulars. The  ability  to  acquire,  and  the  ability  to  impart,  are 
wholly  different  talents.  The  former  may  exist  in  the  most  lib- 
eral measure  without  the  latter.  It  was  a  remark  of  Lord 
Bacon,  that  "  the  art  of  well-delivering  the  knowledge  we  pos- 
sess is  among  the  secrets  left  to  be  discovered  by  future  genera- 
tions." Dr.  Watts  says,  "  There  are  some  very  learned  men 
who  know  much  themselves,  but  who  have  not  the  talent  of 
communicating  their  knowledge."  *  Indeed,  this  fact  is  not 
now  questioned  by  any  intelligent  educationist.  Hence  we  ac- 
count for  the  frequent  complaints  of  the  committees,  that  those 
teachers  who  had  sustained  an  examination  in  an  acceptable 
manner  failed  in  the  schoolroom  through  a  want  of  facility  in 
communicating  what  they  knew.  The  ability  to  acquire  is  the 
power  of  understanding  the  subject-matter  of  investigation. 
Aptness  to  teach  involves  the  power  of  perceiving  how  far  a 
scholar  understands  the  subject-matter  to  be  learned,  and  what, 
in  the  natural  order,  is  the  next  step  he  is  to  take.  It  involves 
the  power  of  discovering  and  of  solving  at  the  time  the  exact 
difficulty  by  which  the  learner  is  embarrassed.  The  removal 
of  a  slight  impediment,  the  drawing  aside  of  the  thinnest  veil 
which  happens  to  divert  his  steps  or  obscure  his  vision,  is  worth 
more  to  him  than  volumes  of  lore  on  collateral  subjects.  How- 
much  does  the  pupil  comprehend  of  the  subject?  What  should 
his  next  step  be  ?  Is  his  mind  looking  towards  a  truth  or  an  er- 
ror ?  The  answer  to  these  questions  must  be  intuitive  in  the  per- 
son who  is  apt  to  teach.  As  a  dramatic  writer  throws  himself 
successively  into  the  characters  of  the  drama  he  is  composing,  that 
he  may  express  the  ideas  and  emotions  peculiar  to  each  ;  so  the 

*  While  writing  this  paragraph,  I  received  the  fifth  report  of  the  Glasgow 
Educational  Society's  Normal  Seminary  for  1839.  It  contains  the  following: 
"  There  is  perhaps  no  mistake  so  fatal  to  the  proper  education  anJ  training  of 
youth  as  the  practical  error  of  imagining,  that,  because  a  man  possesses  knowl- 
edge, therefore  he  will  be  able  to  communicate  it.  The  knowledge  of  a  Xew- 
ton  or  a  Bacou  would  avail  little  without  a  proper  mode  of  communication." 


G2  ANNUAL   REPORTS    ON   EDUCATION. 

• 

mind  of  a  teacher  should  migrate,  as  it  were,  into  those  of  his 
pupils,  to  discover  what  they  know  and  feel  and  need  ;  and  then, 
supplying  from  his  own  stock  what  they  require,  he  should  re- 
duce it  to  such  a  form,  and  bring  it  within  such  a  distance,  that 
they  can  reach  out  and  seize  aud  appropriate  it.  He  should 
never  forget  that  intellectual  truths  are  naturally  adapted  to  give 
intellectual  pleasure  ;  and  that,  by  leading  the  minds  of  his  pu- 
pils onward  to  such  a  position  in  relation  to  these  truths  that 
they  themselves  can  discover  them,  he  secures  to  them  the  natu- 
ral reward  of  a  new  pleasure  with  every  new  discovery,  which 
is  one  of  the  strongest  as  well  as  most  appropriate  incitements 
to  future  exertion. 

Aptness  to  teach  includes  the  presentation  of  the  different 
parts  of  a  subject  in  a  natural  order.  If  a  child  is  told  that 
the  globe  is  about  twenty-five  thousand  miles  in  circumference, 
before  he  has  any  conception  of  the  length  of  a  mile  or  of  the 
number  of  units  in  a  thousand,  the  statement  is  not  only  utterly 
useless  as  an  act  of  instruction,  but  it  will  probably  prevent 
him  ever  afterwards  from  gaining  an  adequate  idea  of  the  sub- 
ject. The  novelty  will  be  gone,  and  yet  the  fact  unknown. 
Besides,  a  systematic  acquisition  of  a  subject  knits  all  parts  of 
it  together,  so  that  they  will  be  longer  retained  and  more  easily 
recalled.  To  acquire  a  few  of  the  facts  gives  us  fragments 
only  ;  and  even  to  master  all  the  facts,  but  to  obtain  them  pro- 
miscuously, leaves  what  is  acquired  so  unconnected  and  loose 
that  any  part  of  it  may  be  jostled  out  of  its  place  and  lost,  or 
remain  only  to  mislead. 

Aptness  to  teach,  in  fine,  embraces  a  knowledge  of  methods  aud 
processes.  These  are  indefinitely  various.  Some  are  adapted 
to  accomplish  their  object  in  an  easy  and  natural  manner  ;  oth- 
ers in  a  toilsome  aud  circuitous  one  ;  others,  again,  may  accom- 
plish the  object  at  which  they  aim  with  certainty  and  despatch, 
but  secure  it  by  inflicting  deep  and  lasting  injuries  upon  the 
social  aud  moral  sentiments.  We  are  struck  with  surprise  on 
learning,  that,  but  a  few  centuries  since,  the  feudal  barons  of 
Scotland,  in  running  out  the  lines  around  their  extensive  do- 


REPORT   FOR    1839.  63 

mains,  used  to  take  a  party  of  boys,  and  whip  them  at  the  differ- 
ent posts  and  landmarks  in  order  to  give  them  a  retentive  mem- 
ory as  witnesses  in  case  of  future  litigation  or  dispute.  Though 
this  might  give  them  a  vivid  recollection  of  localities,  yet  it 
would  hardly  improve  their  ideas  of  justice,  or  propitiate  them 
to  bear  true  testimony  in  favor  of  the  chastiser.  But  do  not 
those  who  have  no  aptness  to  teach  sometimes  accomplish  their 
objects  by  a  kindred  method  ? 

He  who  is  apt  to  teach  is  acquainted,  not  only  wfti  common 
methods  for  common  minds,  but  with  peculiar  methods  for 
pupils  of  peculiar  dispositions  and  temperaments  ;  and  he  is 
acquainted  with  the  principles  of  all  methods  whereby  he  can 
vary  his  plan  according  to  any  difference  of  circumstances. 
The  statement  has  been  sometimes  made,  that  it  is  the  object  of 
Normal  Schools  to  subject  all  teachers  to  one  inflexible,  immuta- 
ble course  of  instruction.  Nothing  could  be  more  erroneous  ; 
for  one  of  the  great  objects  is  to  give  them  a  knowledge  of  modes 
as  various  as  the  diversity  of  cases  that  may  arise,  that,  like  a 
skilful  pilot,  they  may  not  only  see  the  haven  for  which  they 
are  to  steer,  but  know  every  bend  in  the  channel  that  leads  to  it. 
No  one  is  so  poor  in  resources  for  difficult  emergencies  as  they 
may  arise  as  he  whose  knowledge  of  methods  is  limited  to  the 
one  in  which  he  happened  to  be  instructed.  It  is  in  this  wray 
that  rude  nations  go  on  for  indefinite  periods,  imitating  what 
they  have  seen,  and  teaching  only  as  they  were  taught. 

3d.  Experience  has  also  proved  that  there  is  no  necessary  con- 
nection between  literary  competency,  aptness  to  teach,  and  the 
power  to  manage  and  govern  a  school  successfully.  They  are 
independent  qualifications  ;  yet  a  marked  deficiency  in  any  one 
of  the  three  renders  the  others  nearly  valueless.  In  regard  to 
the  ordinary  management  or  administration  of  a  school,  how 
much  judgment  is  demanded  in  the  organization  of  classes,  so 
that  no  scholar  shall  either  be  clogged  and  retarded,  or  hurried 
forward  with  injudicious  speed,  by  being  matched  with  an  un- 
equal yoke-fellow  !  Great  discretion  is  necessary  in  the  assign- 
ment of  lessons,  in  order  to  avoid,  on  the  one  hand,  such  short- 


(34  ANNUAL    REPORTS    ON   EDUCATION. 

ness  in  the  tasks  as  allows  time  to  be  idle  ;  and,  on  the  other, 
such  over-assignments  as  render  thoroughness  and  accuracy  im- 
practicable, and  thereby  so  habituate  the  pupil  to  mistakes  and 
imperfections,  that  he  cares  little  or  nothing  about  committing 
them.  Lessons,  as  far  as  it  is  possible,  should  be  so  adjusted 
to  the  capacity  of  the  scholar,  that  there  should  be  no  failure  in 
a  recitation  not  occasioned  by  culpable  neglect.  The  sense  of 
shame,  or  of  regret  for  ignorance,  can  never  be  made  exquisitely 
keen,  if  the  lessons  given  are  so  long,  or  so  difficult,  as  to  make 
failures  frequent.  When  "  bad  marks,"  as  they  are  called, 
against  a  scholar,  become  common,  they  not  only  lose  their 
salutary  force,  but  every  addition  to  them  debases  his  charac- 
ter, and  carries  him  through  a  regular  course  of  training  which 
prepares  him  to  follow  in  the  footsteps  of  those  convicts  who 
are  so  often  condemned,  that,  at  length,  they  care  nothing  for  the 
ignominy  of  the  sentence.  Yet  all  this  may  be  the  legitimate 
consequence  of  being  unequally  mated  or  injudiciously  tasked. 
It  is  a  sad  sight,  in  any  school,  to  see  a  pupil  marked  for  a  de- 
ficiency, without  any  blush  of  shame,  or  sign  of  guilt ;  and  it  is 
never  done  with  impunity  to  his  moral  character. 

The  preservation  of  order,  together  with  the  proper  despatch 
of  business,  requires  a  mean  between  the  too  much  and  the  too 
little,  in  all  the  evolutions  of  the  school,  which  it  is  difficult  to 
hit.  When  classes  leave  their  seats  for  the  recitation-stand, 
and  return  to  them  again,  or  when  the  different  sexes  have  a 
recess,  or  the  hour  of  intermission  arrives,  if  there  be  not 
some  order  and  succession  of  movement,  the  school  will  be  tem- 
porarily converted  into  a  promiscuous  rabble,  giving  both  the 
temptation  and  the  opportunity  for  committing  every  species  of 
indecorum  and  aggression.  In  order  to  prevent  confusion,  on 
the  other  hand,  the  operations  of  the  school  may  be  conducted 
with  such  militfiry  formality  and  procrastination,  —  the  second 
scholar  not  being  allowed  to  leave  his  seat  until  the  first  has 
reached  the  door,  or  the  place  of  recitation,  and  ouch  being 
made  to  walk  on  tiptoe  to  secure  silence, — -that  a  substantial 
part  of  every  school  session  will  be  wasted  in  the  wearisome 
pursuit  of  an  object  worth  nothing  when  obtained. 


REPORT   FOR    1839.  65 

When  we  reflect  how  many  things  are  to  be  done  each  half- 
day,  and  how  short  a  time  is  allotted  for  their  performance,  the 
necessity  of  system  in  regard  to  all  the  operations  of  the  school 
will  be  apparent.  System  compacts  labor  ;  and  when  the  hand 
is  to  be  turned  to  an  almost  endless  variety  of  particulars,  if 
system  does  not  preside  over  the  whole  series  of  movements,  the 
time  allotted  to  each  will  be  spent  in  getting  ready  to  perform 
it.  With  lessons  to  set ;  with  so  many  classes  to  hear ;  with 
difficulties  to  explain  ;  with  the  studious  to  be  assisted ;  the 
idle  to  be  spurred ;  the  transgressors  to  be  admonished  or 
corrected ;  with  the  goers  and  comers  to  observe ;  —  with  all 
these  things  to  be  done,  no  considerable  progress  can  be  made, 
if  oue  part  of  the  wheel  is  not  coming  up  to  the  work  while 
another  is  going  down.  And  if  order  do  not  pervade  the  school 
as  a  whole,  and  In  all  its  parts,  all  is  lost :  and  this  is  a  very 
difficult  thing ;  for  it  seems  as  though  the  school  were  only  a 
point,  rescued  out  of  a  chaos  that  still  encompasses  it,  and  is 
ready  on  the  first  opportunity  to  break  in  and  re-occupy  its  an- 
cient possession.  As  it  is  utterly  impracticable  for  any  commit- 
tee to  prepare  a  code  of  regulations  co-extensive  with  all  the 
details  which  belong  to  the  management  of  a  school,  it  must  be 
left  with  the  teacher ;  and  hence  the  necessity  of  skill  in  this 
item  of  the  long  list  of  his  qualifications. 

The  government  and  discipline  of  a  school  demands  qualities 
still  more  rare,  because  the  consequences  of  error  in  these  are 
still  more  disastrous.  What  caution,  wisdom,  uprightness,  and 
sometimes  even  intrepidity,  are  necessary  in  the  administration 
of  punishment !  After  all  other  means  have  been  tried,  and 
tried  in  vain,  the  chastisement  of  pupils  found  to  be  otherwise 
incorrigible  is  still  upheld  by  law  and  sanctioned  by  public 
opinion.  But  it  is  the  last  resort,  the  ultimate  resource,  ac- 
knowledged on  all  hands  to  be  a  relic  of  barbarism,  and  yet 
authorized  because  the  community,  although  they  feel  it  to  be  a 
great  evil,  have  not  yet  devised  and  applied  an  antidote. 
Through  an  ignorance  of  the  laws  of  health,  a  parent  may 
so  corrupt  the  constitution  of  his  child  as  to  render  poison  a 

5 


66  ANNUAL    REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

necessary  medicine  ;  and,  through  an  ignorance  of  the  laws  of 
mind,  he  may  do  the  same  thing  in  regard  to  punishment. 
"When  the  arts  of  health  and  of  education  are  understood, 
neither  poison  nor  punishment  will  need  to  be  used,  unless  in 
most  extraordinary  cases.  The  discipline  of  former  times  was 
inexorably  stern  and  severe ;  and,  even  if  it  were  wished,  it  is 
impossible  now  to  return  to  it.  The  question  is,  what  can  be 
substituted,  which,  without  its  severity,  shall  have  its  efficiency? 
But  how  important  is  the  relation  in  which  a  teacher  stands 
towards  a  supposed  offender !  If  the  grounds  of  suspicion  are 
presumptive  only,  how  nice  the  balance  of  judgment  in  which 
they  should  be  weighed,  lest,  on  the  one  hand,  injustice  be  done 
by  bringing  a  false  accusation  against  the  innocent ;  or  lest,  on 
the  other,  a  real  offender  should  escape  through  mistaken  con- 
fidence and  charity  !  If  there  be  sufficient  ground  to  put  a  pupil 
upon  trial,  the  teacher  in  his  own  pei-son  combines  the  charac- 
ters of  the  law-maker,  by  whom  the  rule,  supposed  to  be  trans- 
gressed, was  enacted ;  of  the  counsel  who  examines  the  wit- 
nesses ;  of  the  jury  who  decides  upon  the  facts  ;  and  of  the  judge 
interpreting  his  own  law,  and  awarding  sentence  according  to 
his  own  discretion.  And,  after  all  this,  he  is  the  executive  offi- 
cer, inflicting  the  penalty  himself  has  awarded,  unless  that  pen- 
alty is  remitted  by  the  pardoning  power,  which  also  resides  in 
him.  Often,  too,  this  representative  or  depositary  of  so  many 
functions  is  himself  the  person  supposed  to  be  offended  ;  and 
thus  he  presents  the  spectacle  of  a  party  in  interest  trying  his 
own  cause,  and  avenging  his  own  insults  against  his  own  dig- 
nity. If  he  suffers  the  out-door  consequences  of  inflicting  pun- 
ishment to  enter  his  mind,  his  fears  will  become  his  counsellors, 
and  they  will  be  as  false  as  his  pride.  This  specification  is  not 
given  for  the  purpose  of  excepting  to  that  usage  which  makes 
the  teacher  the  sovereign  of  the  schoolroom,  but  only  to  show 
what  danger  of  error  there  must  be  when  teachers  are  employed 
who  have  had  neither  experience  nor  instruction,  and  whose 
judgment  years  have  not  yet  begun  to  ripen.  Are  there  not 
teachers  to  whom  all  the  children  in  the  district  are  intrusted 


REPORT   FOR    1839.  67 

for  their  education,  and  for  all  the  momentous  and  enduring  in- 
terests connected  with  that  word,  to  whom  scarcely  a  parent  in 
the  district  would  surrender  the  care  and  management  of  his 
own  children  for  the  same  length  of  time?  Yet  how  much  less 
incapable  would  the  teacher  be  of  governing  and  controlling  a 
family  of  five  or  six  children  than  a  school  of  fifty  or  sixty  ! 
Every  child  ought  to  find  at  school  the  affection  and  the  wis- 
dom which  he  has  left  at  home  ;  or,  if  he  has  left  neither  wis- 
dom nor  affection  at  home,  there  is  so  much  more  need  that  he 
should  find  them  at  school. 

A  school  should  be  govei'ned  with  a  steady  hand,  not  only 
during  the  same  season,  but  from  year  to  year ;  substantially 
the  same  extent  of  indulgence  being  allowed,  and  the  same  re- 
strictions imposed.  It  is  injurious  to  the  children  to  alternate 
between  the  extremes  of  an  easy  and  a  sharp  discipline.  It  is 
unjust  also  for  one  teacher  to  profit  by  letting  down  the  disci- 
pline of  a  school,  and  thus  throw  upon  his  successor  the  labor 
of  raising  it  up  to  its  former  level. 

4th.  In  two  words  the  statute  opens  to  all  teachers  an  exten- 
sive field  of  duty,  by  ordaining  that  all  the  youth  in  the  schools 
shall  be  taught  "  good  behavior."  The  framers  of  the  law  were 
aware  how  rapidly  good  or  bad  manners  mature  into  good  or 
bad  morals  ;  they  saw  that  good  manners  have  not  only  the 
negative  virtue  of  restraining  from  vice,  but  the  positive  one  of 
leading,  by  imperceptible  gradations,  towards  the  practice  of 
almost  all  the  social  virtues.  The  effects  of  civility  or  discour- 
tesy, of  gentlemanly  or  ungentlemanly  deportment,  are  not 
periodical  or  occasional,  merely,  but  of  constant  recurrence  ; 
and  all  the  members  of  society  have  a  direct  interest  in  the 
manners  of  each  of  its  individuals  ;  because  each  one  is  a  radi- 
ating point,  the  centre  of  a  circle  which  he  fills  with  pleasure  or 
annoyance,  not  only  for  those  who  voluntarily  enter  it,  but  for 
those,  who,  in  the  promiscuous  movements  of  society,  are  caught 
within  its  circumference.  Good  behavior  includes  the  elements 
of  that  equity,  benevolence,  conscience,  which,  in  their  great 
combinations,  the  moralist  treats  of  in  his  books  of  ethics,  and 


68  ANNUAL    REPORTS    ON   EDUCATION. 

the  legislator  enjoins  in  his  codes  of  law.  The  schoolroom 
and  its  playground,  next  to  the  family  table,  are  the  places 
where  the  selfish  propensities  come  into  most  direct  collision 
with  social  duties.  Here,  then,  a  right  direction  should  be 
given  to  the  growing  mind.  The  surrounding  influences  which 
are  incorporated  into  its  new  thoughts  and  feelings,  and  make 
part  of  their  substance,  are  too  minute  and  subtle  to  be  received 
in  masses  like  nourishment ;  they  are  rather  imbibed  into  the 
system  unconsciously  by  every  act  of  respiration,  and  are  con- 
stantly insinuating  themselves  into  it  through  all  the  avenues  of 
the  senses.  If,  then,  the  manners  of  the  teacher  are  to  be  imi- 
tated by  his  pupils,  if  he  is  the  glass  at  which  they  "  do  dress 
themselves,"  how  strong  is  the  necessity  that  lie  should  under- 
stand those  nameless  and  innumerable  practices  in  regard  to 
deportment,  dress,  conversation,  and  all  personal  habits,  that 
constitute  the  difference  between  a  gentleman  and  a  clown  ! 
We  can  bear  some  oddity  or  eccentricity  in  a  friend  whom  we 
admire  for  his  talents  or  revere  for  his  virtues ;  but  it  becomes 
quite  a  different  thing  when  the  oddity  or  the  eccentricity  is  to 
be  a  pattern  or  model  from  which  fifty  or  a  hundred  children 
are  to  form  their  manners.  It  was  well  remarked  by  the  ablest 
British  traveller  who  has  ever  visited  this  country,  that,  amongst 
us,  ''  every  male  above  twenty-one  years  of  age  claims  to  be  a 
sovereign.  He  is,  therefore,  bound  to  be  a  gentleman." 

5th.  On  the  indispensable,  all-controlling  requisite  of  moral 
character,  I  have  but  a  single  suggestion  to  make  in  addition 
to  those  admirable  views  on  this  subject  which  are  scattered  up 
and  down  through  the  committees'  reports.  This  suggestion 
relates  to  the  responsibility  resting  on  those  individuals  who 
give  letters  of  recommendation  or  certificates  of  character  to 
candidates  for  schools.  Probably  one-half,  perhaps  more, 
of  all  the  teachers  in  the  State  are  comparatively  strangers  in 
the  respective  place  where  they  are  employed.  Hence  the  ex- 
amining committee,  in  the  absence  of  personal  knowledge,  must 
rely  upon  testimonials  exhibited  before  them.  These  consist  of 
credentials  brought  from  abroad,  which  are  sometimes  obtained 


REPORT   FOR    1839.  69 

through  the  partialities  of  relationship,  interest,  or  sect ;  or 
even  given  lest  a  refusal  should  be  deemed  an  unneighborly  act, 
and  the  applicant  should  be  offended  or  alienated  by  a  repulse. 
But  are  interests  of  such  vast  moment  as  the  moral  influence  of 
teachers  upon  the  rising  generation  to  be  sacrificed  to  private 
considerations  of  relationship  or  predilection,  or  any  other  self- 
ish or  personal  motive  whatever?  It  may  be  very  agreeable  to 
a  person  to  receive  the  salary  of  a  teacher,  but  this  fact  has  no 
tendency  to  prove  his  fitness  for  the  station  :  if  so,  the  poor- 
house  would  be  the  place  to  inquire  for  teachers ;  and  what 
claim  to  conscience  or  benevolence  can  that  man  have  who 
jeopards  the  permanent  welfare  of  fifty  or  a  hundred  children 
for  the  private  accommodation  of  a  friend?  In  regard  to  pecu- 
niary transactions,  it  is  provided  by  the  laws  of  the  land,  that 
whoever  recommends  another  as  responsible  and  solvent  be- 
comes himself  liable  for  the  debts  which  may  be  contracted, 
under  a  faith  in  the  recommendation,  should  it  prove  to  have 
been  falsely  given.  The  recommendation  is  held  to  be  a  war- 
ranty ;  and  it  charges  its  author  with  all  its  losses  incurred, 
within  the  scope  of  a  fair  construction.  It  is  supposed  that, 
without  tliis  responsibility,  the  expanded  business  of  trade  and 
commerce  would  be  restricted  to  persons  possessing  a  mutual 
knowledge  of  each  other's  trustworthiness  or  solvency.  But 
why  should  the  precious  and  enduring  interests  of  morality  be 
accounted  of  minor  importance,  and  protected  by  feebler  secu- 
rities than  common  traffic?  Why  should  the  man  Avho  has 
been  defrauded  by  an  accredited  peddler  have  his  remedy  against 
the  guarantor,  while  he  who  is  instrumental  in  inflicting  upon 
a  district,  and  upon  all  the  children  in  a  district,  the  curse  of  a 
dissolute,  vicious  teacher,  escapes  the  condign  punishment  of 
general  execration?  In  the  contemplation  of  the  law,  the 
school  committee  are  sentinels  stationed  at  the  door  of  every 
schoolhouse  in  the  State  to  see  that  no  teacher  ever  crosses  its 
threshold  who  is  not  clothed,  from  the  crown  of  his  head  to  the 
sole  of  his  foot,  in  garments  of  virtue  ;  and  they  are  the  ene- 
mies of  the  human  race,  —  not  of  contemporaries  only,  but  of 


70  ANNUAL    REPORTS    OX   EDUCATION. 

posterity,  —  who,  from  any  private  or  sinister  motive,  strive  to 
put  these  sentinels  to  sleep  in  order  that  one  who  is  profane  or 
intemperate,  or  addicted  to  low  associations,  or  branded  with  the 
ptigma  of  any  vice,  may  elude  the  vigilance  of  the  watchmen,  and 
be  installed  over  the  pure  minds  of  the  young  as  their  guide 
and  exemplar.  If  none  but  teachers  of  pure  tastes,  of  good 
manners,  of  exemplary  morals,  had  ever  gained  admission  into 
our  schools,  neither  the  schoolrooms  nor  their  appurtenances 
would  have  been  polluted  as  some  of  them  now  are  with  such 
ribald  inscriptions,  and  with  the  carvings  of  such  obscene  em- 
blems, as  would  make  a  heathen  blush.  Every  person,  there- 
fore, who  indorses  another's  character,  as  one  befitting  a  school 
teacher,  stands  before  the  public  as  his  moral  bondsman  and 
sponsor,  and  should  be  held  to  a  rigid  accountability. 

It  will  ever  remain  an  honor  to  the  Commonwealth  of  Mas- 
sachusetts, that  among  all  the  reports  of  its  school  committees 
for  the  last  year,  so  many  of  which  were  voluminous  and  de- 
tailed, and  a  majority  of  which  probably  were  prepared  by 
clergymen  belonging  to  all  the  various  denominations  in  the 
State,  there  was  not  one  which  advocated  the  introduction  of 
sectarian  instruction  or  sectarian  books  into  our  public  schools  ; 
while,  with  accordant  views,  —  as  a  single  voice  coming  from  a 
single  heart,  —  they  urge,  they  insist,  they  demand,  that  the 
great  axioms  of  a  Christian  morality  shall  be  sedulously  taught, 
and  that  the  teachers  shall  themselves  be  patterns  of  the  virtues 
they  are  required  to  inculcate. 

The  limits  proper  for  a  report  debar  me  from  pursuing  the 
topics  under  this  head  into  further  detail.  It  may,  however,  be 
briefly  observed,  on  the  one  hand,  that  there  are  some  delin- 
quencies on  the  part  of  a  teacher,  such  as  the  commencement  of  a 
school  without  having  submitted  to  an  examination  by  the  com- 
mittee as  required  by  law  ;  the  unauthorized  introduction  of 
books  into  the  school  which  are  not  contained  in  the  list  fur- 
nished by  the  committee  ;  and  the  open  disregard  of  directions 
given  by  the  committee  in  respect  to  the  classification  or  man- 
agement of  the  school :  all  or  either  of  which  prove  that  the 


REPORT   FOR   1839.  71 

teacher  is  destitute  of  good  principles,  that  he  is  capable  of  a 
wilful  violation  or  evasion  of  the  laws  of  the  State,  and  which, 
therefore,  demonstrate  his  unfitness  to  fill  a  place  where  a  spirit 
of  subordination  and  of  obedience  to  legitimate  authority  is 
among  the  lessons  to  be  taught  by  practice  as  well  as  by  pre- 
cept. On  the  other  hand,  I  can  only  refer  to  those  eminent 
advantages  which  would  accrue  from  employing  a  teacher,  who, 
in  addition  to  the  qualifications  enumei'ated  in  the  statute-book, 
should  possess  a  mind  filled  with  stores  of  knowledge  collateral 
to  the  branches  pursued  in  the  school ;  so  that  the  pupils  from 
day  to  day  might  not  only  be  enlivened  and  instructed  by  appo- 
site anecdote  and  impressive  illustration,  but  be  led  to  emulate 
the  attainments  which  it  is  their  delight  to  witness  in  him.  So 
too,  if  from  the  extent  of  the  teacher's  acquirements,  and  the 
worth  and  dignity  of  his  character,  his  society  should  be  sought 
by  all  the  families  in  the  neighborhood ;  and,  as  he  visited  from 
house  to  house,  he  should  exhibit  a  living  example  of  those  pow- 
ers of  instructing  and  of  pleasing  which  are  derived  from  intel- 
lectual resources  and  benevolence  of  disposition,  —  he  would  im- 
bue the  youth  of  the  district  with  the  love  of  knowledge  and  the 
desire  of  excellence,  and  thus  lay  the  foundation  of  tastes,  hab- 
its, and  institutions  which  would  shed  their  pure  and  ennobling 
influences  over  a  long  tract  of  future  time.  It  is  an  authentic 
anecdote  of  the  late  Dr.  Nathaniel  Bowditch,  that  when,  at  the 
age  of  twenty-one  years,  he  sailed  on  an  East-Indian  voyage, 
he  took  pains  to  instruct  the  crew  of  the  ship  in  the  art  of  navi- 
gation. Every  sailor  on  board,  during  that  voyage,  became 
afterwards  a  captain  of  a  ship.  Such  are  the  natural  conse- 
quences of  associating  with  a  man  whose  mind  is  intent  upon 
useful  knowledge,  and  whose  actions  are  born  of  benevolence. 

CONSTANCY   AND   PUNCTUALITY   OF   ATTENDANCE. 

.  .  .  After  the  territory  of  the  State  has  been  judiciously  dis- 
tricted, good  schoolhouses  prepared,  the  scholars  all  provided 
both  with  the  requisite  number  and  proper  kinds  of  books,  and 
the  town  has  made  appropriations  sufficiently  liberal  to  com- 


72  ANNUAL   REPORTS    ON   EDUCATION. 

mand  the  services  of  well-qualified  teachers,  —  after  all  these 
preliminaries  have  been  attended  to,  the  poioer  of  money  ceases. 
Up  to  this  point  the  possession  of  property,  and  a  spirit  of  liber- 
ality in  bestowing  it,  are  indispensable  ;  but  here  their  agency  ter- 
minates. The  schools  here  pass,  as  it  were,  under  a  new  juris- 
diction,—  from  material  to  moral  influences  ;  and  if  not  cher- 
ished by  the  latter,  they  might  as  well  have  never  been  founded. 
So  far,  it  is  external  organization,  the  preparation  of  an  out- 
ward form  merely  ;  but  it  is  yet  a  cold,  inert,  dead  mass,  a 
body  of  clay.  A  vitality,  a  genial  warmth,  a  living  principle 
of  energy,  are  now  to  be  infused  and  spread  through  every  fibre 
of  this  organized  frame,  or  all  the  skill  and  cost  which  have  been 
expended  in  its  formation  will  be  lost ;  or  what  is  far  worse, 
and  perhaps  far  more  probable,  that  body  Avill  corrupt,  and  in 
its  corruption  engender  a  thousand  pernicious  forms  of  life. 
Moral  power  is  now  to  be  added  to  pecuniary,  or  the  pecuniary 
had  better  never  have  been  exerted. 

Under  this  head,  the  first  thing  in  the  order  of  time,  if  not 
the  first  in  point  of  importance,  is  the  constant  and  punctual 
attendance  of  the  scholars.  Without  authentic  information  on 
the  subject  of  irregularity  in  attendance,  the  extent  to  which  it 
has  prevailed  would  have  been  wholly  incredible.  According 
to  the  school  census  of  last  year,  the  whole  number  of  children 
in  the  State  between  the  ages  of  four  and  sixteen  was  one  hun- 
dred and  seventy-nine  thousand  two  hundred  and 

sixty-eight 179,268 

The  average  attendance  during  the  summer  of  the 

same  year  (1839-40)  was  ....          92,698 

Do.  during  the  winter  ......         111,844 

Of  the  number  attending  who  were  under  four  years 

of  age,  there  were         ....      7,844 
Do.  over  sixteen  years  of  age  .         .         .    11,834 

19,678 

If  the  children  under  four  years  of  age,  who  at- 
tended school,  are  deducted  from  the  aggregate 
of  attendance  in  summer,  and  those  over  sixteen 


REPORT   FOR   1839.  73 

years  from  the  aggregate  of  attendance  in  win- 
ter, the  average  attendance  of  those  between  four 
and  sixteen  will  stand  thus  :  — 
For  summer         .         .         .         .         .  .          84,854 

For  winter 100,010 

And  allowing  twelve  thousand  as  the  number  of  the  children 
who  derive  their  whole  education  from  academies  and  private 
schools,  and  therefore  are  not  dependent  upon  the  Common 
Schools  at  all,  and  deducting  this  number  from  the  number  of 
children  in  the  State  who  are  between  the  ages  of  four  and  six- 
teen years  (thus  179,268  —  12,000  =  167.268),  and  the  pro- 
portion of  those  who  attend  the  Common  Schools  in  summer, 
compared  with  the  whole  number  dependent  upon  those  schools, 
is  as  84,854  to  167,268,  or  a  very  small  fraction  more  than 
one-half;  and  the  proportion  of  those  who  attend  'the  same 
schools  in  winter,  compared  with  the  whole  number  dependent 
upon  them,  is  as  100,010  to  167,268,  or  about  ten-seventeenths 
only. 

One  striking  aspect  of  this  lamentable  fact  is  the  waste  of 
money  which  it  proves.  The  amount  raised  by  taxes  last  year 
for  teachers'  wages  and  board,  and  fuel  for  the  schools,  was 
8477.221.24.  Of  the  portion  of  this  sum  which  was  expended 
for  the  summer  schools,  about  one-half  was  lost,  and  of  the 
portion  expended  for  the  winter  schools,  about  seven-seven- 
teenths, through  irregularity  in  the  attendance  of  the  scholars  ; 
that  is,  of  the  $477,221.24  raised  for  the  support  of  our  public 
schools,  more  than  two  hundred  thousand  dollars  was  directly 
thrown  away  by  this  voluntary  abandonment  of  privileges. 
Nor,  in  this  computation,  is  any  thing  included  for  interest  on 
the  cost  of  schoolhouses  ;  for  the  loss  of  an  equal  proportion  of 
the  amount  contributed  for  public  schools  (§37,269.74)  ;  for  au 
equal  proportion  also  of  the  income  (about  820,000)  of  the 
State  school  fund  ;  of  the  income  also  (15,270.89)  of  local 
funds  for  public  schools  ;  and  of  such  portions  of  the  income  of 
the  surplus  revenue  as  individual  towns  have  appropriated  for 
the  support  of  the  schools.  Vast,  enormous  as  the  main  item 


74  ANNUAL    REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

of  the  pecuniary  loss  is,  a  proportional  loss  from  these  sources 
(which  in  the  whole  amount  to  more  than  $75,000)  would 
materially  enlarge  it.  If  made  out  with  the  exactness  of  a 
business  account,  it  would  stai-tle  every  business  man  in  the 
community.  Is  it  a  subject  for  less  surprise  and  regret  be- 
cause it  is  an  educational  account?  What  manufacturing  or 
other  business  establishment  could  prosper  if  its  laborers  should 
absent  themselves  for  a  corresponding  proportion  of  the  time? 
What  a  direful  calamity  it  Avould  be  justly  deemed  if  some 
wide-spreading  epidemic  should  visit  the  State  from  year  to 
year,  and  deprive  its  children  of  an  equal  amount  of  their  school 
privileges  !  It  is  well  remarked,  in  one  of  the  reports,  that  the 
promulgation  of  a  law  which  should  deprive  the  children  of  so 
noble  a  boon  would  produce  a  stamp-act  ferment. 

Who,  beforehand,  could  have  deemed  it  possible  that  a  peo- 
ple so  renowned  for  the  virtues  of  frugality  and  economy,  for 
their  skill  in  turning  limited  means  to  a  great  account,  would 
have  tolerated  this  extent  of  wastefulness?  The  fact  can  be 
explained  only  on  the  ground  that  we  were  unaware  of  its  exist- 
ence. A  parent  who  surmounts  no  obstacles  to  get  his  children 
daily  to  school,  or  who  keeps  them  at  home  to  subserve  the  pet- 
tiest convenience,  has  no  conception  how  rapidly  the  column  of 
absences  lengthens,  nor  of  the  amount  of  its  footing  at  the  end 
of  the  term.  He  does  not  see,  that,  for  every  day's  absence  of 
his  child,  so  much  mental  nourishment  is  withheld,  his  growth 
so  much  retarded,  and  that  he  is  preparing  to  send  out  that  child 
into  the  world  an  intellectual  dwarf. 

But,  with  the  industrial  habits  of  our  community,  this  amount 
of  money  can  be  re-earned ;  indeed,  it  bears  no  proportion  to 
the  annual  products  of  our  labor  and  skill.  But  an  item  of  loss 
is  involved  which  neither  labor  nor  skill  can  ever  repair.  The 
time  is  irrevocable.  The  spring-season  of  human  life  once  past 
cannot  be  restored.  The  seed-time  lost,  the  harvest  also  is 
lost.  This  forfeiture  is  without  redemption. 

The  period  during  which,  as  a  general  rule,  our  children  at- 
tend school,  viz.  between  the  ages  of  four  and  sixteen  years, 


REPORT   FOR   1839.  75 

is  twelve  years.  The  proportion  of  twelve  years  correspond- 
ing with  this  amount  of  absences  is  more  than  five  years  ;  and 
therefore  the  children,  on  an  average,  for  so  much  of  the  period 
of  life  that  should  be  sacredly  devoted  to  education,  are  deprived 
of  its  benefits.  It  must  also  be  remembered  that  this  deduction 
is  not  made  from  an  entire  year,  but  from  the  period  of  seven 
months  and  ten  days,  which  was  last  year  the  average  length 
of  the  schools  ;  so  that  schools,  originally  far  too  short,  are  cut 
down  to  a  little  more  than  half  their  apparent  length,  and  so 
much  even  of  a  scanty  mental  subsistence  is  taken  away. 
When  Dr.  Franklin  said,  "  Time  is  money,"  he  referred  to 
adult's  :  with  children,  time  is  more  valuable  than  money  ;  it  is 
education. 

Our  law,  in  establishing  the  legal  age  of  majority,  or  period 
of  emancipation  from  parental  control,  at  twenty-one  years,  has 
followed  the  clear  indications  of  nature.  The  period  of  minor- 
ity and  tutelage  which  precedes  this  age  is  necessary  for  the 
growth  and  preparation  required  for  the  labors  and  duties  of 
manhood.  And  the  indications  of  nature  are  equally  clear  in 
regard  to  the  mind.  The  young  mind  needs  the  instruction  and 
guidance  of  more  mature  minds  ;  it  needs  instruments  and  aids 
which  it  is  incapable  of  preparing  for  itself;  nay,  of  the  very 
existence  of  which  it  is  itself  ignorant  until  the  full  period,  or 
nearly  the  full  period,  of  legal  minority  has  passed.  Were  it 
not  so,  the  young  of  the  human  race  would  have  come  to  their 
bodily  and  mental  maturity,  like  the  young  of  the  inferior  ani- 
mals, at  an  earlier  period,  at  the  end  of  a  month  or  a  year,  or 
at  farthest  at  the  end  of  a  few  years.  It  is  this  extensive  and 
irrevocable  portion  of  early  life,  proved  by  all  observation  arid 
analogy  to  be  so  essential  to  a  preparation  for  the  duties  of  man- 
hood, that  is  withdrawn  ;  and  yet,  when  these  neglected  children 
shall  arrive  at  the  state  of  manhood,  the  duties  belonging  to  that 
state  will  be  required  of  them,  or  society,  in  some  or  in  all  of 
its  relations,  must  suffer  the  penalty. 

The  main  trunk  of  this  evil  of  non-attendance  sends  off  nu- 
merous branches,  each  of  which  is  laden  with  its  own  peculiar 


76  ANNUAL   REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

kind  of  bitter  fruit.  One  effect  is  the  injustice  done  to  the 
teacher.  If  the  register  of  the  school  bears  the  names  of  sev- 
enty different  scholars,  while  the  school  is  reduced  by  absences 
to  an  average  of  fifty,  the  common  inference  is,  that  although 
seventy  is  a  greater  number  than  one  teacher  can  properly  in- 
struct, yet  that  he  must  be  in  fault  if  he  does  not  teach  the  fifty 
in  a  competent  manner,  and  advance  them  at  a  rapid  rate.  And 
yet  a  school  averaging  fifty  scholars,  reduced  to  that  number 
from  seventy  by  absences,  is  far  more  difficult,  both  to  instruct 
and  to  govern,  than  a  school  of  a  hundred,  all  of  whom  attend 
regularly.  A  teacher,  therefore,  ought  to  be  excused,  not 
blamed,  if  he  does  not  carry  a  small  number  of  scholars  rap- 
idly forward  if  the  number  is  made  small  by  irregularity  in 
attendance  ;  yet  those  who  send  their  children  most  irregularly 
are  among  the  first  to  complain  that  they  make  little  progress. 
The  law  (under  a  certain  condition)  requires  the  employment 
of  an  assistant  teacher  in  all  the  public  schools  when  the  aver- 
age number  of  scholars  is  fifty.  But  the  principal  teacher 
needs  an  assistant  quite  as  much  when  a  school  of  fifty  is  re- 
duced to  an  average  of  thirty  by  absences  as  when  it  rises  to 
seventy  by  a  regular  attendance  of  all  the  scholars  belonging 
to  it. 

Again  :  if  parents  keep  a  child  at  home  for  two  or  three  days, 
or  for  three  or  four  half-days,  in  a  week,  he  must,  at  least,  be 
stationary,  while  the  class  to  which  he  belongs  is  advancing. 
Hence,  on  his  return  to  the  school,  he  is  not  in  a  suitable  con- 
dition to  rejoin  his  class.  But,  generally,  there  is  no  other 
class  in  which  he  can  be  placed :  and  the  formation  of  new 
classes  to  meet  these  cases  would  soon  destroy  classification  al- 
together1 ;  because  the  classes  would  soon  become  as  numerous 
as  the  scholars  ;  and  the  school,  which  should  march  onward  in 
regular  divisions,  would  be  reduced  to  a  promiscuous  throng 
of  stragglers.  Unless  in  extraordinary  cases,  therefore,  the 
absent  scholar  must  resume  his  place  in  the  class  ;  but,  as  the 
correct  understanding  of  each  successive  step  in  his  studies  de- 
pends upon  his  having  mastered  the  preceding  steps,  he  is  almost 


REPORT   FOR   1839.  77 

necessarily  incapacitated  for  intelligent  study  and  good  recita- 
tions. Out  of  this  come,  not  merely  loss  of  knowledge,  but  habits 
of  incorrectness.  The  pupil,  accustomed  to  failures  and  mis- 
takes, is  hardened  into  indifference  ;  he  loses  the  greatest  incite- 
ment to  study,  —  the  pleasure  of  understanding  his  lessons  ;  be- 
comes careless,  mischievous,  disobedient ;  draws  down  upon  him- 
self the  displeasure  of  the  teacher,  perhaps  punishment ;  has  all 
his  associations  established,  adverse  to  learning ;  looks  for 
pleasure  elsewhere  ;  is  disgusted  with  the  school ;  and,  as  soon 
as  possible,  forfeits  its  privileges  by  abandonment,  —  the  victim 
of  irregular  attendance. 

The  previous  half-day,  Avhen  a  child  expects  to  be  absent, 
and  the  half-day  after  he  has  been  so,  are  worth  but  little,  even 
with  good  scholars.  A  child  must  have  an  almost  inconceiv- 
able love  of  the  school  to  desire  to  be  there,  when  he  knows 
that  his  ignorance  of  the  lessons  is  to  be  put  in  direct  and  pub- 
lic contrast  with  the  knowledge  of  his  classmates  ;  and  he  must 
have  an  almost  incredible  love  of  knowledge  to  derive  any  grati- 
fication from  the  broken  fragments  of  it  which  he  can  obtain  at 
these  irregular  intervals.  The  spirit  of  pride,  which  would 
prompt  him  to  stay  away  from  the  final  examination  of  the 
school,  lest  he  should  be  questioned  upon  parts  of  a  study 
which  he  had  never  seen,  or  upon  parts  dependent  upon  what 
he  had  never  seen,  would  promise  as  much  for  the  character  of 
the  future  man,  as  the  spirit  of  indifference  that  could  tamely 
bear  the  exposure. 

Irregularity  of  attendance  in  any  one  member  of  a  class  is 
an  act  of  injustice  to  every  other  member  of  it.  After  an 
absence,  whether  longer  or  shorter,  the  pupil,  on  his  return, 
must  inevitably  learn  his  lessons  in  a  very  imperfect  man- 
ner. He  occupies  double  his  share  of  the  time  at  a  recita- 
tion ;  he  requires  double  the  amount  of  explanations  from  the 
teacher  ;  and  these  explanations,  having  been  previously  given, 
are  not  necessary  for  the  others.  Hence,  the  absent  scholars 
are  a  perpetual  clog  upon  the  class.  The  advanced  body  must 
wait,  while  the  laggards  are  coming  up  ;  and  thus  not  only  the 


78  ANNUAL   REPORTS    ON   EDUCATION. 

absentees  themselves,  but  the  reputation  of  the  teacher,  the 
condition  of  the  school,  the  character  of  the  district,  are  all 
made  to  suffer  the  consequences  of  the  guilt  of  unnecessary 
absence. 

The  effects  of  a  want  of  punctuality,  though  less  in  extent, 
are  similar  in  kind  ;  co-existing,  they  are  a  mutual  aggravation. 

But,  without  entering  into  further  detail  respecting  the  losses, 
embarrassments,  and  injustice,  resulting  from  this  common 
delinquency,  it  becomes  a  matter  of  primary  importance  to 
inquire  what  measures  can  be  adopted  to  dry  up  a  fountain  of 
mischief,  which  sends  forth  such  copious  streams. 

The  first  thing  to  be  done  is  to  render  the  schoolhouse,  both 
by  its  external  appearance  and  its  internal  conveniences,  a 
place  of  attraction  ;  or,  at  any  rate,  to  prevent  it  from  being 
a  place  odious  to  the  sight,  and  painful  to  the  bodies  and 
limbs,  of  the  pupils.  The  excuses  and  contrivances  of  the 
children  to  stay  away  from  a  repulsive,  uiihealthful  school- 
house  seem  to  be  preventives,  which  Nature,  in  her  wise 
economy,  has  provided,  to  escape  the  infliction  of  permanent 
evils. 

The  teacher  can  do  much,  in  various  ways,  to  diminish  the 
cases  of  absence  and  tardiness.  When  the  question  is  debated, 
at  the  evening  fire-side  or  at  the  breakfast-table,  whether  a 
child  shall  stay  at  home  or  go  to  school,  the  child  has  a  voice 
and  a  vote,  and  often  the  casting  vote,  in  its  decision.  If  he 
loves  the  school,  he  will  be  an  able  advocate  for  the  expediency 
of  attending  it.  If  errands  or  any  little  household  services 
are  to  be  done,  the  child  will  rise  an  hour  earlier,  or  sit  up  an 
hour  later,  or  bestir  himself  with  greater  activity,  to  accom- 
plish them,  that  he  may  attend  the  school.  For  this  object,  he 
will  forego  a  family  holiday,  postpone  the  reception  or  the 
making  of  a  visit,  endure  summer's  heat,  or  brave  winter's 
cold.  On  the  contrary,  if  the  pupil  looks  towards  the  school 
with  aversion  ;  if  his  heart  sinks  within  him  when  the  name  of 
the  teacher  is  mentioned,  or  his  image  is  excited,  —  then  every 
pretence  for  absence  will  be  magnified,  and  invention  will  be 


REPORT   FOR    1839.  79 

active  in  fabricating  excuses.  In  the  former  case,  he  would 
almost  feign  to  be  well  when  he  was  sick  ;  here,  he  will  feign 
to  be  sick  when  he  is  well.  Hence  it  will  very  often  happen, 
that  the  pleas  or  excuses  of  the  pupil  himself  will  determine 
the  question  of  going  or  staying ;  and  it  depends  primarily 
upon  the  teacher  which  way  this  steady  and  powerful  bias  shall 
incline. 

During  the  first  part  of  the  school-term,  and  while  the 
habits  of  the  pupils  are  forming,  a  skilful  teacher  may  do 
much  towards  inspiring  a  laudable  pride  in  the  scholars,  in 
regard  to  constancy  and  promptness.  He  can  cause  a  public 
opinion  to  be  spread  through  the  school,  that  absence  or  tardi- 
ness, without  the  strongest  reasons,  is  a  stigma  on  the  delin- 
quent, a  dishonorable  abandonment  of  the  post  of  duty.  When 
errors  are  committed,  or  difficulties  felt,  in  consequence  of 
either  of  these  causes,  he  can  point  out  the  relation  between 
the  cause  and  its  effect,  and  warn  against  a  repetition.  To 
save  the  feelings  of  a  child  who  comes  late,  or  after  a  half- 
day's  absence,  and  renders  a  valid  excuse,  he  can  acquit  him 
before  the  school  of  the  apparent  neglect.  He  can  refer  to  the 
state  of  the  Register  in  a  brief  remark  at  the  close  of  the  day ; 
taking  occasion,  if  the  attendance  is  full,  to  commend  the 
scholars  for  it,  —  to  express  his  regret  and  mortification  if  it 
is  not ;  but  always  so  measuring  and  attempering  his  blame 
and  his  praise,  that  none  shall  be  disheartened  by  the  severity 
of  the  former,  and  that  the  latter  shall  not  become  valueless 
by  its  superabundance.  If  regularity  and  punctuality  could  be 
secured,  during  a  four  months'  school,  by  expending  an  entire 
week  in  this  way  at  its  beginning,  the  loss  would  be  repaid 
sevenfold  before  its  close.  If  the  teachers  have  not  consider- 
ation enough  to  speak  on  these  subjects  to  their  pupils,  how 
can  they  expect  that  the  pupils,  unprompted,  will  originate 
proper  views  concerning  their  importance? 

There  is  one  act  of  justice  which  a  teacher,  who  demands 
punctuality,  should  never  fail  of  rendering.  Let  him  observe 
the  golden  rule,  and,  when  he  demands  punctuality  of  his  pupils, 


80  ANNUAL   REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

be  punctual  himself, — punctual,  not  only  in  the  hour  of  com- 
mencing his  school,  but  in  the  hour  of  closing  it.  Pupils  have 
a  sense  of  justice  on  this  subject:  if  the  regular  intermission 
is  an  hour,  and  the  afternoon  session  commences  at  one  o'clock, 
they  want  to  be  dismissed  at  twelve.  In  this  respect,  let  the 
teacher  bestow  what  he  demands,  and  enforce  his  precept  by 
his  example ;  or,  at  least,  when  the  morning  or  the  evening 
hour  arrives  for  dismissing  the  school,  let  him  bring  its 
exercises  to  a  pause,  and  give  his  pupils  an  option  to  retire  or 
to  remain.  Years  of  mere  talk  are  often  lost  upon  children, 
while  a  practical  lesson  is  never  without  its  effect. 

Some  teachers  have  adopted  the  plan  of  sending,  to  the 
parents  and  guardians  of  all  the  scholars,  weekly  reports,  or 
cards,  containing  an  account  of  all  cases  of  absence  or  tardi- 
ness. In  some  instances,  these  cards  contain  also  a  descrip- 
tion of  the  quality  of  recitations,  of  the  general  deportment  of 
the  children,  or  whatever  else  the  teacher  desires  the  parent 
or  guardian  to  be  acquainted  with. 

To  secure  a  prompt  attendance  at  the  opening  of  the  school, 
each  half-day,  some  teachers  make  it  their  practice,  during 
the  first  five  or  ten  minutes  of  the  school,  to  have  an  exer- 
cise in  vocal  music,  or  to  relate  some  useful  and  instruc- 
tive anecdote,  or  to  read  an  interesting  incident  from  a  bio- 
graphy, or  to  give  a  description  of  a  curious  fact  in  natural 
history  ;  or,  where  there  is  apparatus,  to  perform,  occasionally, 
a  striking  experiment,  and  explain  to  what  department  of  busi- 
ness or  the  arts  it  is  related  ;  to  show  the  pupils,  for  instance, 
that,  in  an  exhausted  receiver,  a  feather  falls  as  rapidly  as  a 
stone  ;  that,  without  air,  gunpowder  will  not  burn  ;  how  a 
steam-engine  is  made,  or  a  rainbow  formed.  Why  should  all 
the  curiosity  of  children  be  pent  up  for  months,  to  vent  itself,  at 
last,  on  the  occasion  of  raree-shows,  circus-riding,  or  militia 
musters? 

The  teacher  ought  also  to  visit  the  parents  of  children  who 
attend  irregularly,  and  kindly  and  affectionately  to  expostulate 
with  them  on  the  irremediable  injury  they  are  inflicting  on 


REPORT   FOR    1839.    *  81 

their  offspring,  both  by  the  time  they  lose,  and  the  bad  habits 
they  form. 

In  several  of  the  larger  towns  in  the  State,  the  school-com- 
mittees have  enacted  positive  regulations,  excluding  for  the 
forenoon  or  afternoon  session  all  who  come  late  ;  and  for  the 
residue  of  the  term,  all  who  are  absent,  unless  from  sickness 
or  some  other  disabling  cause,  for  a  fixed  number  of  days  or 
half-days.  There  may  be  some  objections  to  this  course,  — 
such  as  the  fact,  that  truant-dispositioned  boys  may  contrive 
to  be  absent  the  requisite  number  of  days,  or  half-days,  for 
the  very  purpose  of  being  excluded  afterwards ;  but  almost 
any  other  evil  is  less  than  the  combined  influence  of  the 
innumerable  throng  that  follow  in  the  train  of  a  general 
irregularity  and  tardiness.  For  most  of  the  scholars, 
this  last-mentioned  method  is  very  effectual.  It  is  the  practice 
of  many  of  the  lyceums  in  the  State  to  close  the  doors  of  the 
lecture-room  at  a  given  hour ;  and  railroad-cars  and  steam- 
boats have  a  fixed  time  for  starting, — the  consequence  of 
which  is  that  everybody  is  punctual ;  and,  were  all  the  gains 
of  this  punctuality  added  together,  it  would  be  found  that 
years  of  time  are  saved  daily  by  the  regulation. 

Some  towns,  in  order  to  bring  the  force  of  a  pecuniary  mo- 
tive to  bear  upon  the  subject,  distribute  the  school-money 
among  the  districts,  not  in  the  ratio  of  the  children  between 
four  and  sixteen  years  of  age,  but  in  the  ratio  of  their  attend- 
ance upon  the  schools. 

Although  teachers,  as  a  body,  can  do  more  than  any  other 
class  in  the  community  to  abate  the  evils  of  inconstant  and 
tardy  attendance  ;  although  school-committees  can  do  some- 
thing through  the  instrumentality  of  school-regulations,  and 
even  towns  can  make  their  appropriations  of  money  subserve 
the  same  end ;  yet  neither  of  these,  nor  all  of  them  united, 
can  complete  the  work.  The  final,  authoritative  decision,  in 
each  case,  rests  with  parents.  They,  therefore,  should  be 
appealed  to  with  the  most  earnest  and  importunate  solicitations, 
not  to  be  guilty  of  so  great  cruelty  to  their  own  children,  of  so 


82  ANNUAL   REPORTS  ON  EDUCATION. 

great  injustice  towards  the  teacher  and  towards  their  neigh- 
bors, as  to  cause  or  suffer  those  children,  except  in  cases  of 
imperious  necessity,  to  be  absent  from  the  school  a  single  day 
of  the  term  or  a  single  hour  of  the  day.  From  time  imme- 
morial, in  all  schools,  truantship  has  been  regarded  as  a  high 
offence  in  a  pupil,  and  forbidden  under  the  sanction  of  severe 
corporal  punishment ;  but  it  is  difficult  to  see  why  an  unneces- 
sary absence  from  school  at  the  pleasure  of  the  child  is  worse 
than  an  unnecessary  absence  at  the  pleasure  of  the  parent. 
The  real  cause  of  the  difficulty  must  be,  that  parents  are  not 
aware  of  its  existence,  and  of  the  manifold  mischiefs  it  in- 
volves. Until  recently,  even  the  well-informed  friends  of  educa- 
tion were  not  apprised  of  its  magnitude  ;  as,  before  the  use  of 
the  Register,  no  authentic  means  of  making  it  known  existed. 
The  diffusion  of  a  knowledge,  both  of  the  fact  and  of  its  con- 
sequences, cannot  fail  to  produce  a  remedy ;  and  for  this 
purpose,  as  I  have  elsewhere  suggested,  the  reading  of  the 
Abstracts,  at  meetings  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  districts  con- 
vened at  the  schoolhouse,  or  other  convenient  place  ;  the  circu- 
lation of  their  contents  by  means  of  lectures  and  newspapers ; 
the  visitation  of  negligent  parents  by  the  teachers  and  by  the 
committees  ;  together  with  conversations  held,  on  all  proper 
occasions,  by  those  who  know  more  of  the  subject  with  those 
who  know  less,  —  will  be  rapid  and  effectual  means  of  convey- 
ing the  information  to  the  very  individuals  who  need  it,  and 
must  lead,  in  the  end,  to  a  much-needed  reform.  It  is  surpris- 
ing and  cheering  to  know  what  can  be  done  by  the  combined 
and  harmonious  exertions  of  all  to  accomplish  this  object. 
There  were  many  families  of  children,  last  winter,  who  did 
not  miss  a  single  day  in  their  attendance  ;  and  in  one  school, 
although  the  roads  were  almost  impassable  from  snow,  there 
was  scarcely  the  absence  of  a  scholar  during  the  whole  school- 
term. 

If  the  school  is  to  continue  four  months,  and  parents  or 
guardians  cannot  send  their  children  more  than  two  or  three, 
let  them  be  sent  continuously  while  they  are  sent  at  all,  and 


REPORT   FOR    1839.  83 

taken  wholly  from  school  the  residue  of  the  time.  Six  weeks 
of  constant  attendance  is  better  than  three  months  scattered 
promiscuously  over  a  four-months'  school.  So,  if  nine  o'clock 
comes  too  eai'ly  in  the  morning  for  punctual  attendance,  let  the 
school  begin  at  ten,  or  even  at  half-past  ten.  Almost  any 
thing  is  better  for  children  than  to  form  the  pernicious  habit 
of  tardiness,  which,  in  regard  to  the  rights  of  others,  has  all 
the  practical  effect  of  dishonesty,  and  varies  but  a  shade  from 
it  in  the  motive. 

Notwithstanding  the  melancholy  view  of  the  subject  pre- 
sented by  existing  facts,  yet  when  we  consider  the  excessive 
severity  of  the  last  winter  ;  the  depth  of  snow,  which  for  a  long 
period  overspread  all  the  inland  counties,  rendering  the  roads 
nearly  impassable  for  weeks  together ;  and  also  the  fact,  that, 
in  many  places,  children  suffered  to  an  extraordinary  degree 
from  epidemic  sickness,  —  the  average  attendance  was  better  than 
in  former  years.  It  was  not  until  last  year  that  any  return 
was  ever  made  of  the  children  under  four  and  over  sixteen 
years  of  age  attending  the  schools.  The  number  was  found 
to  be  about  twenty  thousand.  Heretofore,  in  comparing  the 
average  number  of  children  in  school  with  the  whole  number 
of  children  in  the  State  between  four  and  sjxteen  years  of 
age,  for  the  purpose  of  ascertaining  what  proportion  of  the 
whole  number  were  in  school,  those  who  were  below  the  age 
of  four,  and  above  that  of  sixteen,  have  been  reckoned  as 
between  four  and  sixteen,  and  thus  have  materially  swelled 
the  apparent  proportion  of  attendants. 

MANIFESTATION    OF    PARENTAL    INTEREST. 

Sovereign,  reigning  over  and  above  all  other  influences  upon 
the  school,  is,  or  rather  might  be,  that  of  the  parents.  The 
father,  when  presiding  at  his  table,  or  returning  home  at  even- 
ing from  the  labors  of  the  day ;  the  mother,  in  that  inter- 
course with  her  children  which  begins  with  the  waking  hour  of 
the  morning  and  lasts  until  the  hour  of  sleep,  —  enjoy  a  continu- 
ing opportunity,  by  arranging  the  affairs  of  the  household  in 


84  ANNUAL    REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

such  a  way  as  to  accommodate  the  hours  of  the  school ;  by 
subordinating  the  little  interests  or  conveniences  of  the  family 
to  the  paramount  subject  of  regular  and  punctual  attendance ; 
by  manifesting  such  an  interest  in  the  studies  of  each  child, 
that  he  will  feel  a  daily  responsibility,  as  well  as  a  daily  en- 
couragement in  regard  to  his  lessons  ;  by  foregoing  an  hour  of 
useless  amusement  or  a  call  of  ceremony,  in  order  to  make  a 
visit  to  the  school ;  by  inviting  the  teacher  to  the  house,  and 
treating  him,  not  as  a  hireling,  but  as  a  wiser  friend  ;  by  a  con- 
scientious care  in  regard  to  their  conversation  about  the  school, 
and  their  award  of  praise  or  blame  ;  in  fine,  by  all  those  count- 
less modes  which  parental  affection,  when  guided  by  reason, 
will  make  delightful  to  themselves,  the  parents  can  inspire 
their  offspring  with  a  love  of  knowledge,  a  habit  of  industry,  a 
sense  of  decorum,  a  respect  for  manliness  of  conduct  and  dig- 
nity of  character,  prophetic  of  their  future  usefulness  and  hap- 
piness and  honor. 

For  one  who  has  not  traversed  the  State,  and  made  himself 
actually  acquainted  with  the  condition  of  the  schools  by  person- 
al inspection  and  inquiry,  it  is  impossible  fully  to  conceive  the 
contrasts  they  now  present.  I  have  no  hope,  therefore,  of  mak- 
ing myself  adequately  understood,  when  I  say,  that  in  contigu- 
ous towns,  and  even  in  contiguous  districts,  activity  and  paraly- 
sis —  it  is  hardly  too  much  to  say  life  and  death  —  are  to  be 
found  side  by  side.  Wherever  a  town  or  district  has  been 
blessed  with  a  few  men,  or  even  with  a  single  mau,  who  had 
intellect  to  comprehend  the  bearings  of  this  great  subject,  and 
a  spirit  to  labor  in  the  work,  there  a  revolution  in  public  senti- 
ment has  been  effected,  or  is  now  going  on.  In  some  districts, 
last  winter,  the  prosperity  of  the  school  became  a  leading  topic 
of  conversation  among  the  neighbors  ;  the  presence  of  visitors, 
from  day  to  day,  cheered  the  scholars  ;  a  public  spirit  grew  up 
among  them,  animating  to  exertion,  and  demanding  courteous, 
honorable,  just  behavior  ;  the  consequence  of  which  was,  that, 
(  by  a  law  as  certain  as  that  light  comes  with  the  rising  of  the  sun, 
!  a  proficiency  surpassing  all  former  example  was  made  ;  and,  when 


REPORT   FOR   1839.  85 

the  schools  drew  to  a  close,  a  crowd  of  delighted  spectators 
attended  the  final  examination,  which,  from  the  interest  and 
the  pleasure  of  the  scene,  was  prolonged  into  the  night.  In  some 
places,  the  visitors  who  did  not  come  early  to  this  examination 
could  not  obtain  admittance  on  account  of  the  crowded  state  of 
the  house  ;  and  in  one,  although  a  cold  and  driving  snow-storm 
lasted  through  the  day,  yet  a  hundred  parents  attended,  whom 
the  inclemency  of  the  weather  could  not  deter  from  being  pres- 
ent to  celebrate  this  harvest-home  of  knowledge  and  virtue  ; 
while  on  the  same  occasion,  in  an  adjoining  town,  perhaps  in 
a  bordering  district,  a  solitary  committee-man  dropped  grudg- 
ingly in  to  witness  a  half-hour  of  mechanical  movements,  got 
up  as  a  mock  representation  of  knowledge,  and  to  look  at  the 
half-emptied  benches  of  the  schoolroom  made  vacant  by  de- 
serters. These  differences  are  not  imaginary,  they  are  real ; 
and  their  proximate  cause  is  the  interest,  or  the  want  of  inter- 
est, manifested  by  the  parents  toward  the  schools. 

It  is  a  celebrated  saying  of  the  French  philosopher  and  edu- 
cationist, Cousin,  that  "  as  is  the  teacher,  so  is  the  school." 
In  regard  to  France  and  Prussia,  where  the  schools  depend  so 
much  upon  the  authority  of  the  government,  and  so  little  upon 
the  social  influences  of  the  neighborhood  where  they  exist,  this 
brief  saying  is  the  embodiment  of  an  important  truth  ;  but, 
with  our  institutions,  there  is  far  less  reason  for  giving  it  the 
currency  and  force  of  a  proverb.  Here,  every  thing  emanates 
from  the  people  :  they  are  the  original ;  all  else  is  copy.  If,  [ 
therefore,  the  transatlantic  maxim,  which  identifies  the  char- 
acter of  the  school  with  that  of  the  teacher,  be  introduced  ' 
amongst  us,  it  must  be  with  the  addition,  that  "  as  are  the 
parents,  so  are  both  teacher  and  school." 

A  visit  to  the   school   by  the   parents  produces   a  salutary 
effect   upon   themselves.     Although  it  is  feeling  which  origi-  1 
nates  and  sends  forth  conduct,  yet  conduct  re-acts  powerfully  I 
upon  feeling ;  and,  therefore,  if  parents  could  be  induced  to 
commence  the  performance  of  this  duty,  they  would  soon  find 
it  not  only  delightful  in  itself,  but  demanded  by  the  force  of 


86  ANNUAL    REPORTS    ON   EDUCATION. 

habit.  Nor  is  it  any  excuse  for  their  neglect,  that  they  are  in- 
capable, in  point  of  literary  attainments,  of  examining  the 
school,  or  of  deciding  upon  the  accuracy  of  recitation.  If 

I  they  have  no  knowledge  to  bestow  in  instruction,  they  all  have 
sympathy  to  give  in  encouragement.  Indeed,  the  children 
must  be  animated  to  exertion  before  they  will  make  any 
valuable  or  lasting  attainment.  This  animation  the  parents 
can  impart,  and  thus  become  the  means  of  creating  a  good 
they  do  not  themselves  possess. 

It  is  surprising  that  the  sagacity  of  parental  love  does  not 
discover  that  a  child,  whose  parents  interest  the  teacher  in  his 
welfare,  will  be  treated  much  better  in  school  than  he  other- 
wise would  be  ;  and  this,  too,  without  the  teacher's  incurring 
the  guilt  of  partiality.  If  the  teacher  is  made  acquainted  with 
l'  the  peculiarities  of  the  child's  disposition,  he  will  be  able  to 
I  manage  him  more  judiciously,  and  therefore  more  successfully, 
'  than  he  otherwise  could  ;  he  will  be  able  to  approach  the  child's 
mind  through  existing  avenues,  instead  of  roughly  forcing  a  new 
passage  to  it ;  and  thus,  in  many  instances,  to  supersede  pun- 
ishment by  mild  measures.  A  wise  physician  always  desires 
to  know  the  constitution  and  habit  of  his  patient  before  he  pre- 
scribes for  his  malady  ;  and  a  parent  who  should  call  a  medical 
practitioner  to  administer  to  a  sick  child,  but  should  refuse  to 
give  him  this  information,  would  be  accounted  insane.  But  are 
the  maladies  of  the  mind  less  latent  and  subtile  and  elusive  than 
those  of  the  body?  and  is  a  less  degree  of  peril  to  be  appre- 
hended in  the  former  case  than  in  the  latter  from  the  prescrip- 
tions of  ignorance?  I  have  been  credibly  informed  of  a  case 
where  a  child  received  a  severe  chastisement  in  school  for  not 
reading  distinctly,  when  the  inarticulateness  was  occasioned  by 
,'  a  natural  impediment  in  his  organs  of  speech.  The  parent  sent 
the  child  to  school  without  communicating  this  fact  to  the 
teacher  ;  and,  under  the  circumstances  of  the  case,  the  teacher 
mistook  the  involuntary  defect  for  natural  obstinacy.  This 
may  seem  an  extreme  case,  and  one  not  likely  to  happen ;  but, 
doubtless,  hundreds  of  similar  though  less  discoverable  ones, 


REPORT   FOR   1839.  87 

in  regard  to  some  mental  or  moral  deficiency,  are  daily  occur- 
ring. Again  :  if  parents  do  not  visit  the  school  until  at  or  near 
its  close,  they  may  then  discover  errors  or  evils  whose  conse- 
quences might  have  been  foreseen  on  an  earlier  visit,  and  thus 
prevented.  It  is  another  fact,  eminently  worthy  of  parental 
consideration,  that  many  young  and  timid  children,  unaccus- 
tomed to  see  persons  not  belonging  to  the  family,  are  almost 
paralyzed  when  first  brought  into  the  presence  of  strangers. 
An  excessive  diffidence  cripples  their  limbs,  and  benumbs  all 
their  senses ;  and  it  is  only  by  their  being  gradually  familiar- 
ized to  company,  that  the  fetters  of  embarrassment  can  be 
stripped  off,  and  the  shy,  downcast  countenance  be  uplifted. 
After  a  few  years  of  neglect,  this  awkwardness  and  shame- 
facedness  become  irremediable  :  they  harden  the  whole  frame, 
as  it  were,  into  a  petrifaction ;  and  their  victim  always  finds 
himself  bereft  of  his  faculties  at  the  very  moment  when  he  has 
most  need  of  freedom  and  vigor  in  their  exercise.  On  the  f 
other  hand,  pert,  forward,  self-esteeming  children,  who  are  un- 
accustomed  to  the  equitable  reciprocities  of  social  intercourse, 
commit  the  opposite  error  of  becoming  rude,  aggressive,  and 
disdainful,  whenever  brought  into  contact  with  society.  Now, 
one  of  the  best  remedies  or  preventives  which  children  can  en- 
joy, both  for  this  disabling  bashfuluess,  and  for  this  spirit  of 
effrontery,  is  the  meeting  of  visitors  in  school,  where  a  pre- 
vious knowledge  of  what  the  occasion  demands  helps  them  to 
behave  in  a  natural  manner,  notwithstanding  the  consciousness 
that  others  are  present ;  und  where  they  are  relieved  from  the 
double  embarrassment  of  thinking  both  what  they  are  to  do, 
and  how  it  should  be  done.  Especially  is  it  necessary  that 
mothers  should  accompany  sensitive  and  timid  children  when 
they  first  go  to  school,  to  obviate  a  distrust  of  the  teacher,  or  a 
fear  of  other  children,  which  might  otherwise  infix  in  the  mind 
a  permanent  repugnance  to  the  place.  Whatever  confers  upon 
the  school  a  single  attraction,  or  removes  from  it  one  feature  of 
harshness,  clears  the  avenue  for  a  more  ready  transmission  of 
knowledge  into  the  pupils'  minds. 


88  ANNUAL   REPORTS   ON  EDUCATION. 

RETROSPECT. NUMBER   AND    COMBINATION    OP   INFLUENCES 

NECESSARY   TO   A   GOOD    SCHOOL. 

In  discussing  the  various  topics  embodied  in  this  Report, 
and  in  pointing  out,  under  each  successive  head,  the  imperfec- 
tions belonging  to  it,  —  imperfections  which  prevent  our  school 
system  from  conferring  those  abundant  and  precious  benefits  it 
is  capable  of  bestowing,  —  I  have  not  been  without  fear  that  my 
remarks  might  seem  to  wear  an  aspect  of  accusation,  and  to 
savor  of  harshness  ;  and  although  it  might  be  admitted  that  no 
just  exception  could  be  taken  to  the  views  presented  on  any 
particular  topic,  still,  that  the  tenor  of  the  whole  might  seem 
too  condemnatory  and  reprehensive.  To  be  the  bearer  of  un- 
welcome tidings  is  proverbially  a  thankless  office  ;  and  the  fidel- 
ity that  tells  a  friend  of  his  faults  is  too  apt  to  forfeit  the  friend- 
ship which  it  should  have  strengthened.  Yet  to  these  general 
rules  there  are  noble  exceptions.  A  wise  man  wishes  to  know 
what  is  wrong  in  his  affairs,  that  he  may  rectify  it ;  and  every 
sincere  lover  of  excellence  rejoices  to  be  made  acquainted  with 
his  faults,  that  he  may  correct  them.  In  commenting,  there- 
fore, upon  what  I  consider  the  imperfections  of  our  system,  in 
good  faith,  and  with  a  single  eye  to  their  removal,  I  have  pro- 
ceeded upon  the  conviction  that  our  people  do  possess  that  wis- 
dom and  that  love  of  excellence  which  desires  to  "  forget  the 
things  which  are  behind,"  and,  in  the  career  of  well-doing,  to 
"  press  forward  to  those  which  are  before  ; "  and  rather  to  de- 
vote their  energies  to  still  higher  achievements  than  ignobly  to 
waste  them  in  vain-glorying  and  self-eulogy.  It  would  have 
been  easy  for  me — and,  could  duty  have  allowed,  it  would 
have  been  delightful  —  to  have  occupied  much  more  time,  and 
to  have  filled  a  much  larger  space,  in  recounting  those  merits 
and  excellences  of  our  system  of  free  schools,  which,  abroad  as 
well  as  at  home,  it  is  acknowledged  to  possess ;  in  pointing  to 
the  bright  train  of  blessings  which,  from  age  to  age,  it  has  been 
the  means  of  conferring  upon  the  people  of  this  State,  which 
it  is  now  conferring,  and,  as  it  remains  steadfast  while  the 


REPORT  FOR    1839.  89 

generations  rise  and  pass  away,  it  promises  still  to  confer  upon 
unborn  millions.     But,  at  best,  the  pleasure  of  self-adulation  is  | 
fleeting,  and  it  leaves  no  abiding  improvement  behind. 

It  should  be  remembered,  too,  that,  in  the  administration  of 
our  system,  a  larger  share  of  power  is  possessed  by  the  people 
than  in  any  other  state  or  country  in  the  world.  If  it  were 
true  here,  that  as  soon  as  any  error  or  deficiency  became 
known  to  the  Legislature,  or  to  any  central  and  supervisory 
body,  they  could  forthwith  issue  an  edict  for  its  correction, 
such  a  summary  mode  of  proceeding  would  supersede  the 
necessity  of  all  explanation.  But,  where  all  measures  of  im- 
provement and  reform  are  to  be  carried  out  by  the  people  at 
large,  it  becomes  necessary  that  they  should  first  be  made 
acquainted  with  the  evils  which  it  is  their  interest  and  duty  to 
remedy ;  and,  for  this  purpose,  I  have  endeavored  faithfully 
to  perform  the  unwelcome  task  of  describing  them. 

The  explanation,  and,  to  some  extent,  the  excuses,  for  the 
deficiencies  here  enumerated,  are  to  be  found  in  the  number 
and  complexity  of  the  parts  whose  combined  and  harmonious 
action  is  essential  to  a  good  school.  We  have  no  other  insti- 
tution where  such  a  confluence  of  favorable  influences  is  neces- 
sary to  the  production  of  the  desired  result ;  nor  have  we  any 
whose  usefulness  is  so  liable  to  be  impaired,  or  even  destroyed, 
by  a  single  adverse  tendency.  A  long  train  of  measures  is 
requisite  to  accomplish  the  end,  and  a  failure  in  any  one  of  the 
series  is  ruin.  If  the  schoolhouse  be  bad,  in  regard  to  its  *"*" 
location  or  internal  construction,  then  not  only  will  the  im- 
provement in  the  children's  minds  be  materially  lessened,  but 
the  healthiness  of  their  bodies  will  be  exposed  to  continual 
danger.  If  the  house  be  otherwise  well  built,  but  deficient  in 
the  single  requisite  of  ventilation,  two-thirds  of  all  the  intel-  v 
lectual  power  of  the  children  will  be  destroyed  at  the  very 
moment  when  they  are  called  upon  to  exercise  it.  In  the  whole 
range  of  science,  no  fact  is  better  established  than  that  the 
breathing  of  impure  air  benumbs  and  stupefies  every  faculty ; 
and,  therefore,  to  call  upon  children  to  study  or  understand 
or  remember,  while  we  give  them  impure  air  for  breathing,  is 


90  ANNUAL   REPORTS    ON   EDUCATION. 

.  as  absurd  as  to  put  fetters  upon  their  limbs  when  we  wish  them 
to  run  swiftly,  or  to  interpose  an  opaque  body  between  their 
eyes  and  any  object  which  we  wish  them  to  see  clearly.  But 
if  the  schoolhouse  be  the  best  that  art  can  build,  yet,  if  the 
^/  town  grants  only  penurious  sums  of  money,  the  school  will  but 
just  begin  when  the  means  of  supporting  it  will  end.  This  is 
the  false  economy  of  saving  in  the  seed,  though  thirty  or  sixty 
or  a  hundred  fold  be  lost  in  the  harvest.  Even  when  the  town 
makes  liberal  grants  of  money,  in  proportion  to  its  valuation 
and  census,  still,  if  it  has  unwisely  divided  its  territory  into 
V  minute  districts,  it  defeats  its  own  liberality  ;  for,  by  attempting 
to  support  so  many  schools  with  disproportionate  means,  it 
gives  an  efficient  support  to  none.  But  with  a  good  school- 
house,  and  with  such  large  and  populous  districts,  or  union 
districts,  as  give  the  multiplying  power  of  union  and  concert 
to  individual  action,  still,  the  employment  of  a  bad  teacher 
will  vitiate  the  whole ;  and  the  place  will  have  been  prepared, 
and  the  money  appropriated,  only  to  gather  the  children  into  a 

,  receptacle,  where  bad  feelings  and  passions,  bad  language  and 
manners,  will  ferment  into  corruption  ;  and,  without  a  good 
prudential  and  superintending  committee,  the  chance  of  secur- 
ing the  services  of  a  good  teacher  becomes  so  small  as  to  elude 
even  a  fractional  expression.  And,  again,  if  the  most  perfect 
teacher  is  obtained,  still  the  scholars  must  be  brought  within 
the  circle  of  his  influence  in  order  to  be  benefited ;  and,  there- 
^/  fore,  absence,  irregularity,  and  tardiness  must  be  prevented, 
or  the  good  teacher  will  have  been  employed  in  vain.  Let  all 
other  influences  be  propitious,  and  the  single  circumstance,  of 
which  so  little  has  heretofore  been  thought,  viz.,  a  diversity  of 

/  class-books  for  scholars  of  similar  ages  and  attainments,  will 
derange  any  operation  of  the  school ;  because  no  perseverance, 
no  fertility  of  resources,  on  the  part  of  the  teacher,  can  carry  it 
forward  if  each  pupil  brings  a  different  book.  The  obstacle 
defies  human  genius.  All  that  reciprocal  aid  and  stimulus  is 
lost  which  the  different  minds  of  a  class  afford  each  other 
when  they  have  once  been  awakened,  and  their  attention  turned 
upon  the  same  point.  To  expect  progress  under  this  embar- 


REPORT   FOR    1839.  91 

rassment  is  as  unreasonable  as  it  would  be  for  a  singing-master  ! 
to  expect  concord  of  sounds  when  all  his  pupils  were  singing 
simultaneously  from  different  notes.     Even  if  all  the  preceding 
arrangements  and  appointments  are  perfect,  it  will  yet  be  true 
that  not   one-half  of  the   capabilities   of   the   school   will  be 
developed,  unless  the  parents  breathe  life  into  the  children  before  , 
they  leave  their  own  door,  and  send  them  to  school  hungering 
and  thirsting  after  knowledge. 

Xow,  all  these  various  agencies  must  work  in  concert,  or 
they  work  in  vain.  When  a  system  is  so  numerous  in  its 
parts,  and  so  complex  in  its  structure  ;  when  the  nice  adjustment 
of  each  and  the  harmonious  working  of  all  are  necessary  to  the 
perfection  of  the  product,  —  all  who  are  engaged  in  its  opera- 
tion must  not  only  have  a  great  extent  of  knowledge,  but  they 
must  be  bound  together  by  a  unity  of  purpose.  Experience 
has  often  proved  how  fatally  powerful  one  ill-disposed  person 
can  be  in  destroying  the  value  of  a  school ;  but  experience  is 
yet  to  prove  what  an  amount  of  corporeal  and  material  well- 
being,  of  social  enjoyment,  of  intellectual  dominion  and  ma- 
jesty, of  moral  purity  and  fervor,  what  an  amount,  in  fine, 
of  both  temporal  and  spiritual  blessedness,  this  institution,  in 
the  providence  of  God,  may  be  the  means  of  conferring  upon 
the  race. 

Experience  is  yet  to  develop  the  grandeur  and  the  glory, 
which,  through  the  exhaustless  capabilities  of  this  institution, 
may  be  wrought  out  for  mankind,  when,  by  the  united  labors 
of  the  wise  and  the  good,  its  elastic  nature  shall  be  so  ex- 
panded as  to  become  capacious  of  the  millions  of  immortal 
beings,  who,  from  the  recesses  of  Infinite  Power,  are  evoked 
into  this  life  as  a  place  of  preparation  for  a  higher  state  of 
existence,  and  whom,  like  a  nursing  mother,  it  shall  receive 
and  cherish,  and  shall  instruct  and  train  in  the  knowledge  and 
the  observance  and  the  love  of  those  divine  laws  and  command- 
ments upon  which  the  Creator,  both  of  the  body  and  the  soul, 
has  made  their  highest  happiness  to  depend. 


REPORT   FOR   1841. 


GENTLEMEN,  — 

.  .  .  THE  declination  of  the  sun  towards  the  southern  tropic 
is  not  more  certainly  followed  by  winter,  with  all  its  blankness 
and  sterility,  nor  does  the  ascension  of  that  luminary  towards 
our  own  part  of  the  heavens  more  certainly  bring  on  summer, 
with  all  its  beauty  and  abundance,  than  does  the  want  or  the 
enjoyment  of  education  degrade  or  elevate  the  condition  of  a 
people.  I  will  occupy  the  short  space  which  propriety  allows 
to  me,  iu  concluding  this  Report,  by  showing  the  effect  of 
education  upon  the  worldly  fortunes  and  estates  of  men, —  its 
influence  upon  property,  upon  human  comfort  and  competence, 
upon  the  outward,  visible,  material  interests  or  well-being  of 
individuals  and  communities. 

This  view,  so  far  from  being  the  highest  which  can  be  taken 
of  the  beneficent  influences  of  education,  may,  perhaps,  be 
justly  regarded  as  the  lowest.  But  it  is  a  palpable  view.  It 
presents  an  aspect  of  the  subject  susceptible  of  being  made 
intelligible  to  all ;  and,  therefore,  it  will  meet  the  case  of 
thousands  who  are  now  indifferent  about  the  education  of  their 
offspring,  because  they  foresee  no  re-imbursement  in  kind, 
no  return  in  money,  or  in  money's  worth,  for  money  ex- 
pended. The  co-operation  of  this  numerous  class  is  iudi^peu- 
sable,  in  order  to  carry  out  the  system ;  and  if  they  can  be 
induced  to  educate  their  children,  even  from  inferior  motives, 
the  children,  when  educated,  will  feel  its  higher  and  nobler 
aftiuities. 

92 


REPORT   FOR    1841.  93 

So,  too,  in  regard  to  towns.  If  it  can  be  proved  that  the 
aggregate  wealth  of  a  town  will  be  increased  just  in  propor- 
tion to  the  increase  of  its  appropriations  for  schools,  the  op- 
ponents of  such  a  measure  will  be  silenced.  The  tax  for  this 
purpose,  which  they  now  look  upon  as  a  burden,  they  will  then 
regard  as  a  profitable  investment.  Let  it  be  shown  that  the 
money  which  is  now  clung  to  by  the  parent,  in  the  hope  of 
iacreasing  his  children's  legacies  some  six  or  ten  per  cent,  can 
be  so  invested  as  to  double  their  patrimony,  and  the  blind 
instinct  of  parental  love,  which  now,  by  voice  and  vote,  op- 
poses such  outlay,  will  become  an  advocate  for  the  most 
generous  endowments.  When  the  money  expended  for  educa- 
tion shall  be  viewed  in  its  true  character,  as  seed-grain  sown 
in  a  soil  which  is  itself  enriched  by  yielding,  then  the  most 
parsimonious  will  not  stint  the  sowing,  lest  the  harvest  also 
should  be  stinted,  and  thereby  thirty,  sixty,  or  a  hundred  fold 
should  be  lost  to  the  garners. 

I  am  the  more  induced  to  take  this  view  of  the  subject, 
because  the  advocates  and  eulogists  of  education  have  rarely, 
if  ever,  descended  to  so  humble  a  duty  as  to  demonstrate  its 
pecuniary  value  both  to  individuals  and  to  society.  They 
have  expended  their  strength  in  portraying  its  loftier  attributes, 
its  gladdening,  refining,  humanizing  tendencies.  They  have 
not  deigned  to  show  how  it  can  raise  more  abundant  harvests, 
and  multiply  the  conveniences  of  domestic  life  ;  how  it  can 
build,  transport,  manufacture,  mine,  navigate,  fortify ;  how, 
in  fine,  a  single  new  idea  is  often  worth  more  to  an  individual 
than  a  hundred  workmen,  and  to  a  nation  than  the  addition 
of  provinces  to  its  territory.  I  have  novel  and  striking  evi- 
dence to  prove  that  education  is  convertible  into  houses  and 
lands,  as  well  as  into  power  and  virtue. 

Although,  therefore,  this  utilitarian  view  of  education,  as  it 
may  be  called,  which  regards  it  as  the  dispenser  of  private 
competence,  and  the  promoter  of  national  wealth,  is  by  no 
means  the  first  which  would  address  itself  to  an  enlightened 
and  benevolent  mind,  yet  it  will  be  found  to  possess  intrinsic 


94  ANNUAL   REPORTS    ON    EDUCATION. 

merits,  and  to  be  worthy  of  the  special  regard,  not  only  of  the 
political  economist,  but  of  the  lawgiver  and  moralist.  Nature 
fastens  upon  us  original  and  inexorable  necessities  in  regard  to 
food,  raiment,  and  shelter.  Though  these  physical  wants  are 
among  the  lowest  that  belong  to  our  being,  yet  there  is  a  view 
of  them  which  is  not  sordid  or  ignoble.  They  must  be  first 
served,  because,  if  denied,  forthwith  the  race  is  extinct.  They 
domineer  over  us  ;  and,  until  supplied,  their  importunate  clamor 
will  drown  every  appeal  to  higher  capacities.  No  hungry  or 
houseless  people  ever  were,  or  ever  will  be,  an  intelligent  or  a 
moral  one.  It  is  found  that  the  church,  the  lecture-room,  and 
the  hall  of  science,  flourish  best  where  regard  is  paid  to  the 
institution  for  savings.  The  divine  charities  of  Christian  love 
are  often  straitened,  because  our  means  of  benevolence  fall 
short  of  our  desires. 

I  proceed,  then,  to  show  that  education  has  a  power  of  min- 
istering to  our  personal  and  material  wants  beyond  all  other 
agencies,  whether  excellence  of  climate,  spontaneity  of  pro- 
duction, mineral  resources,  or  mines  of  silver  and  gold.  Every 
wise  parent  and  community,  desiring  the  prosperity  of  their 
children,  even  in  the  most  worldly  sense,  will  spare  no  pains 
in  giving  them  a  generous  education. 

During  the  past  year,  I  have  opened  a  correspondence,  and 
availed  myself  of  all  opportunities  to  hold  personal  interviews, 
with  many  of  the  most  practical,  sagacious,  and  intelligent 
business-men  amongst  us,  who  for  many  years  have  had  large 
numbers  of  persons  in  their  employment.  My  object  has  been 
to  ascertain  the  difference  in  the  productive  ability  —  where 
natural  capacities  have  been  equal  —  between  the  educated 
and  the  uneducated  ;  between  a  man  or  woman  whose  mind 
has  been  awakened  to  thought  and  supplied  with  the  rudiments 
of  knowledge  by  a  good  common-school  education  and  one 
whose  faculties  have  never  been  developed,  or  aided  in  emer- 
ging from  their  original  darkness  and  torpor,  by  such  a  privilege. 
For  this  purpose  I  have  conferred  and  corresponded  with  man- 
ufacturers of  all  kinds,  with  machinists,  engineers,  railroad 


REPORT   FOR   1841.  95 

contractors,  officers  in  the  army,  &c.  These  various  classes 
of  persons  have  means  of  determining  the  effects  of  education 
on  individuals,  equal  in  their  natural  abilities,  which  other 
classes  do  not  possess.  A  farmer  hiring  a  laborer  for  one 
season,  who  has  received  a  good  common-school  education, 
and,  the  ensuing  season,  hiring  another  who  has  not  enjoyed 
this  advantage,  although  he  may  be  personally  convinced  of 
the  relative  value  or  profitableness  of  their  services,  will  rarely 
have  any  exact  data  or  tests  to  refer  to  by  which  he  can  measure 
the  superiority  of  the  former  over  the  latter.  They  do  not  work 
side  by  side,  so  that  he  can  institute  a  comparison  between  the 
amounts  of  labor  they  perform.  They  may  cultivate  different 
fields,  where  the  ease  of  tillage  or  the  fertility  of  the  soils 
may  be  different.  They  may  rear  crops  under  the  influence 
of  different  seasons,  so  that  he  cannot  discriminate  be- 
tween what  is  referable  to  the  bounty  of  Nature,  and  what  to 
superiority  in  judgment  or  skill.  Similar  difficulties  exist  in 
estimating  the  amount  and  value  of  female  labor  in  the  house- 
hold. And  as  to  the  mechanic  also,  the  carpenter,  the 
mason,  the  blacksmith,  the  tool-maker  of  any  kind,  there 
are  a  thousand  circumstances  which  we  call  accidental,  that 
mingle  their  influences  in  giving  quality  and  durability  to  their 
work,  and  prevent  us  from  making  a  precise  estimate  of  the 
relative  value  of  any  two  men's  handicraft.  Individual  differ- 
ences too,  in  regard  to  a  single  article,  or  a  single  day's  work, 
may  be  too  minute  to  be  noticed  or  appreciated,  while  the 
aggregate  of  these  differences  at  the  end  of  a  few  years  may 
make  all  the  difference  between  a  poor  and  a  rich  man.  No 
observing  man  can  have  failed  to  notice  the  difference  between 
two  workmen,  one  of  whom — to  use  a  proverbial  expression 
—  always  hits  the  nail  on  the  head,  while  the  other  loses  half 
his  strength,  and  destroys  half  his  nails,  by  the  awkwardness 
of  his  blows  ;  but  perhaps  few  men  have  thought  of  the  dif- 
ference in  the  results  of  two  such  men's  labor  at  the  end  of 
twenty  years. 

But  when  hundreds  of  men  or  women  work  side  by  side,  in 


96  ANNUAL   EEPORTS    ON   EDUCATION. 

the  same  factory,  at  the  same  machinery,  in  making  the  same 
fabrics,  and,  by  a  fixed  rule  of  the  establishment,  labor  the 
same  number  of  hours  each  day ;  and  when,  also,  the  products 
of  each  operative  can  be  counted  in  number,  weighed  by  the 
pound,  or  measured  by  the  yard  or  cubic  foot,  —  then  it  is  per- 
fectly practicable  to  determine  with  arithmetical  exactness  the 
productions  of  one  individual  and  one  class  as  compared  with 
those  of  another  individual  and  another  class. 

So  where  there  are  different  kinds  of  labor,  some  simple, 
others  complicated,  and,  of  course,  requiring  different  degrees 
of  intelligence  and  skill,  it  is  easy  to  observe  what  class  of 
persons  rise  from  a  lower  to  a  higher  grade  of  employment. 

This,  too,  is  not  to  be  foi'gotten, — that  in  a  manufacturing  or 
mechanical  establishment,  or  among  a  set  of  hands  engaged  in 
filling  up  a  valley  or  cutting  down  a  hill,  where  scores  of  peo- 
ple are  working  together,  the  absurd  and  adventitious  distinc- 
tions of  society  do  not  inti-ude.  The  capitalist  and  his  agents 
are  looking  for  the  greatest  amount  of  labor,  or  the  largest 
income  in  money  from  their  investments ;  and  they  do  not 
promote  a  dunce  to  a  station  where  he  will  destroy  raw  ma- 
terial, or  slacken  industry,  because  of  his  name  or  birth  or 
family  connections.  The  obscurest  and  humblest  person  has  an 
open  and  fair  field  for  competition.  That  he  proves  himself 
capable  of  earning  more  money  for  his  employer  is  a  testi- 
monial better  than  a  diploma  from  all  the  colleges. 

Now,  many  of  the  most  intelligent  and  valuable  men  in  our 
community,  in  compliance  with  my  request,  —  for  which  I  ten- 
der them  my  public  and  grateful  acknowledgments,  —  have 
examined  their  books  for  a  series  of  years,  and  have  ascer- 
tained both  the  quality  and  the  amount  of  work  performed  by 
persons  in  their  employment  ;  and  the  result  of  the  investigation 
is  a  most  astonishing  superiority,  in  productive  power,  on  the 
part  of  the  educated  over  the  uneducated  laborer.  The  hand 
is  found  to  be  another  hand  when  guided  by  an  intelligent 
mind.  Processes  are  performed,  not  only  more  rapidly,  but 
better,  when  faculties  which  have  been  exercised  in  early  life 


EEPORT   FOR    1841.  97 

furnish  their  assistance.  Individuals  who,  without  the  aid  of 
knowledge,  would  have  been  condemned  to  perpetual  inferiority 
of  condition,  and  subjected  to  all  the  evils  of  want  and  poverty, 
rise  to  competence  and  independence  by  the  uplifting  power 
of  education.  In  great  establishments,  and  among  large 
bodies  of  laboring  men,  where  all  services  are  rated  according 
to  their  pecuniary  value ;  where  there  are  no  extrinsic  circum- 
stances to  bind  a  man  down  to  a  fixed  position,  after  he  has 
shown  a  capacity  to  rise  above  it ;  where,  indeed,  men  pass 
by  each  other,  ascending  or  descending  in  their  grades  of  labor, 
just  as  easily  and  certainly  as  particles  of  water  of  different 
degrees  of  temperature  glide  by  each  other,  —  there  it  is  found 
as  an  almost  invariable  fact,  other  things  being  equal, 
that  those  who  have  been  blessed  with  a  good  common-school 
education  rise  to  a  higher  and  a  higher  point  in  the  kinds  of 
labor  performed,  and  also  in  the  rate  of  wages  paid,  while  the 
ignorant  sink  like  dregs,  and  are  always  found  at  the  bottom. 

I  now  proceed  to  lay  before  the  Board  some  portions  of  the 
evidence  I  have  obtained,  first  inserting  my  Circular  Letter, 
in  answer  to  which,  communications  have  been  made. 


CIRCULAR  LETTER. 
To . 

DEAR  SIR,  —  My  best  and  only  apology  for  taking  the  liberty  to  address 
you  will  be  found  in  the  object  I  have  in  view,  which,  therefore,  I  proceed 
to  state  without  further  preface. 

In  fulfilling  the  duties  with  which  I  have  been  intrusted  by  the  Board  of 
Education,  I  am  led  into  frequent  conversation  and  correspondence,  not 
only  with  persons  in  every  part  of  the  State,  but  more  or  less  with  every 
class  and  description  of  persons  in  the  whole  community. 

I  regret  to  say,  that  among  these  I  occasionally  meet  with  individuals, 
who,  although  very  differently  circumstanced  in  life,  cordially  agree  in  their 
indifference  towards  the  cause  of  common  education ;  and  some  of  whom 
even  profess  to  be  alarmed  at  possible  mischiefs  that  may  come  in  its  train, 
and  therefore  stand  in  its  path,  and  obstruct  its  advancement. 

The  individuals  who  thus  maintain  an  attitude  of  neutrality,  or  assume 
one  of  active  opposition,  are  either  persons  who,  in  their  worldly  circum- 
stances, are  deemed  the  favorites  of  fortune,  or  they  are  persons  who  are 
7 


98  ANNUAL    REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

alike  strangers  to  mental  cultivation,  and  to  all  the  outward  and  ordinary 
signs  of  temporal  prosperity.  In  a  word,  they  are  found,  in  regard  to  their 
worldly  condition,  at  the  two  extremes  of  the  social  scale.  I  would  by  no 
means  be  understood  to  say,  that  any  considerable  proportion  of  the  men 
of  wealth  amongst  us  look  with  an  unfriendly  eye  on  the  general  diffusion 
of  the  means  of  knowledge.  On  the  contrary,  some  of  the  best  friends  of 
education  are  to  be  found  amongst  this  class,  who,  uniting  abundance  of 
means  with  benevolence  of  disposition,  are  truly  efficient  in  advancing  the 
work.  Nor,  on  this  subject,  are  the  lines  of  demarcation  between  parties 
broadly  drawn ;  but  they  shade  off,  by  imperceptible  degrees,  from  friends 
to  opponents. 

But  this  I  do  mean  to  say,  that  there  are  men  of  wealth  and  leisure,  too 
numerous  to  be  overlooked  in  a  calculation  of  friendly  and  of  adverse 
agencies,  who  profess  to  fear  that  a  more  thorough  and  comprehensive 
education  for  the  whole  people  will  destroy  contentment,  loosen  habits  of 
industry,  engender  a  false  ambition,  and  prompt  to  an  incursion  into  their 
own  favored  sphere,  by  which  great  loss  will  accrue  to  themselves,  without, 
any  corresponding  benefit  to  the  invaders. 

The  othfer  class  are  those  who,  suffering  from  a  neglected  or  a  perverted 
education  in  themselves,  seem  incapable  of  appreciating  either  the  temporal 
and  material  well-being,  or  the  mental  elevation  and  enjoyment,  which  it  is 
the  prerogative  of  a  good  education  to  confer.  These  two  parties,  though 
alien  from  each  other  in  all  other  respects,  are  allies  here ;  and  although, 
with  the  exception  of  a  very  few  towns  in  the  Commonwealth,  they  are  not 
numerically  strong,  yet,  by  adroitly  implicating  other  questions  with  that 
of  the  Public  Schools,  they  are  able  in  many  cases  to  baffle  all  efforts  at 
reform  and  improvement. 

The  views  of  these  parties  I  believe  to  be  radically  wrong,  anti-social, 
anti-Republican,  anti-Christian;  and  I  believe  that  all  action  in  pursu- 
ance of  them  will  impair  the  best  interests  of  society,  and  originate  a  train 
of  calamities,  in  which  not  only  their  advocates,  but  all  portions  of  the 
community,  will  be  involved.  Convinced  that  such  is  the  inevitable  and 
accelerating  tendency  of  such  views,  it  seems  to  me  to  be  the  duty  of  the 
friends  of  mankind  to  meet  them  with  fairness  and  a  conciliatory  spirit 
indeed,  but  with  earnestness  and  energy,  and  to  confute  them  by  UK-  pro- 
duction of  evidence  and  the  exposition  of  principles. 

It  is  for  this  reason  that  I  address  you,  and  solicit  a  reply,  founded  upon 
your  personal  knowledge,  to  the  following  questions  :  — 

First,  —  Have  you  had  large  numbers  of  persons  in  your  employment  or 
under  your  superintendence  ?  If  so,  will  you  please  to  state  how  many  ? 
Within  what  period  of  time  ?  In  what  department  of  business  1  Whether 
at  different  places  "?  Whether  natives  or  foreigners  ? 

Second,  —  Have  you  observed  differences  among  the  persons  you  have 
employed,  growing  out  of  differences  in  their  education,  and  independent  of 


REPORT   FOR    1841.  99 

t/ir/'r  natural  abilities;  that  is,  whether,  as  a  class,  those  who  from  early  life 
have  been  accustomed  to  exercise  their  minds  by  reading  and  studying 
have  greater  docility  and  quickness  in  applying  themselves  to  work  ?  and, 
after  the  simplest  details  are  mastered,  have  they  greater  aptitude,  dexterity, 
or  ingenuity  in  comprehending  ordinary  processes,  or  in  originating  new 
ones  ?  Do  they  more  readily  or  frequently  devise  new  modes  by  which  the 
same  amount  of  work  can  be  better  done,  or  by  which  more  work  can  be 
done  in  the  same  time,  or  by  which  raw  material  or  motive-power  can  be 
economized  ?  In  short,  do  you  obtain  more  work  and  better  work,  with  less 
waste,  from  those  who  have  received  what,  in  Massachusetts,  we  call  a  good 
common-school  education,  or  from  those  who  have  grown  up  in  neglect  and 
ignorance  1  Is  there  any  difference  in  the  earnings  of  these  two  classes, 
and  consequently  in  their  wages  ? 

Third,  —  What,  within  your  knowledge,  has  been  the  effect  of  higher 
degrees  of  mental  application  and  culture  upon  the  domestic  and  social 
habits  of  persons  in  your  employment  ?  Is  this  class  more  cleanly  in  their 
persons,  their  dress,  and  their  households  ?  and  do  they  enjoy  a  greater  im- 
munity from  those  diseases  which  originate  in  a  want  of  personal  neatness 
and  purity  ?  Are  they  more  exemplary  in  their  deportment  and  conversa- 
tion, devoting  more  time  to  intellectual  pursuits  or  to  the  refining  art  of 
music,  and  spending  their  evenings  and  leisure  hours  more  with  their 
families,  and  less  at  places  of  resort  for  idle  and  dissipated  men  ?  Is  a 
smaller  portion  of  them  addicted  to  intemperance  ?  Are  their  houses 
kept  in  a  superior  condition  ?  Does  a  more  economical  and  judicious 
mode  of  living  purchase  greater  comforts  at  the  same  expense,  or  equal 
comforts  with  less  means  ?  Are  their  families  better  brought  up,  more 
respectably  dressed,  more  regularly  attendant  upon  the  school  and  the 
church  ?  and  do  their  children,  when  arrived  at  years  of  maturity,  enter 
upon  the  active  scenes  of  life  with  better  prospects  of  success  1 

Fourth,  —  In  regard  to  standing  and  respectability  among  co-laborers, 
neighbors,  and  fellow-citizens  generally,  how  do  those  who  have  enjoyed 
and  improved  the  privilege  of  good  common  schools  compare  with  the 
neglected  and  the  illiterate  ?  Do  the  former  exercise  greater  influence 
among  their  associates  ?  Are  they  more  often  applied  to  for  advice  and 
counsel  in  cases  of  difficulty,  or  selected  as  umpires  or  arbitrators  for  the 
decision  of  minor  controversies  ?  Are  higher  and  more  intelligent  circles 
for  acquaintance  open  to  them,  from  conversation  and  intercourse  with 
which  their  own  minds  can  be  constantly  improved  ?  Are  they  more  likely 
to  rise  from  grade  to  grade  in  the  scale  of  labor,  until  they  enter  depart- 
ments where  greater  skill,  judgment,  and  responsibility  arc  required,  and 
which  therefore  command  a  larger  remuneration  ?  Are  they  more  likely 
to  rise  from  the  condition  of  employe's,  and  to  establish  themselves  in  busi- 
ness on  their  own  account  ? 

Fifth,  —  Have  you  observed  any  difference  in  the  classes  above  named 


100  ANNUAL   EEPORTS    ON   EDUCATION. 

(I  speak  of  them  as  classes,  for  there  will,  of  course,  be  individual  excep- 
tions) in  regard  to  punctuality  and  fidelity  in  the  performance  of  duties  ? 
Which  class  is  most  regardful  of  the  rights  of  others,  and  most  intelligent 
and  successful  in  securing  their  own  ?  You  will,  of  course,  perceive  that 
this  question  involves  a  more  general  one ;  viz.,  from  which  of  the  above- 
described  classes  have  those  who  possess  property,  and  who  hope  to  trans- 
mit it  to  their  children,  most  to  fear  from  secret  aggression,  or  from  such 
public  degeneracy  as  will  loosen  the  bands  of  society,  corrupt  the  testimony 
of  witnesses,  violate  the  sanctity  of  the  juror's  oath,  and  substitute,  as  a 
rule  of  right,  the  power  of  a  numerical  majority  for  the  unvarying  princi- 
ples of  justice  ? 

Sixth,  —  Finally,  in  regard  to  those  who  possess  the  largest  shares  in  the 
stock  of  worldly  goods,  could  there,  in  your  opinion,  be  any  police  so  vigi- 
lant and  effective,  for  the  protection  of  all  the  rights  of  person,  property, 
and  character,  as  such  a  sound  and  comprehensive  education  and  training 
as  our  system  of  common  schools  could  be  made  to  impart  ?  and  would  not 
the  payment  of  a  sufficient  tax  to  make  such  education  and  training  uni- 
versal be  the  cheapest  means  of  self-protection  and  insurance  ?  And  in 
regard  to  that  class  which,  from  the  accident  of  birth  and  parentage,  are 
subjected  to  the  privations  and  the  temptations  of  poverty,  would  not  such 
an  education  open  to  them  new  resources  in  habits  of  industry  and  economy, 
in  increased  skill,  and  the  awakening  of  inventive  power,  which  would 
yield  returns  a  thousand-fold  greater  than  can  ever  be  hoped  for  from  the 
most  successful  clandestine  depredations,  or  open  invasion  of  the  property 
of  others  ? 

I  am  aware,  my  dear  sir,  that,  to  every  intelligent  and  reflecting  man, 
these  inquiries  will  seem  superfluous  and  nugatory ;  and  your  first  impulse 
may  be  to  put  some  such  interrogatory  to  me  in  reply,  as  whether  the  sun 
has  any  influence  on  vegetable  growth,  or  whether  it  is  expedient  to  have 
windows  in  our  houses  for  the  admission  of  light.  I  acknowledge  the  close 
analogy  of  the  cases  in  point  of  self-evidence ;  but  my  reply  is,  that  while 
we  have  influential  persons,  who  dwell  with  us  in  the  same  common  mansion 
of  society,  and  who,  having  secured  for  themselves  a  few  well-lighted  apart- 
ments, now  insist  that  total  darkness  is  better  for  a  portion  of  the  occupants 
born  and  dwelling  under  the  same  roof;  and  while,  unfortunately,  a  por- 
tion of  these  benighted  occupants,  from  never  having  seen  more  than  the 
feeblest  glimmerings  of  the  light  of  day,  insist  that  it  is  better  for  them 
and  their  children  to  remain  blind ;  while  these  opinions  continue  to  ex- 
ist, I  hold  that  it  is  necessary  to  adduce  facts  and  arguments,  and  to  present 
motives,  which  shall  prove,  both  to  the  blinded  and  those  who  would  keep 
them  so,  the  value  and  beauty  of  light. 

HORACE  MANN, 

Secretary  of  the  Board  of  Education. 


REPORT   FOR    1841.  101 

P.  S.  If  the  above  shall  give  you  a  general  outline  of  my  object,  I  would 
thank  you  to  fill  it  up,  even  though  parts  of  it  may  not  be  distinctly  indi- 
cated by  the  questions. 


LETTER    FROM  J.  K.  MILLS,  ESQ. 

BOSTON,  Dec.  29,  1841. 

MY  DEAR  SIR,  —  I  have  endeavored,  since  I  received  your  letter,  to 
collect  such  information  as  would  enable  me  to  answer  your  questions. 
The  house  with  which  I  am  connected  in  business  has  had,  for  the  last  ten 
years,  the  principal  direction  of  cotton-mills,  machine-shops,  and  calico- 
printing  works,  in  which  are  constantly  employed  about  three  thousand 
persons.  The  opinions  I  have  formed  of  the  effects  of  a  common-school 
education  upon  our  manufacturing  population  are  the  result  of  personal 
observation  and  inquiries,  and  are  confirmed  by  the  testimony  of  the  over- 
seers and  agents,  who  are  brought  into  immediate  contact  with  the  opera- 
tives. They  are  as  follows  :  — 

1.  —  That  the  rudiments  of  a  common-school  education  are  essential  to 
the  attainment  of  skill  and  expertness  as  laborers,  or  to  consideration  and 
respect  in  the  civil  and  social  relations  of  life. 

2. —  That  very  few,  who  have  not  enjoyed  the  advantages  of  a  common- 
school  education,  ever  rise  above  the  lowest  class  of  operatives  ;  and  that  the 
labor  of  this  class,  when  it  is  employed  in  manufacturing  operations,  which 
require  even  a  very  moderate  degree  of  manual  or  mental  dexterity,  is  un- 
productive. 

3.  —  That  a  large  majority  of  the  overseers,  and  others  employed  in  situa- 
tions which  require  a  high  degree  of  skill,  in  particular  branches,  which  often- 
times require  a  good  general  knowledge  of  business,  and  always  an  unex- 
ceptionable moral  character,  have  made  their  way  up  from  the  condition  of 
common  laborers  with  no  other  advantage  over  a  large  proportion  of  those 
they  have  left  behind  than  that  derived  from  a  better  education. 

A  statement  made  from  the  books  of  one  of  the  manufacturing  com- 
panies under  our  direction  will  show  the  relative  number  of  the  two  classes, 
and  the  earnings  of  each.  This  mill  may  be  taken  as  a  fair  index  of  all  the 
others. 

The  average  number  of  operatives  annually  employed  for  the  last  three 
years  is  one  thousand  two  hundred.  Of  this  number,  there  are  forty-five 
unable  to  write  their  names,  or  about  three-fourths  per  cent. 

The  average  of  women's  wages,  in  the  departments  requiring  the  most 
skill,  is  S2.50  per  week,  exclusive  of  board. 

The  average  of  wages  in  the  lowest  departments  is  $1.25  per  week. 

Of  the  forty-live  who  are  unable  to  write,  twenty-nine,  or  about  two- 


102         ANNUAL  REPORTS  ON  EDUCATION. 

thirds,  are  employed  in  the  lowest  department.  The  difference  between  the 
wages  earned  by  the  forty-five,  and  the  average  wages  of  an  equal  number 
of  the  better-educated  class,  is  about  twenty-seven  per  cent  in  favor  of  the 
latter. 

The  difference  between  the  wages  earned  by  twenty-nine  of  the  lowest 
class,  and  the  same  number  in  the  higher,  is  sixty-six  per  cent. 

Of  seventeen  persons  filling  the  most  responsible  situations  in  the  mills, 
ten  have  grown  up  in  the  establishment  from  common  laborers  or  appren- 
tices. 

This  statement  does  not  include  an  importation  of  sixty-three  persons 
from  Manchester,  in  England,  in  1839.  Among  these  persons,  there  was 
scarcely  one  who  could  read  or  write ;  and  although  a  part  of  them  had  been 
accustomed  to  work  in  cotton-mills,  yet,  either  from  incapacity  or  idleness, 
they  were  unable  to  earn  sufficient  to  pay  for  their  subsistence,  and  at  the 
expiration  of  a  few  weeks  not  more  than  half  a  dozen  remained  in  our  em- 
ployment. 

In  some  of  the  print-works,  a  large  proportion  of  the  operatives  are  foreign- 
ers. Those  who  are  employed  in  the  branches  which  require  a  considerable 
degree  of  skill  are  as  well  educated  as  our  people  in  similar  situations. 
But  the  common  laborers,  as  a  class,  are  without  any  education  ;  and  their 
average  earnings  are  about  two-thirds  only  of  those  of  our  lowest  classes, 
although  the  prices  paid  to  each  are  the  same  for  the  same  amount  of  work. 

Among  the  men  and  boys  employed  in  our  machine-shops,  the  want  of 
education  is  quite  rare ;  indeed,  I  do  not  know  an  instance  of  a  person  who 
is  unable  to  read  and  write,  and  many  have  had  a  good  common-school 
education.  To  this  may  be  attributed  the  fact,  that  a  large  proportion  of 
persons  who  fill  the  higher  and  more  responsible  situations  came  from  this 
class  of  workmen. 

From  these  statements,  you  will  be  able  to  form  some  estimate,  in  dollars 
and  cents  at  least,  of  the  advantages  even  of  a  little  education  to  the  opera- 
tive; and  there  is  not  the  least  doubt  that  the  employer  is  equally  benefited. 
He  has  the  security  for  his  property  that  intelligence,  good  morals,  and  a 
just  appreciation  of  the  regulations  of  his  establishment]  always  afford. 
His  machinery  and  mills,  which  constitute  a  large  part  of  his  capital,  are  in 
the  bauds  of  persons,  \vho,  by  their  skill,  are  enabled  to  use  them  to  their 
utmost  capacity,  and  to  prevent  any  unnecessary  depreciation. 

Each  operative  in  a  cotton-mill  may  be  supposed  to  represent  from  one 
thousand  to  twelve  hundred  dollars  of  the  capital  invested  in  the  mill  and 
its  machinery.  It  is  only  from  the  most  diligent  and  economical  use  of 
this  capital  that  the  proprietor  can  expect  a  profit.  A  fraction  less  than 
one-half  of  the  cost  of  manufacturing  common  cotton-goods,  when  a  mill 
is  in  full  operation,  is  made  up  of  charges  which  are  permanent.  If  the 
product  is  reduced  in  the  ratio  of  the  capacity  of  the  two  classes  of  opera- 
tives mentioned  in  this  statement,  it  will  be  seen  that  the  cost  will  be 
increased  in  a  compound  ratio. 


REPORT   FOR    1841.  103 

My  belief  is,  that  the  best  cotton-mill  in  New  England,  with  such  opera- 
tives only  as  the  forty-five  mentioned  above,  who  are  unable  to  write  their 
names,  would  never  yield  the  proprietor  a  profit ;  that  the  machinery 
would  soon  be  worn  out,  and  he  would  be  left,  in  a  short  time,  with  a  popu- 
lation no  better  than  that  which  is  represented,  as  I  suppose,  very  fairly,  by 
the  importation  from  England. 

I  cannot  imagine  any  situation  in  life  where  the  want  of  a  common- 
school  education  would  be  more  severely  felt,  or  be  attended  with  worse 
consequences,  than  in  our  manufacturing  villages ;  nor,  on  the  other  hand, 
is  there  any  place  where  such  advantages  can  be  improved  with  greater 
benefit  to  all  parties. 

There  is  more  excitement  and  activity  in  the  minds  of  people  living  in 
masses,  and,  if   this  expends  itself  in  any  of  the  thousand  vicious  indul- 
gences with  which  they  are  sujre  to  be  tempted,  the  road  to  destruction  is  trav- 
elled over  with  a  speed  exactly  corresponding  to  the  power  employed. 
Very  truly  yours, 

JAMES  K.  MILLS. 
HON.  HORACE  MANN. 


LETTER   FROM   H.  BARTLETT,  ESQ. 

LOWELL,  Dec.  1,  1841. 
HON.  HORACE  MANX. 

Dear  Sir,  —  In  replying  to  your  interrogatories,  respecting  the  effect 
of  education  upon  the  laboring  classes,  I  might  be  very  brief;  but  the  sub- 
ject is  one  in  which  I  feel  so  deep  an  interest,  that  I  propose  to  go  a  little 
into  detail,  and  hope  to  do  so  without  being  tedious. 

I  have  been  engaged  for  nearly  ten  years  in  manufacturing,  and  have 
had  the  constant  charge  of  from  four  hundred  to  nine  hundred  persons 
during  that  time.  The  greater  part  of  them  have  been  Americans.;  but 
there  have  always  been  more  or  less  foreigners.  During  this  time,  I  have 
had  charge  of  two  different  establishments  in  different  parts  of  the  State. 

In  answering  your  second  interrogatory,  I  can  say,  that  I  have  come  in 
contact  with  a  very  great  variety  of  character  and  disposition,  and  have 
seen  mind  applied  to  production  in  the  Mechanic  and  Manufacturing  Arts, 
possessing  different  degrees  of  intelligence,  from  gross  ignorance  to  a  high 
degree  of  cultivation ;  and  I  have  no  hesitation  in  affirming  that  I  have 
found  the  best  educated  to  be  the  most  profitable  help ;  even  those  females 
who  merely  tend  machinery  give  a  result  somewhat  in  proportion  to  the 
advantages  enjoyed  in  early  life  for  education,  —  those  who  have  a  good 
common-school  education  giving,  as  a  class,  invariably,  a  better  production 
than  those  brought  up  in  ignorance. 


104  ANNUAL   REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

The  former  make  the  best  wages.  If  any  one  should  doubt  the  fact,  let 
him  examine  the  pay-roll  of  any  establishment  in  New  England,  and  ascer- 
tain the  character  of  the  girls  who  get  the  most  money,  and  he  will  be 
satisfied  that  I  am  correct.  I  am  equally  clear,  that,  as  a  class,  they  do  their 
work  better.  There  are  many  reasons  why  it  should  be  so.  They  have 
more  order  and  system ;  they  .not  only  keep  their  persons  neater,  but  their 
machinery  in  better  condition. 

But  there  are  other  advantages,  besides  mere  knowledge,  growing  out  of 
a  good  common-school  education.  Such  an  education  is  calculated  to 
strengthen  the  whole  system,  intellectual,  moral,  and  physical.  It  educates 
the  whole  man  or  woman,  and  gives  him  or  her  more  energy  and  greater 
capacity  for  production  in  all  departments  of  labor.  Minds  formed  by  such 
an  education  are  superior  in  the  combination  and  arrangement  of  what  is 
already  known,  and  more  frequently  devise  ntyv  methods  of  operation. 

Your  third  inquiry  relates  to  the  effect  of  education  upon  the  domestic  and 
social  habits  of  persons  in  my  employ.  I  have  never  considered  mere 
knowledge,  valuable  as  it  is  in  itself  to  the  laborer,  as  the  only  advantage 
derived  from  a  good  common-school  education.  I  have  uniformly  found 
the  better  educated,  as  a  class,  possessing  a  higher  and  better  state  of  morals, 
more  orderly  and  respectful  in  their  deportment,  and  more  ready  to  comply 
with  the  wholesome  and  necessary  regulations  of  an  establishment.  And 
in  times  of  agitation  on  account  of  some  change  in  regulations  or  wages,  I 
have  always  looked  to  the  most  intelligent,  best  educated,  and  the  most 
moral,  for  support,  and  have  seldom  been  disappointed.  For,  while  they 
are  the  last  to  submit  to  imposition,  they  reason ;  and,  if  your  requirements 
are  reasonable,  they  will  generally  acquiesce,  and  exert  a  salutary  influence 
upon  their  associates.  But  the  ignorant  and  uneducated  I  have  generally 
found  the  most  turbulent  and  troublesome,  acting  under  the  impulse  of  ex- 
cited passion  and  jealousy. 

The  former  appear  to  have  an  interest  in  sustaining  good  order,  while 
the  latter  seem  more  reckless  of  consequences.  And,  to  my  mind,  all  this 
is  perfectly  natural.  The  better  educated  have  more  and  stronger  attach- 
ments binding  them  to  the  place  where  they  are.  They  are  generally 
neater,  as  I  have  before  said,  in  their  persons,  dress,  and  houses ;  surrounded 
with  more  comforts,  with  fewer  of  "  the  ills  which  flesh  is  heir  to."  In 
short,  I  have  found  the  educated,  as  a  class,  more  cheerful  and  contented,  — 
devoting  a  portion  of  their  leisure  time  to  reading  and  intellectual  pursuits, 
more  with  their  families,  and  less  in  scenes  of  dissipation. 

The  good  effect  of  all  this  is  seen  in  the  more  orderly  and  comfortable 
appearance  of  the  whole  household,  but  nowhere  more  strikingly  than  in 
the  children.  A  mother  who  has  had  a  good  common-school  education  will 
rarely  suffer  her  children  to  grow  up  in  ignorance. 

As  I  have  said,  this  class  of  persons  is  more  quiet,  more  orderly,  and,  I 
may  add,  more  regular  in  their  attendance  upon  public  worship,  and  more 
punctual  in  the  performance  of  all  their  duties. 


REPORT   FOR    1841.  105 

Your  fourth  inquiry  refers  to  the  relative  stand  taken  in  society  by  those 
who  have  received  an  early  education ;  and  my  answers  to  your  inquiries 
under  that  head  might  be  inferred  from  what  I  have  already  said.  My 
remarks  before  have  referred  quite  as  much  to  females  as  to  males,  but 
what  I  shall  say  under  this  will  refer  particularly  to  the  latter. 

I  have  generally  observed  individuals  exerting  an  influence  among  their 
co-laborers  and  citizens  somewhat  in  proportion  to  their  education.  And, 
in  cases  of  difficulty  and  arbitration,  the  most  ignorant  have  paid  an  invol- 
untary respect  to  the  value  of  education  by  the  selection  of  those  who  have 
enjoyed  its  benefits  for  the  settlement  of  their  controversies. 

It  would  be  very  difficult,  if  not  impossible,  for  a  young  man,  who  had 
not  an  education  equal  to  a  good  common-school  education,  to  rise  from 
grade  to  grade,  until  he  should  obtain  the  birth  of  an  Overseer ;  and  in 
making  promotions,  as  a  general  thing,  it  would  be  unnecessary  to  make 
inquiry  as  to  the  education  of  the  young  men  from  whom  you  would  select ; 
for  their  mental  cultivation  would  be  sufficiently  indicated  by  their  general 
appearance  and  standing  among  their  fellows  ;  and,  if  you  had  reference  to 
merit  and  qualifications,  very  seldom  indeed  would  an  uneducated  young 
man  rise  to  "  a  better  place  and  better  pay." 

Young  men  who  expect  to  resort  to  manufacturing  establishments  for 
employment  cannot  prize  too  highly  a  good  education.  It  will  give  them 
standing  among  their  associates,  and  be  the  means  of  promotion  from  their 
employers. 

Your  fifth  interrogatory  refers  to  difference  of  moral  character  in  the  two 
classes,  and  the  dangers  which  society  or  men  of  property  have  to  appre- 
hend from  the  one  or  the  other.  I  do  not  know  that  I  can  better  answer 
your  inquiries  under  this  head  than  to  give  you  my  views  of  the  value,  in  a 
pecuniary  point  of  view,  of  education  and  morality,  to  the  stockholders  of 
our  manufacturing  establishments.  If  they  have  no  danger  to  apprehend 
from  a  general  diffusion  of  knowledge  among  those  in  their  employ ;  if  it  is 
a  fact  that  that  class  of  help  which  has  enjoyed  a  good  common-school  edu- 
cation are  the  most  tractable,  yielding  most  readily  to  reasonable  require- 
ments, exerting  a  salutary  and  conservative  influence  in  times  of  excite- 
ment, while  the  most  ignorant  are  the  most  refractory ;  then  it  appears  to 
me  that  the  public  at  large  ought  to  be  satisfied  that  they  have  more  dan- 
ger to  apprehend  from  the  ignorant  than  from  the  well  educated.  I  am 
aware  that  there  is  a  feeling  to  a  certain,  but  I  hope  limited  extent,  that 
knowledge  among  the  great  mass  is  dangerous  ;  that  it  creates  discontent, 
and  tends  to  insubordination.  But  I  believe  the  fear  to  be  groundless,  and 
that  our  danger  will  come  from  an  opposite  source.  In  my  view,  there  is  a 
connection  between  education  and  morals ;  and  I  believe  that  our  common 
schools  have  been  nurseries,  not  only  of  learning,  but  of  sound  morality ; 
and  I  trust  they  will  always  be  surrounded  by  such  influences  as  will 
strengthen  and  confirm  the  moral  principles  of  our  youth ;  and  I  am  confi- 
dent, that,  so  long  as  that  shall  be  the  case,  society  is  safe. 


106  ANNUAL    REPORTS   ON    EDUCATION. 

From  my  observation  and  experience,  I  am  perfectly  satisfied  that  the 
owners  of  manufacturing  property  have  a  deep  pecuniary  interest  in  the 
education  and  morals  of  their  help ;  and  I  believe  the  time  is  not  distant 
when  the  truth  of  this  will  appear  more  and  more  clear.  And  as  competi- 
tion becomes  more  close,  and  small  circumstances  of  more  importance  in 
turning  the  scale  in  favor  of  one  establishment  over  another,  I  believe  it 
will  be  seen  that  the  establishment,  other  things  being  equal,  which  has  the 
best  educated  and  the  most  moral  help,  will  give  the  greatest  production  at 
the  least  cost  per  pound.  So  confident  am  I  that  production  is  affected  by 
the  intellectual  and  moral  character  of  help,  that  whenever  a  mill  or  a  room 
should  fail  to  give  the  proper  amount  of  work,  my  first  inquiry,  after  that 
respecting  the  condition  of  the  machinery,  would  be,  as  to  the  character  of 
the  help ;  and  if  the  deficiency  remained  any  great  length  of  time,  I  am  sure 
I  should  find  many  who  had  made  their  marks  upon  the  pay-roll,  being 
unable  to  write  their  names ;  and  I  should  be  greatly  disappointed  if  I  did 
not,  upon  inquiry,  find  a  portion  of  them  of  irregular  habits  and  suspicious 
character.  My  mind  has  been  drawn  to  this  subject  for  a  long  time.  I 
have  watched  its  operation,  and  seen  its  result,  and  am  satisfied  that  the 
pecuniary  interest  of  the  owners  is  promoted  by  the  general  diffusion  of 
knowledge  and  morality  among  those  in  their  employ. 

Lowell  is  a  striking  illustration  of  the  truth  of  my  remarks  on  this  sub- 
ject. Probably  no  other  place  has  done  as  much  for  the  education  and 
morality  of  those  engaged  in  manufacturing.  She  has  twenty-three  public 
schools,  fifteen  churches,  and  numerous  associations  for  intellectual  improve- 
ment ;  and  the  result  is  seen,  not  only  in  the  orderly  and  temperate 
character  of  the  people,  but  in  the  great  productiveness  of  the  mills.  And 
where,  I  would  ask,  is  manufacturing  stock  of  more  value  1  If  any  one 
doubts  the  connection  between  these  institutions  and  the  price  of  stocks, 
let  the  former  be  destroyed,  let  those  lights  be  extinguished,  let  ignorance 
and  vice  take  the  place  of  intelligence  and  virtue,  let  the  prevailing  influ- 
ence here  be  against  schools  and  churches ;  and  my  opinion  is.  that  the 
moral  character  of  the  people  would  not  decline  faster  than  the  price  of 
manufacturing  stocks.  The  founders  of  this  place  were  clear  and  far- 
sighted  men ;  and  they  put  in  operation  a  train  of  moral  influences  which 
has  formed  and  preserved  a  community  distinguished  for  intelligence,  virtue, 
and  great  energy  of  character.  Should  any  owner  or  manager  think  other- 
wise, and  surround  himself  with  the  ignorant  and  unprincipled,  because  for 
a  time  he  might  get  them  for  less  wages,  I  am  confident  that  loss  in  produc- 
tion would  more  than  keep  pace  with  reduction  in  pay,  —  to  say  nothing  of 
the  insecurity  of  property  in  the  hands  of  such  persons. 

In  short,  in  closing  my  answer  to  your  fifth  interrogatory,  I  consider  that 
"  those  who  possess  property,  and  hope  to  transmit  it  to  their  children,"  have 
nothing  to  fear  from  the  general  diffusion  of  knowledge ;  that  if  their  rights 
are  ever  invaded,  or  their  property  rendered  insecure,  it  will  be  when  igno- 


REPORT   FOR    1841.  107 

ranee  has  corrupted  the  public  mind,  and  prepared  it  for  the  controlling 
influence  of  some  master-spirit  possessing  intelligence  without  principle. 

Finally,  in  answering  your  sixth  and  last  interrogatory,  I  remark  that 
"  those  who  possess  the  greatest  share  in  the  stock  of  worldly  goods  "  are 
deeply  interested  in  this  subject  as  one  of  mere  insurance ;  that  the  most 
effectual  way  of  making  insurance  on  their  property  would  be  to  contribute 
from  it  enough  to  sustain  an  efficient  system  of  common-school  education, 
thereby  educating  the  whole  mass  of  mind,  and  constituting  it  a  police  more 
effective  than  peace-officers  or  prisons.  By  so  doing  they  would  bestow  a 
benefaction  upon  "  that  class,  who,  from  the  accident  of  birth  or  parentage, 
are  subjected  to  the  privations  and  temptations  of  poverty,"  and  would  do 
much  to  remove  the  prejudice  and  to  strengthen  the  bands  of  union  be- 
tween the  different  and  extreme  portions  of  society.  The  great  majority 
always  have  been,  and  probably  always  will  be,  comparatively  poor,  while 
a  few  will  possess  the  greatest  share  of  this  world's  goods.  And  it  is  a 
wise  provision  of  Providence  which  connects  so  intimately,  and  as  I  think 
so  indissolubly,  the  greatest  good  of  the  many  with  the  highest  interest  of 
the  few. 

Yours  very  respectfully  and  truly, 

H.  BABTLETT. 


LETTER  FROM  J.  CLARK,  ESQ. 

LOWELL,  Dec.  3,  1841. 

DEAR  SIR, —  I  owe  you  an  apology  for  not  having  made  an  earlier 
reply  to  your  inquiries  respecting  the  influences  of  education  upon  the 
character  and  conduct  of  our  operatives.  I  have  to  plead  in  excuse  for  my 
neglect  an  unusual  press  of  business,  which  has  almost  literally  occupied 
every  moment  of  my  time ;  and,  while  I  was  seeking  a  leisure  hour  to 
devote  to  this  purpose,  my  friend,  Mr.  Bartlett,  has  kindly  allowed  me  to 
read  the  very  full  and  particular  answers  prepared  by  him  to  your  several 
interrogatories. 

.  .  .  We  have  in  our  mills  about  one  hundred  and  fifty  females  who  have, 
at  some  time,  been  engaged  in  teaching  schools.  Many  of  them  teach  during 
the  summer  months,  and  work  in  the  mills  in  winter.  The  average  wages 
of  these  ex-teachers  I  find  to  be  seventeen  and  three-fourths  per  cent  above 
the  general  average  of  our  mills,  and  about  forty  per  cent  above  the  wages  of 
the  twenty-six  who  cannot  write  their  names.  It  may  be  said  that  they  are 
generally  employed  in  the  higher  departments,  where  the  pay  is  better. 
This  is  true ;  but  this  again  may  be,  in  most  cases,  fairly  attributed  to  their 
better  education,  which  brings  us  to  the  same  result.  If  I  had  included  in 
iny  calculations  the  remaining  fourteen  of  the  forty,  who  are  mostly 


108  ANNUAL   REPORTS    ON   EDUCATION. 

sweepers  and  scrubbers,  and  who  are  paid  by  the  day,  the  contrasts  would 
have  been  still  more  striking ;  but  having  no  well-educated  females  engaged 
in  this  department  with  whom  to  compare  them,  I  have  omitted  them  alto- 
gether. In  arriving  at  the  above  results,  I  have  considered  the  net  wages 
merely,  —  the  price  of  board  being  in  all  cases  the  same.  I  do  not  consider 
these  results  as  either  extraordinary  or  surprising,  but  as  a  part  only  of  the 
legitimate  and  proper  fruits  of  a  better  cultivation  and  fuller  development 
of  the  intellectual  and  moral  powers. 

Yours  very  respectfully, 

JOHN  CLARK, 

Superintendent  of  Merrimack  Mills. 
HON.  HORACE  MANN,  BOSTON. 


Extracts  from  a  Letter  of  Jonathan   Crane,  Esq.,  for  several  years  a  large 
Contractor  on  the  Railroads  in  Massachusetts. 

My  principal  business,  for  about  ten  years  past,  has  been  grading  railroads. 
During  that  time,  the  number  of  men  employed  has  varied  from  fifty  to  three 
hundred  and  fifty,  nearly  all  Irishmen,  with  the  exception  of  superintend- 
ents. Some  facts  have  been  so  apparent,  that  my  superintendents  and 
myself  could  not  but  notice  them :  these  I  will  freely  give  you.  I  should 
say  that  not  less  than  three  thousand  different  men  have  been,  more  or  less, 
in  my  employment  during  the  before-mentioned  period,  and  that  the  num- 
ber that  could  read  and  write  intelligibly  was  about  one  to  eight.  Inde- 
pendently of  their  natural  endowments,  those  who  could  read  and  write, 
and  had  some  knowledge  of  the  first  principles  of  arithmetic,  have  almost 
invariably  manifested  a  readiness  to  apprehend  what  was  required  of  them, 
and  skill  in  performing  it,  and  have  more  readily  and  frequently  devised 
new  modes  by  which  the  same  amount  of  work  could  be  better  done.  Some 
of  these  men  we  have  selected  for  superintendents,  and  they  are  now  con- 
tractors. With  regard  to  the  morals  of  the  two  classes,  we  have  seen  very 
little  difference ;  but  the  better-educated  class  are  more  cleanly  in  their  per- 
sons and  their  households,  and  generally  discover  more  refinement  in  their 
manners,  and  practise  a  more  economical  mode  in  their  living.  Their  fami- 
lies are  better  brought  up,  and  they  are  more  anxious  to  send  their  children 
to  school.  In  regard  to  their  standing  and  respectability  among  co-laborers, 
neighbors,  and  fellow-citizens,  the  more  educated  are  much  more  respected ; 
and  in  settling  minor  controversies,  they  are  more  commonly  applied  to  as 
arbitrators.  With  regard  to  the  morals  of  the  two  classes  before  men- 
tioned, permit  me  to  remark,  that  it  furnishes  an  illustration  of  the  truth 
of  a  common  saying,  that  merely  cultivating  the  understanding,  without 
improving  the  heart,  does  not  make  a  man  better.  The  more  extensively 


REPORT   FOR    1841.  109 

knowledge  and  virtue  prevail  in  our  country,  the  greater  security  have  we 
that  our  institutions  will  not  be  overthrown.  Our  common-school  system, 
connected  as  it  is,  or  ought  to  be,  with  the  inculcation  of  sound  and  practi- 
cal morality,  is  the  most  vigilant  and  efficient  police  for  the  protection  of 
persons,  property,  and  character,  that  could  be  devised  ;  and  is  it  not  grati- 
fying that  men  of  wealth  are  beginning  to  see,  that,  if  they  would  protect 
their  property  and  persons,  a  portion  of  that  property  should  be  expended 
for  the  education  of  the  poorer  classes  1  Merely  selfish  considerations 
would  lead  any  man  of  wealth  to  do  this,  if  he  would  only  view  the  subject 
in  its  true  light.  Nowhere  is  this  subject  better  understood  than  in  Massa- 
chusetts ;  and  the  free  discussions  which  have  of  late  been  held,  in  county 
and  town  meetings,  have  had  the  effect  to  call  the  attention  of  the  public 
to  it;  and  I  trust  the  time  is  not  far  distant,  when,  at  least  in  Massachu- 
setts, the  common-school  system  will  accomplish  all  the  good  which  it  is 
capable  of  producing.  Why  do  we  not  in  these  United  States  have  a  revo- 
lution, almost  annually,  as  in  the  republics  of  South  America?  Ignorance 
and  vice  always  have  invited,  and  always  will  invite,  such  characters  as 
Shakspeare's  Jack  Cade  to  rule  over  them.  And  may  we  not  feel  an  assur- 
ance, that  in  proportion  as  the  nation  shall  recover  from  the  baneful 
influence  of  intemperance,  so  will  its  attention  be  directed  pre-eminently  to 
the  promotion  of  virtue  and  knowledge,  and  nowhere  in  our  country  will 
an  incompetent  or  intemperate  common-school  teacher  be  intrusted  with 
the  education  of  our  children  ? 

These  are  a  fair  specimen,  and  no  more  than  a  fair  speci- 
men, of  a  mass  of  facts  which  I  have  obtained  from  the  most 
authentic  sources.  They  seem  to  prove  incontestably  that  edu- 
cation is  not  only  a  moral  renovator,  and  a  multiplier  of  intel- 
lectual power,  but  that  it  is  also  the  most  prolific  parent  of  ma- 
terial riches.  It  has  a  right,  therefore,  not  only  to  be  included 
in  the  grand  inventory  of  a  nation's  resources,  but  to  be  placed 
at  the  very  head  of  that  inventory.  It  is  not  only  the  most 
honest  and  honorable,  but  the  surest  means  of  amassing  prop- 
erty. A  trespasser  or  a  knave  may  forcibly  or  fraudulently  ap- 
propriate the  earnings  of  others  to  himself;  but  education  has 
the  prerogative  of  originating  or  generating  property  more 
certainly  and  more  rapidly  than  it  was  ever  accumulated  by 
force  or  fraud.  It  has  more  than  the  quality  of  an  ordinary 
mercantile  commodity,  from  which  the  possessor  realizes  but  a 
single  profit  as  it  passes  through  his  hands  :  it  rather  resembles 


110         ANNUAL  REPORTS  ON  EDUCATION. 

fixed  capital,  yielding  constant  and  high  revenues.  As  it  enjoys 
an  immunity  from  common  casualties,  it  incurs  no  cost  for  in- 
surance or  defence.  It  is  above  the  reach  of  changes  in  admin- 
istration or  in  administrational  policy  ;  and  it  is  free  from  those 
fluctuations  of  trade  which  agitate  the  market,  and  make  it  so 
frequent  an  occurrence  that  a  merchant  who  goes  to  bed  a  man 
of  wealth  at  night  rises  a  pauper  in  the  morning.  Possessing 
these  qualities,  it  has  the  highest  economical  value  ;  and  al- 
though statesmen  who  assail  or  defend,  who  raise  up  or  put 
down,  systems  of  commercial,  manufacturing,  or  agricultural 
policy,  have  seldom  or  never  deigned  to  look  at  education  as 
the  grand  agent  for  the  development  or  augmentation  of  national 
resources,  yet  it  measures  the  efficacy  of  every  other  means  of 
aggrandizement,  and  is  more  powerful  in  the  production  and 
gainful  employment  of  the  total  wealth  of  a  country  than  all 
other  things  mentioned  in  the  books  of  the  political  economist. 
Education  is  an  antecedent  agency ;  for  it  must  enlighten  man- 
kind in  the  choice  of  pursuits,  it  must  guide  them  in  the  selec- 
tion and  use  of  the  most  appropriate  means,  it  must  impart  that 
confidence  and  steadiness  of  purpose  which  results  from  com- 
prehending the  connections  of  a  long  train  of  events,  and  see- 
ing the  end  from  the  beginning,  or  all  enterprises  will  terminate 
in  ruin. 

Considering  education,  then,  as  a  producer  of  wealth,  it  fol- 
lows that  the  more  educated  a  people  are,  the  more  will  they 
abound  in  all  those  conveniences,  comforts,  and  satisfactions 
which  money  will  buy ;  and,  other  things  being  equal,  the  in- 
crease of  competency  and  the  decline  of  pauperism  will  be 
measurable  on  this  scale.  There  are  special  reasons  giv- 
ing peculiar  force  to  these  considerations  in  the  State  of  Mas- 
sachusetts. Our  population  is  principally  divided  into  agricul- 
turists, manufacturers,  and  mechanics.  We  have  no  idle  class, 
no  class  born  to  such  hereditary  wealth  as  supersedes  the  neces- 
sity of  labor,  and  no  class  subsisting  by  the  services  of  heredi- 
tary bondmen.  All,  with  exceptions  too  minute  to  be  noticed, 
must  live  by  their  own  industry  and  frugality.  The  master  and 


REPORT   FOR   1841.  Ill 

the  laborer  are  one  ;  and  hence  the  necessity  that  all  should 
have  the  health  and  strength  by  which  they  can  work,  and  the 
judgment  and  knowledge  by  which  they  can  plan  and  direct. 
The  muscle  of  a  laborer  and  the  intelligence  of  an  employer 
must  be  united  in  the  same  person. 

The  healthful  and  praiseworthy  employment  of  Agriculture 
requires  knowledge  for  its  successful  prosecution.  In  this  de- 
partment of  industry  we  are  in  perpetual  contact  with  the 
forces  of  Nature.  We  are  constantly  dependent  upon  them  for 
the  pecuniary  returns  and  profits  of  our  investments,  and  hence 
the  necessity  of  knowing  what  those  forces  are,  and  under  what 
circumstances  they  will  operate  most  efficiently,  and  will  most 
bountifully  reward  our  original  outlay  of  money  and  time.  In 
the  presence  of  the  savage,  the  exuberance  of  Nature  may  cover 
the  earth  with  magnificent  forests,  through  whole  degrees  of 
latitude  and  longitude,  and  clothe  and  beautify  it  with  the 
grasses  and  flowers  of  the  prairie  to  whose  ocean-like  expanse 
the  eye  can  discover  no  shore ;  magnificent  and  poetic  specta- 
cles, indeed  ;  yet,  for  the  sustentation  of  human  life,  for  the  ex- 
istence and  extension  of  human  happiness,  almost  valueless. 
But  under  the  art  of  agriculture,  which  is  only  another  name 
for  the  knowledge  of  natural  powers,  millions  are  feasted  on  a 
territory,  where,  before,  a  hundred  starved.  Perhaps  there  is 
no  spot  in  the  world,  of  such  limited  extent,  where  there  is  a 
greater  variety  of  agricultural  productions  than  in  Massachu- 
setts. This  brings  into  requisition  all  that  chemical  and  experi- 
mental knowledge  which  pertains  to  the  rotation  of  crops,  and 
the  enrichment  of  soils.  If  rotation  be  disregarded,  the  re- 
peated demand  upon  the  same  soil  to  produce  the  same  crop 
will  exhaust  it  of  the  elements  on  which  that  particular  crop 
will  best  thrive  ;  and,  if  its  chemical  ingredients  and  affinities 
are  not  understood,  an  attempt  may  be  made  to  re-enforce  it  by 
substances  with  which  it  is  already  surcharged,  instead  of  ren- 
ovating it  with  those  of  which  it  has  been  exhausted  by  pre- 
vious growths.  But,  for  these  arrangements  and  adaptations, 
knowledge  is  the  grand  desideratum  ;  and  the  addition  of  a  new 


112  ANNUAL   REPORTS    ON   EDUCATION. 

fact  to  a  farmer's  mind  will  often  increase  the  amount  of  his 
harvests  more  than  the  addition  of  acres  to  his  estate.  Why  is 
it,  that,  if  we  except  Egypt,  all  the  remaining  territory  of  Afri- 
ca, containing  nearly  ten  millions  of  square  miles,  with  a  soil 
most  of  which  is  incomparably  more  fertile  by  Nature,  produces 
less  for  the  sustenance  of  man  and  beast  than  England,  whose 
territory  is  only  fifty  thousand  square  miles  ?  In  the  latter  coun- 
try, knowledge  has  been  a  substitute  for  a  genial  climate  and  an 
exuberant  soil ;  while,  in  the  former,  it  is  hardly  a  figurative  ex- 
pression to  say  that  all  the  maternal  kindness  of  Nature,  power- 
ful and  benignant  as  she  is,  has  been  repulsed  by  the  ignorance 
of  her  children.  Doubtless,  industry  as  well  as  knowledge  is 
indispensable  to  productiveness  ;  but  knowledge  must  precede 
industry,  or  the  latter  will  work  to  so  little  eifect  as  to  become 
discouraged  and  to  relapse  into  the  slothfulness  of  savage  life. 
But,  without  further  exposition,  it  may  be  remarked  generally, 
that  the  spread  of  intelligence,  through  the  instrumentality  of 
good  books  and  the  cultivation  in  our  children  of  the  faculties 
of  observing,  comparing,  and,  reasoning  through  the  medium  of 
good  schools,  would  add  millions  to  the  agricultural  products 
of  the  Commonwealth,  without  imposing  upon  the  husbandman 
an  additional  hour  of  labor.  It  would  be  as  foolish  for  us  as 
for  the  African  to  suppose  that  we  have  reached  the  ultimate 
boundary  of  improvement. 

In  regard  to  another  branch  of  industry,  the  State  of  Massa- 
chusetts presents  a  phenomenon,  which,  all  things  being  consid- 
ered, is  unequalled  in  any  part  of  the  world.  I  refer  to  the 
distribution  or  apportionment  of  its  citizens  among  the  different 
departments  of  labor.  With  a  population  of  only  eighty-seven 
thousand  engaged  in  agriculture,  we  have  eighty-five  thousand 
engaged  in  manufactures  and  trades.  The  proportion,  there- 
fore, in  this  State,  of  the  latter  to  the  former,  is  almost  as  one 
to  one,  while  the  proportion  for  the  whole  Union  falls  but  a 
fraction  below  one  to  five.  If  to  the  eighty-five  thousand  en- 
gaged in  manufactures  and  trades  are  added  the  twenty-seven 
(almost  twenty-eight)  thousand  employed  in  navigating  the 


REPORT   FOR    1841.  113 

ocean,  and  to  whom,  as  a  class,  the  succeeding  views  are,  to  a 
great  extent,  applicable,  we  shall  find  that  the  capital  and  labor 
of  the  State  embarked  in  the  latter  employments  far  exceed 
those  devoted  to  agricultural  pursuits. 

Now,  for  the  successful  prosecution,  it  may  almost  be  said, 
for  the  very  existence  amongst  us  of  the  manufacturing  and 
mechanic  arts,  there  must  be  not  only  the  exactness  of  science, 
but  also  exactness  or  skill  in  the  application  of  scientific  prin- 
ciples throughout  the  whole  processes,  either  of  constructing 
machinery,  or  of  transforming  raw  materials  into  finished  fab- 
rics. This  ability  to  make  exact  and  skilful  applications  of 
science  to  an  unlimited  variety  of  materials,  and  especially  to 
the  subtile  but  most  energetic  agencies  of  Nature,  is  one  of  the 
latest  attainments  of  the  human  mind.  It  is  remarkable  that 
astronomy,  sculpture,  painting,  poetry,  oratory,  and  even  ethi- 
cal philosophy,  had  made  great  progress  thousands  of  years 
before  the  era  of  the  manufacturing  and  mechanic  arts.  This 
era,  indeed,  has  but  just  commenced  ;  and  already  the  abun- 
dance, and,  what  is  of  far  greater  importance,  the  universal- 
ity, of  personal,  domestic,  and  social  comforts  it  has  created, 
constitutes  one  of  the  most  important  epochs  in  the  history  of 
civilization.  The  cultivation  of  these  arts  is  conferring  a  thou- 
sand daily  accommodations  and  pleasures  upon  the  laborer  in 
his  cottage,  which,  only  two  or  three  centuries  ago,  were  lux- 
uries in  the  palace  of  the  monarch.  Through  circumstances 
incident  to  the  introduction  of  all  economical  improvements, 
there  has  hitherto  been  great  inequality  in  the  distribution  of 
their  advantages,  but  their  general  tendency  is  greatly  to  ameli- 
orate the  condition  of  the  mass  of  mankind.  It  has  been  esti- 
mated that  the  products  of  machinery  in  Great  Britian,  with  a 
population  of  eighteen  millions,  is  equal  to  the  labor  of  hun- 
dreds of  millions  of  human  hands.  This  vast  gain  is  effected 
without  the  conquest  or  partitioning  of  the  territory  of  any 
neighboring  nation,  and  without  rapine  or  the  confiscation  of 
property  already  accumulated  by  others.  It  is  an  absolute  crea- 
tion of  wealth ;  that  is,  of  those  articles,  commodities,  im- 
8 


114  ANNUAL   REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

provements,  which  we  appraise  and  set  down  as  of  a  certain 
moneyed  value,  alike  in  the  inventory  of  a  deceased  man's  estate, 
and  in  the  grand  valuation  of  a  nation's  capital.  These  contri- 
butions to  human  welfare  have  been  derived  from  knowledge, — 
from  knowing  how  to  employ  those  natural  agencies,  which 
from  the  beginning  of  the  race  had  existed,  but  had  laid  dor- 
mant or  run  uselessly  away.  For  mechanical  purposes,  what  is 
wind  or  water,  or  the  force  of  steam,  worth,  until  the  ingenuity 
,  of  man  comes  in,  and  places  the  wind-wheel,  the  water-wheel, 
or  the  piston,  between  these  mighty  agents  and  the  work  he 
wishes  them  to  perform?  but,  after  the  invention  and  interven- 
tion of  machinery,  how  powerful  they  become  for  all  purposes 
of  utility  !  In  a  word,  these  great  improvements,  which  distin- 
guish our  age  from  all  preceding  ages,  have  been  obtained 
from  Nature  by  addressing  her  in  the  language  of  Science  and 
Art,  —  the  only  language  she  understands,  yet  one  of  such 
all-prevailing  efficacy  that  she  never  refuses  to  comply  to  the 
letter  with  all  petitions  for  wealth  or  physical  power,  if  they 
are  preferred  to  her  in  that  dialect. 

Now,  it  is  easy  to  show,  from  reasoning,  from  history,  and 
from  experience,  that  an  early  awakening  of  the  mind  is  a  pre- 
requisite to  success  in  the  useful  arts.  It  must  be  an  awaken- 
ing not  to  feeling  merely,  but  to  thought.  In  the  first  place, 
a  clearness  of  perception  must  be  acquired,  or  the  power  of  tak- 
ing a  correct  mental  transcript,  copy,  or  image  of  whatever  is 
seen.  This,  however,  though  indispensable,  is  by  no  means 
sufficient.  It  may  answer  for  mere  automatic  movements,  — 
for  the  servile  copying  of  the  productions  of  others.  The  Chi- 
nese excel  in  imitations  of  this  kind;  but,  as  they  have  little 
inventive  genius,  the  learner  echoes  the  teacher,  the  apprentice 
repeats  the  master;  and  thus  the  human  mind,  for  generation 
after  generation,  presents  the  monotonous  aspects  of  a  revolv- 
ing cylinder,  which  turns  up  the  same  phases  at  each  successive 
revolution.  But  the  talent  of  improving  upon  the  labors  of 
others  requires,  not  only  the  capability  of  receiving  an  exact 
mental  copy  or  imprint  of  all  the  objects  of  sense  or  reasoning  ; 


REPORT    FOR    1841.  115 

it  also  requires  the  power  of  reviving  or  reproducing  at  will 
all  the  impressions  or  ideas  before  obtained,  and  also  the 
power  of  changing  their  collocations,  of  re-arranging  them  into 
new  forms,  and  of  adding  something  to,  or  removing  something 
from,  the  original  perceptions,  in  order  to  make  a.  more  perfect 
plan  or  model.  If  a  shipwright,  for  instance,  would  improve 
upon  all  existing  specimens  of  naval  architecture,  he  would 
first  examine  as  great  a  number  of  ships  as  possible  ;  this  done, 
he  would  revive  the  image  which  each  one  imprinted  upon  his 
mind  ;  and,  with  all  the  fleets  which  he  had  inspected  present 
to  his  imagination,  he  would  compare  each  individual  vessel 
with  all  the  others,  make  a  selection  of  one  part  from  one,  and 
of  another  part  from  another,  apply  his  own  knowledge  of  the 
laws  of  moving  and  of  resisting  forces  to  all,  and  thus  create 
in  his  own  mind  the  complex  idea  or  model  of  a  ship,  more 
perfect  than  any  of  those  he  had  seen.  Now,  every  recitation 
in  a  school,  if  rightly  conducted,  is  a  step  towards  the  attain- 
ment of  this  wonderful  power.  With  a  course  of  studies  judi- 
ciously arranged  and  diligently  pursued  through  the  years  of 
minority,  all  the  great  phenomena  of  external  Nature,  and  the 
most  important  productions  in  all  the  useful  arts,  together  with 
the  principles  on  which  they  are  evolved  or  fashioned,  would 
be  successfully  brought  before  the  understanding  of  the  pupil. 
He  would  thus  become  familiar  with  the  substances  of  the  ma- 
terial world,  and  with  their  manifold  properties  and  uses ;  and 
he  would  learn  the  laws  —  comparatively  few  —  by  which  re- 
sults infinitely  diversified  are  produced.  When  such  a  student 
goes  out  into  life,  he  carries,  as  it  were,  a  plan  or  a  model  of 
the  world  in  his  own  mind.  He  cannot,  therefore,  pass,  either 
blindly  or  with  the  stupid  gaze  of  the  brute  creation,  by  the 
great  objects  and  processes  of  Nature  ;  but  he  has  an  intelligent 
discernment  of  their  several  existences  and  relations,  and  their 
adaptation  to  the  uses  of  mankind.  Neither  can  he  fasten  his 
eye  upon  any  workmanship  or  contrivance  of  man  without  ask- 
ing two  questions,  —  first,  how  is  it?  and,  secondly,  how  can  it 
be  improved?  Hence,  he  has  as  great  an  advantage  over  an 


116  ANNUAL   REPORTS    ON   EDUCATION. 

ignorant  man  as  one  traveller  in  a  foreign  country,  who  is 
familiar  with  the  language  of  the  people  where  he  is  journey- 
ing, has  over  another  incapable  of  understanding  a  word  that 
he  hears.  The  one  also  carries  a  map  of  the  whole  country 
in  his  hand,  while  the  other  is  without  path  or  guide.  Hence 
it  is,  too,  that  all  the  processes  of  Nature,  and  the  contrivances 
of  Art,  are  so  many  lessons  or  communications  to  an  instructed 
man ;  but  an  uninstructed  one  walks  in  the  midst  of  them  like 
a  blind  man  amongst  colors  or  a  deaf  man  amongst  sounds. 
The  Romans  carried  their  aqueducts  from  hill-top  to  hill-top 
on  lofty  arches,  erected  at  an  immense  expenditure  of  time  and 
money.  One  idea,  —  that  is,  a  knowledge  of  the  law  of  the 
equilibrium  of  fluids,  —  a  knowledge  of  the  fact  that  water  in 
a  tube  will  rise  to  the  level  of  the  fountain,  would  have  enabled 
a  single  individual  to  do  with  ease,  what,  without  that  knowl- 
edge, it  required  the  wealth  of  an  empire  to  accomplish. 

It  is  in  ways  similar  to  this,  —  that  is,  by  accomplishing 
greater  results  with  less  means ;  by  creating  products,  at  once 
cheaper,  better,  and  by  more  expeditious  methods  ;  and  by 
doing  a  vast  variety  of  things  otherwise  impossible,  —  that  the 
cultivation  of  mind  may  be  truly  said  to  yield  the  highest  pecu- 
niary requital.  Intelligence  is  the  great  money-maker,  —  not 
by  extortion,  but  by  production.  There  are  ten  thousand 
things  in  every  department  of  life,  which,  if  done  in  season, 
can  be  done  in  a  minute,  but  which,  if  not  seasonably  done, 
will  require  hours,  perhaps  days  or  weeks,  for  their  perform- 
ance. An  awakened  mind  will  see  and  seize  the  critical  junc- 
ture ;  the  perceptions  of  a  sluggish  one  will  come  too  late,  if 
they  come  at  all.  A  general  culture  of  the  faculties  gives  ver- 
satility of  talent,  so  that,  if  the  customary  business  of  the  la- 
borer is  superseded  by  improvements,  he  can  readily  betake  him- 
self to  another  kind  of  employment ;  but  an  uncultivated  mind 
is  like  an  automaton,  which  can  do  only  the  one  thing  for  which 
its  wheels  or  springs  were  made.  Brute  force  expends  itself 
unproductively.  It  is  ignorant  of  the  manner  in  which  Nature 
works,  and  hence  it  cannot  avail  itself  of  her  mighty  agencies. 


REPORT   FOR    1841.  117 

Often,  indeed,  it  attempts  to  oppose  Nature.  It  throws  itself 
across  the  track  where  her  resistless  car  is  moving.  But 
knowledge  enables  its  possessor  to  employ  her  agencies  in  his 
own  service  ;  and  he  thereby  obtains  an  amount  of  power,  with- 
out fee  or  reward,  which  thousands  of  slaves  could  not  give. 
Every  man  who  consumes  a  single  article,  in  whose  production 
or  transportation  the  power  of  steam  is  used,  has  it  delivered  to 
him  cheaper  than  he  could  otherwise  have  obtained  it.  Every 
man  who  can  avail  himself  of  this  power,  in  travelling,  can 
perform  the  business  of  three  days  in  one,  and  so  far  add  two 
hundred  per  cent  to  the  length  of  his  life  as  a  business-man. 
What  innumerable  millions  has  the  invention  of  the  cotton-gin 
by  Whitney  added,  and  will  continue  to  add,  to  the  wealth  of 
the  world  !  —  a  part  of  which  is  already  realized,  but  vastly  the 
greater  part  of  which  is  yet  to  be  received,  as  each  successive 
day  draws  for  an  instalment  which  would  exhaust  the  treasury 
of  a  nation.  The  instructed  and  talented  man  enters  the  rich 
domains  of  Nature,  not  as  an  intruder,  but,  as  it  were,  a  pro- 
prietor, and  makes  her  riches  his  own. 

And  why  is  it,  that,  so  far  as  this  Union  is  concerned,  four- 
fifths  of  all  the  improvements,  inventions,  and  discoveries,  in 
regard  to  machinery,  to  agricultural  implements,  to  superior 
models  in  ship-building,  and  to  the  manufacture  of  those  re- 
fined instruments  on  which  accuracy  in  scientific  observations 
depends,  have  originated  in  New  England?  I  believe  no  ade- 
quate reason  can  be  assigned,  but  the  early  awakening  and 
training  of  the  power  of  thought  in  our  children.  The  sugges- 
tion is  not  made  invidiously,  but  in  this  connection  it  has 
too  important  a  bearing  to  be  omitted.  Let  any  one,  who  has 
resided  or  travelled  in  those  States  where  there  are  no  Common 
Schools,  compare  the  condition  of  the  people  at  large,  as  to 
thrift,  order,  neatness,  and  all  the  external  signs  of  comfort  and 
competence,  with  the  same  characteristics  of  civilization  in 
the  farm-houses  and  villages  of  New  England.  These  contrasts 
exist,  notwithstanding  the  fertility  of  the  soil  and  the  abun- 
dance of  mineral  resources,  in  the  former  States,  as  compared 


118  ANNUAL   REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

with  the  sterile  surface  and  granite  substratum  of  the  latter. 
Never  was  a  problem  more  clearly  demonstrated  than  that  even 
a  moderate  degree  of  intelligence,  diffused  through  the  mass  of 
the  people,  is  more  than  an  equivalent  for  all  the  prodigality 
of  Nature.  It  is  said,  indeed,  in  regard  to  those  States  where 
there  are  no  provisions  for  general  education,  that  the  want  of 
energy  and  forecast,  the  absence  of  labor-saving  contrivances, 
and  an  obtuseness  in  adapting  means  to  ends,  are  the  conse- 
quences of  a  system  of  involuntary  servitude  :  but  what  is  this, 
so  far  as  productiveness  is  concerned,  but  a  want  of  knowl- 
edge? what  is  it  but  the  existence  of  that  mental  imbecility 
and  torpor  which  arise  from  personal  and  hereditary  neglect? 
In  conversing  with  a  gentleman  who  had  possessed  most  exten- 
sive opportunities  for  acquaintance  with  men  of  different  coun- 
tries and  of  all  degrees  of  intellectual  development,  he  observed 
that  he  could  employ  a  common  immigrant  or  a  slave,  and,  if  he 
chose,  could  direct  him  to  shovel  a  heap  of  sand  from  one  spot 
to  another,  and  then  back  into  its  former  place,  and  so  to  and 
fro  through  the  day ;  and  that,  with  the  same  food  or  the  same 
pay,  the  laborer  would  perform  this  tread-mill  operation  without 
inquiry  or  complaint ;  but,  added  he,  neither  love  nor  money 
would  prevail  on  a  New-Englander  to  prosecute  a  piece  of 
work  of  which  he  did  not  see  the  utility.  There  is  scarcely  any 
kind  of  labor,  however  simple  or  automatic,  which  can  be  so 
well  performed  without  knowledge  in  the  workman  as  with  it. 
It  is  impossible  for  an  overseer  or  employer  at  all  times  to  sup- 
ply mind  to  the  laborer.  In  giving  directions  for  the  shortest 
series  or  train  of  operations,  something  will  be  omitted  or  mis- 
understood ;  and,  without  intelligence  in  the  workman,  the  omis- 
sion or  the  mistake  will  be  repeated  in  the  execution. 

It  is  a  fact  of  universal  notoriety,  that  the  manufacturing 
population  of  England,  as  a  class,  work  for  half,  or  less  than 
half,  the  wages  of  our  own.  The  cost  of  machinery  there  also 
is  but  about  half  as  much  as  the  cost  of  the  same  articles  with 
us  ;  while  our  capital,  when  loaned,  produces  nearly  double  the 
rate  of  English  interest.  Yet,  against  these  grand  adverse  cir- 


REPORT   FOR    1841.  119 

cumstances,  our  manufacturers,  with  a  small  percentage  of 
tariff,  successfully  compete  with  English  capitalists  in  many 
branches  of  manufacturing  business.  No  explanation  can  be 
given  of  this  extraordinary  fact,  which  does  not  take  into  the 
account  the  difference  of  education  between  the  operatives  in 
the  two  countries.  Yet  where,  in  all  our  Congressional  debates 
upon  this  subject,  or  in  the  discussions  and  addresses  of  National 
Conventions,  has  this  fundamental  principle  been  brought  out, 
and  one,  at  least,  of  its  most  important  and  legitimate  infer- 
ences displayed  ;  viz.,  that  it  is  our  wisest  policy  as  citizens  —  if, 
indeed,  it  be  not  a  duty  of  self-preservation  as  men  —  to  im- 
prove the  education  of  our  whole  people,  both  in  its  quantity 
and  quality  ?  I  have  been  told  by  one  of  our  most  careful  and 
successful  manufacturers,  that  on  substituting,  in  one  of  his 
cotton-mills,  a  better  for  a  poorer  educated  class  of  operatives, 
he  was  enabled  to  add  twelve  or  fifteen  per  cent  to  the  speed 
of  his  machinery,  without  any  increase  of  damage  or  danger 
from  the  acceleration.  How  direct  and  demonstrative  the  bear- 
ing which  facts  like  this  have  upon  the  wisdom  of  our  law 
respecting  the  education  of  children  in  manufacturing  establish- 
ments !  What  prominency  and  cogency  do  they  give  to  the 
argument  for  obeying  it,  if  not  from  motives  of  humanity,  at 
least  from  those  of  policy  and  self-interest !  I  am  sorry  to  say 
that  this  benignant  and  parental  law  is  still,  in  some  cases, 
openly  disregarded ;  and  that  there  are  employers  amongst  us 
who  say,  that  if  their  hands  come  punctually  to  their  work,  and 
continue  at  it  during  the  regular  hours,  it  is  immaterial  to  them 
what  private  character  they  sustain,  and  whether  they  attend 
the  evening  school  or  the  lyceum  lecture  on  the  week-day,  or  go 
to  church  on  the  sabbath. 

The  number  of  females  in  this  State  engaged  in  the  various 
manufactures  of  cotton,  straw-platting,  &c.,  has  been  estimated 
at  forty  thousand  ;  and  the  annual  value  of  their  labor,  at  one 
hundred  dollars  each,  on  an  average,  or  four  millions  of  dollars 
for  the  whole.  From  the  facts  stated  in  the  letters  of  Messrs. 
Mills  and  Clark,  above  cited,  it  appears  that  there  is  a  differ- 


120  ANNUAL   EEPOBTS   ON  EDUCATION. 

ence  of  not  less  than  fifty  per  cent  between  the  earnings  of  the 
least  educated  and  of  the  best  educated  operatives,  —  between 
those  who  make  their  marks,  instead  of  writing  their  names, 
and  those  who  have  been  acceptably  employed  in  school-keep- 
ing. Now,  suppose  the  whole  forty  thousand  females  engaged 
in  the  various  kinds  of  manufactures  in  this  Commonwealth 
to  be  degraded  to  the  level  of  the  lowest  class,  it  would  follow 
that  their  aggregate  earnings  would  fall  at  once  to  two  millions 
of  dollars.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  suppose  them  all  to  be 
elevated  by  mental  cultivation  to  the  rank  of  the  highest,  and 
their  earnings  would  rise  to  the  sum  of  six  millions  of  dollars 
annually. 

I  institute  no  comparison  in  regard  to  the  company  imported 
from  England,  who,  though  accustomed  to  work  in  the  mills  of 
Manchester,  could  not  earn  their  living  here. 

These  remarks,  in  regard  to  other  States  or  countries,  ema- 
nate from  no  boastful  or  vain-glorious  spirit.  They  come  from 
a  very  different  mood  of  mind ;  for  I  have  the  profoundest  con- 
viction,—  and  could  fill  much  space  with  facts  that  would  jus- 
tify it, — that  other  communities  do  not  fall  short  of  our  own 
so  much  as  we  fall  short  of  what  we  might  easily  become. 

A  few  instances,  of  a  familiar  kind,  exemplifying  the  axiom 
that  u  knowledge  is  power,"  will  close  this  Report. 

M.  Redelet,  in  his  work,  Sur  L 'Art  de  Butir,  gives  the  follow- 
ing account  of  an  experiment  made  to  test  the  different  amounts 
of  force,  which,  under  different  circumstances,  Avere  necessary 
to  move  a  block  of  squared  granite,  weighing  a  thousand  and 
eighty  pounds. 

In  order  to  move  this  block  along  the  floor  of  a  roughly-chis- 
elled quarry,  it  required  a  force  equal  to  seven  hundred  and 
fifty-eight  pounds. 

To  draw  the  same  stone  over  a  floor  of  planks,  it  required  a 
force  equal  to  six  hundred  and  fifty-two  pounds. 

Placed  on  a  platform  of  wood,  and  drawn  over  the  same 
floar,  it  required  six  hundred  and  six  pounds. 

By  soaping  the  two  surfaces  of  wood,  the  requisite  force  was 
reduced  to  a  hundred  and  eighty-two  pounds. 


REPORT   FOR    1841.  121 

Placed  on  rollers  of  three  inches  diameter,  and  a  force  equal 
to  thirty-four  pounds  was  sufficient. 

Substituting  a  wooden  for  a  stone  floor,  and  the  requisite 
force  was  twenty-eight  pounds. 

With  the  same  rollers  on  a  wooden  platform,  it  required  a 
force  equal  to  twenty-two  pounds  only. 

At  this  point,  the  experiments  of  M.  Redelet  stopped.  But 
by  improvements  since  effected,  in  the  invention  and  use  of  loco- 
motives on  railroads,  a  traction  or  draft  of  eight  pounds  is  suffi- 
cient to  move  a  ton  of  twenty-two  hundred  and  forty  pounds  : 
so  that  a  force  of  less  than  four  pounds  would  now  be  sufficient 
to  move  the  granite  block  of  a  thousand  and  eighty  pounds ; 
that  is,  a  hundred  and  eighty-eight  times  less  than  was  required 
in  the  first  instance.  When,  therefore,  mere  animal  or  muscu- 
lar force  was  used  to  move  the  body,  it  required  about  two- 
thirds  of  its  own  weight  to  accomplish  the  object ;  but,  by  add- 
ing the  contrivances  of  mind  to  the  strength  of  muscle,  the  force 
necessary  to  move  it  is  reduced  more  than  a  hundred  and  eighty- 
eight  times.  Here,  then,  is  a  partnership,  in  which  mind  con- 
tributes a  hundred  and  eighty-eight  shares  to  the  stock  to  one 
share  contributed  by  muscle ;  or,  while  brute  strength  represents 
one  man,  ingenuity  or  intelligence  represents  a  hundred  and 
eighty-eight  men. 

Dr.  Potter,  in  his  late  work,  entitled  "  The  Principles  of 
Science,  applied  to  the  Domestic  and  Mechanic  Arts,  and  to 
Manufactures  and  Agriculture,"  has  the  following,  p.  29  n. :  — 

"  The  increasing  powers  of  the  steam-loom  are  shown  in 
the  following  statement,  furnished  by  a  manufacturer :  — 

"  '  A  very  good  hand-iceaver,  twenty-five  or  thirty  years  of 
age,  will  weave  two  pieces  of  9-8ths  shirting  a  week. 

"  '  In  1823,  a  steam-loom  weaver,  about  fifteen  years  of  age, 
attending  two  looms,  could  weave  seven  similar  pieces  in  a 
week. 

"  '  In  1826,  a  steam-loom  weaver,  about  fifteen  years  of  age, 
attending  two  looms,  could  weave  twelve  similar  pieces  in  a 
week  ;  some  could  weave  fifteen  pieces. 


122  ANNUAL    REPORTS    ON   EDUCATION. 

"  '  In  1833,  a  steam-loom  weaver,  from  fifteen  to  twenty- 
years  of  age,  assisted  by  a  girl  about  twelve  years  of  age,  at- 
tending four  looms,  could  weave  eighteen  similar  pieces  in  a 
week  ;  some  could  weave  twenty  pieces.'  " 

Here,  then,  during  a  period  of  only  ten  years,  the  application 
of  mind  to  a  particular  branch  of  business  enabled  a  lad  of 
fifteen  years  of  age,  assisted  by  a  girl  of  twelve,  to  do  from 
nine  to  ten  times  as  much  work  as  had  before  been  done  by  an 
accomplished  and  mature  workman. 

In  the  manufacture  of  needles,  a  number  equal  to  twenty 
thousand  is  thrown  promiscuously  into  a  box,  mingled  heads 
and  points,  and  crossing  each  other  in  every  possible  direction. 
This  happens  several  times  during  the  various  stages  of  manu- 
facturing needles  ;  and,  in  each  case,  it  is  necessary  to  arrange 
them  lengthwise  or  in  a  parallel  direction.  One  would  sup- 
pose, beforehand,  that  the  picking  out  of  twenty  thousand 
needles  entangled  together,  and  forming,  as  it  were,  one  great 
iron  burr,  and  placing  them  all  in  a  parallel  direction,  would  be 
a  formidable  task,  even  for  a  week  ;  and  also  that  the  opera- 
tor would  need  some  insurance  on  the  ends  of  his  fingers,  or 
be  obliged  to  submit  to  a  very  uncomfortable  species  of  blood- 
letting. But,  by  a  simple  and  ingenious  contrivance,  aided  by 
a  little  sleight  of  hand,  the  work  is  done  in  a  few  minutes.  It 
is  unnecessary  to  inquire  how  much  such  ingenuity  diminishes 
the  price  of  needles,  because,  without  it,  there  would  be  no 
needles  at  any  price. 

Not  more  than  thirty  years  ago,  it  was  uncommon  for  a 
glazier's  apprentice,  even  after  having  served  an  apprenticeship 
of  seven  years,  to  be  able  to  cut  glass  with  a  diamond,  without 
spending  much  time,  and  destroying  much  of  the  glass  upon 
which  he  worked.  The  invention  of  a  simple  tool  has  put  it 
in  the  power  of  the  merest  tyro  in  the  trade  to  cut  glass  with 
facility  and  without  loss.  A  man,  who  had  a  mind  as  well  as 
fingers,  observed  that  there  was  one  direction  in  which  the 
diamond  was  almost  incapable  of  abrasion  or  wearing  by  use. 
The  tool  not  only  steadies  the  diamond,  but  fastens  it  in  that 
direction. 


REPORT   FOR    1841.  123 

The  lathe,  the  old-fashioned  spinning-wheel,  and  the  loom, 
by  having  a  treadle  for  the  foot,  became  equal  to  the  addition 
of  another  hand  to  the  workman.* 

The  operation  of  tanning  leather  consists  in  exposing  a  hide 
to  the  action  of  a  chemical  ingredient  called  tannin  for  a  length 
of  time  sufficient  to  allow  every  particle  of  the  hide  to  become 
saturated  with  the  solution.  In  making  the  best  leather,  the 
hides  used  to  lie  in  the  pit  for  six,  twelve,  or  eighteen  months, 
and  sometimes  for  two  years  ;  the  tanner  being  obliged  to  wait, 
all  this  time,  for  a  return  of  his  capital.  By  the  modern  pro- 
cess, the  hides  are  placed  in  a  close  pit  with  a  solution  of  the 
tannin-matter ;  and,  the  air  being  exhausted,  the  liquid  pene- 
trates through  every  pore  and  fibre  of  the  skin,  and  the  whole 
process  is  completed  in  a  few  days. 

The  bleaching  of  cloth,  which  used  to  be  effected  in  the  open 

*  "  Without  tools,  that  is,  by  the  mere  efforts  of  the  human  hand,  there  are,  un- 
doubtedly, multitudes  of  things  which  it  would  be  impossible  to  make.  Add  to  the 
human  hand  the  rudest  cutting  instrument,  and  its  powers  are  enlarged;  the  fab- 
rication of  many  things  then  becomes  easy,  and  that  of  others  possible,  with  great 
labor.  Add  the  saw  to  the  knife  or  the  hatchet,  and  other  works  become  possi- 
ble, and  a  new  course  of  difficult  operations  is  brought  into  view,  whilst  many  of 
the  former  are  rendered  easy.  This  observation  is  applicable  even  to  the  most  per- 
fect tools  or  machine's.  It  would  be  possible  for  a  very  skilful  workman,  with  files 
and  polishing  substances,  to  form  a  cylinder  out  of  a  piece  of  steel;  but  the  time 
which  this  would  require  would  be  so  considerable,  and  the  number  of  failures 
would  probably  be  so  great,  that,  for  all  practical  purposes,  such  a  mode  of  pro- 
ducing a  steel  cylinder  might  be  said  to  be  impossible.  The  same  process,  by  the 
aid  of  the  lathe  and  the  sliding-rest,  is  the  every-day  employment  of  hundreds  of 
workmen."  —  Babbageon  the  Economy  of  Machinery  and  Manufactures. 

"  The  earliest  mode  of  cutting  the  trunks  of  a  tree  into  planks  was  by  the  use 
of  the  hatchet  or  the  adze.  It  might,  perhaps,  be  first  split  into  three  or  four  por- 
tions, and  then  each  portion  was  reduced  to  a  uniform  surface  by  those  instruments. 
With  such  means,  the  quantity  of  plank  produced  would  probably  not  equal  the 
quantity  of  the  raw  material  wasted  by  the  process,  and,  if  the  planks  were  thin, 
would  certainly  fall  short  of  it.  An  improved  tool,  the  saw,  completely  reverses 
the  case.  In  converting  a  tree  into  thick  planks,  it  causes  the  waste  of  a  very 
email  fractional  part;  and,  even  in  reducing  it  to  planks  of  only  an  inch  in  thick- 
ness, it  does  not  waste  more  than  an  eighth  part  of  the  raw  material.  When  the 
thickness  of  the  plank  is  still  further  reduced,  as  is  the  case  in  cutting  wood  for 
veneering,  the  quantity  of  material  destroyed  again  begins  to  bear  a  considerable 
proportion  to  that  which  is  used;  and  hence  circular  saws,  having  a  very  thin 
blade,  have  been  employed  for  such  purposes.  In  order  to  economize  still  fur- 
ther the  more  valuable  woods,  Mr.  Brunei  contrived  a  machine,  which,  by  a  system 
of  blades,  cut  off  the  veneer  in  a  continuous  shaving,  thus  rendering  the  whole  of 
the  piece  of  timber  available."  —  Id. 


124  ANNUAL   REPORTS   ON  EDUCATION. 

air  and  in  exposed  situations  where  a  temptation  to  theft  was 
offered  (and  in  England  hundreds,  and  probably  thousands,  of 
men  have  yielded,  and  forfeited  their  lives),  is  now  performed 
in  an  unexposed  situation,  and  in  a  manner  so  expeditious,  that 
cloth  is  bleached  as  much  more  rapidly  than  it  formerly  was 
as  hides  are  tanned. 

It  is  stated  by  Lord  Brougham,  in  his  beautiful  "  Discourse 
on  the  Advantages  of  Science,"  that  the  inventor  of  the  new 
mode  of  refining  sugar  made  more  money  in  a  shorter  time, 
and  with  less  risk  and  trouble,  than  perhaps  was  ever  realized 
from  any  previous  invention. 

Intelligence  also  prevents  loss,  as  well  as  makes  profit, 
How  much  time  and  money  have  been  squandered  in  repeated 
attempts  to  invent  machinery,  after  a  principle  had  been  once 
tested,  and  had  failed  through  some  defect,  inherent  and  natu- 
ral, and  therefore  insuperable  !  Within  thirty  years,  not  less 
than  five  patents  have  been  taken  out,  in  England  and  the 
United  States,  for  a  certain  construction  of  paddle-wheels  for  a 
steamboat,  which  construction  was  tested  and  condemned  as 
early  as  1810.  A  case  once  came  within  my  own  knowledge, 
of  a  man  who  spent  a  fortune  in  mining  for  coal,  when  a  work 
on  geology  which  would  have  cost  but  a  dollar,  and  might 
have  been  read  in  a  week,  would  have  informed  him  that  the 
stratum  where  he  began  to  excavate  belonged  to  a  formation 
lower  down  in  the  natural  series  than  coal  ever  is,  or,  according 
to  the  constitution  of  things,  ever  can  be  found.  He  therefore 
worked  into  a  stratum  which  must  have  been  formed  before  a 
particle  of  coal,  or  even  a  tree  or  a  vegetable,  existed  oo  the 
planet. 

These  are  a  few  specimens,  on  familiar  subjects,  taken  almost 
at  random,  for  the  purpose  of  showing  the  inherent  superiority 
of  any  association  or  community,  whether  small  or  great,  where 
mind  is  a  member  of  the  partnership.  What  is  true  of  the  above- 
mentioned  cases  is  true  of  the  whole  circle  of  those  arts  by 
which  human  life  is  sustained,  and  human  existence  comforted, 
elevated,  and  embellished.  Mind  has  been  the  improver,  for 


REPORT  FOR   1841.  125 

matter  cannot  improve  itself;  and  improvement  has  advanced 
in  proportion  to  the  number  and  culture  of  the  minds  excited 
to  activity  and  applied  to  the  work.  Similar  advancements 
have  been  effected  throughout  the  whole  compass  of  human 
labor  and  research :  in  the  arts  of  transportation  and  locomo- 
tion, from  the  employment  of  the  sheep  and  the  goat,  as  beasts 
of  burden,  to  the  steam-engine  and  the  railroad-car ;  in  the  art 
of  navigation,  from  the  canoe  clinging  timidly  to  the  shore,  to 
steamships  which  boldly  traverse  the  ocean  ;  in  hydraulics, 
from  carrying  water  by  hand,  in  a  vessel,  or  in  horizontal  aque- 
ducts, to  those  vast  conduits  which  supply  the  demands  of  a 
city,  and  to  steam  fire-engines  which  throw  a  column  of  water 
to  the  top  of  the  loftiest  buildings  ;  in  the  arts  of  spinning  and 
rope-making,  from  the  hand-distaff  to  the  spinning-frame,  and 
to  the  machine  which  makes  cordage  or  cables  of  any  length,  in 
a  space  ten  feet  square  ;  in  horology,  or  time-keeping,  from  the 
sun-dial  and  the  water-clock  to  the  watch,  and  to  the  chronome- 
ter by  which  the  mariner  is  assisted  in  measuring  his  longitude, 
and  in  saving  property  and  life  ;  in  the  extraction,  forging,  and 
tempering  of  iron,  and  other  ores  having  malleability  to  be 
wrought  into  all  forms,  and  used  for  all  purposes,  and  supply- 
ing, instead  of  the  stone-hatchet  or  the  fish-shell  of  the  savage, 
an  almost  infinite  variety  of  instruments,  which  have  sharpness 
for  cutting,  or  solidity  for  striking ;  in  the  arts  of  vitrification, 
or  glass-making,  giving  not  only  a  multitude  of  commodious 
and  ornamental  utensils  for  the  household,  but  substituting  the 
window  for  the  unsightly  orifice  or  open  casement,  and  winnow- 
ing light  and  warmth  from  the  outward  and  the  cold  atmo- 
sphere ;  in  the  arts  of  induration  by  heat,  from  bricks  dried 
in  the  sun  to  those  which  withstand  the  corrosion  of  our  cli- 
mate for  centuries,  or  resist  the  intensity  of  the  furnace ;  in 
the  arts  of  illumination,  from  the  torch  cut  from  the  fir  or  pine 
tree  to  the  brilliant  gas-light  which  gives  almost  a  solar  splen- 
dor to  the  nocturnal  darkness  of  our  cities  ;  in  the  arts  of  heat- 
ing and  ventilation,  which  at  once  supply  warmth  for  comfort 
and  pure  air  for  health ;  in  the  art  of  building,  from  the  hoi- 


126  ANNUAL    REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

lowed  trunk  of  a  tree,  or  the  roof-shaped  cabin,  to  those  commo- 
dious and  lightsome  dwellings  which  betoken  the  taste  and  com- 
petence of  our  villages  and  cities  ;  in  the  art  of  copying  or 
printing,  from  the  toilsome  process  of  hand-copying,  where  the 
transcription  of  a  single  book  was  the  labor  of  months  or  years, 
and  sometimes  almost  of  a  life,  to  the  power-printing  press, 
which  throws  off  sixty  printed  sheets  in  a  minute  ;  in  the  art  of 
paper-making,  from  the  preparation  of  the  inner  bark  of  a  tree, 
cleft  off,  and  dried  at  immense  labor,  to  the  machinery  of  Four- 
drinier,  from  which  there  jets  out  an  unbroken  stream  of  paper 
with  the  velocity  and  continuousness  of  a  current  of  water  ;  and, 
in  addition  to  all  these,  in  the  arts  of  modellin?  and  casting  : 

O  o    " 

of  designing,  engraving,  and  painting  ;  of  preserving  materials 
and  of  changing  their  color,  of  dividing  and  uniting  them, 
&c.,  &c.,  —  a«  ample  catalogue,  whose  very  names  and  pro- 
cesses would  fill  columns. 

Now,  for  the  perfecting  of  all  these  operations,  from  the 
tedious  and  bungling  process  to  the  rapid  and  elegant ;  for  the 
change  of  an  almost  infinite  variety  of  crude  and  worthless 
materials  into  useful  and  beautiful  fabrics,  —  mind  has  been  the 
agent.  Succeeding  generations  have  outstripped  their  prede- 
cessors, just  in  proportion  to  the  superiority  of  their  mental 
cultivation.  When  we  compare  different  people  or  different 
generations  with  each  other,  the  diversity  is  so  great,  that  all 
must  behold  it.  But  there  is  the  same  kind  of  difference  be- 
tween contemporaries,  fellow-townsmen,  and  fellow-laborers. 
Though  the  uniustructed  man  works  side  by  side  with  the  in- 
telligent, yet  the  mental  difference  between  them  places  them 
in  the  same  relation  to  each  other  that  a  past  age  bears  to  the 
present.  If  the  ignorant  man  knows  no  more  respecting  any 
particular  art  or  branch  of  business  than  was  generally  known 
during  the  last  century,  he  belongs  to  the  last  century  ;  and  he 
must  consent  to  be  outstripped  by  those  who  have  the  light  and 
knowledge  of  the  present.  Though  they  are  engaged  in  the 
same  kind  of  work,  though  they  are  supplied  with  the  same 
tools  or  implements  for  carrying  it  on,  yet  so  long  as  one  has 


EEPORT   FOE   1841.  127 

only  an  arm,  but  the  other  has  an  arm  and  a  mind,  their  prod- 
ucts will  come  out  stamped  and  labelled  all  over  with  marks 
of  contrast :  superiority  and  inferiority,  both  as  to  quantity 
and  quality,  will  be  legibly  written  on  their  respective  labors. 
It  is  related  by  travellers  among  savage  tribes,  that  when,  by 
the  help  of  any  ingeniously-devised  instrument  or  apparatus, 
they  have  performed  some  skilful  manual  operation,  the  savages 
have  purloined  from  them  the  instrument  they  had  used,  sup- 
posing there  was  some  magic  in  the  apparatus  itself,  by  which 
the  seeming  miracle  had  been  performed ;  but,  as  they  could 
not  steal  the  art  of  the  operator  with  the  implement  which  he 
employed,  the  theft  was  fruitless.  Any  person  who  expects  to 
effect,  with  less  education,  what  another  is  enabled  to  do  with 
more,  ought  not  to  smile  at  the  delusion  of  the  savage,  or  the 
simplicity  of  his  reasoning. 

On  a  cursory  inspection  of  the  great  works  of  art,  —  the 
steam-engine,  the  printing-press,  the  power-loom,  the  mill,  the 
iron-foundery,  the  ship,  the  telescope,  &c.,  &c..  —  we  are  apt 
to  look  upon  them  as  having  sprung  into  sudden  existence,  and 
reached  their  present  state  of  perfection  by  one,  or,  at  most,  by 
a  few  mighty  efforts  of  creative  genius.  We  do  not  reflect 
that  they  have  required  the  lapse  of  centuries,  and  the  succes- 
sive application  of  thousands  of  minds,  for  the  attainment  of 
their  present  excellence  ;  that  they  have  advanced  from  a  less 
to  a  more  perfect  form  by  steps  and  gradations  almost  as  im- 
perceptible as  the  growth  by  which  an  infant  expands  to  the 
stature  of  a  man  ;  and  that,  as  later  discoverers  and  inventors 
had  first  to  go  over  the  ground  of  their  predecessors,  so  must 
future  discoverers  and  inventors  first  master  the  attainments  of 
the  present  age  before  they  will  be  prepared  to  make  those  new 
achievements  which  are  to  carry  still  further  onward  the  stu- 
pendous work  of  improvement. 

Amongst  a  people,  then,  who  must  gain  their  subsistence  by 
their  labor,  what  can  be  so  economical,  so  provident  and  far- 
sighted,  and  even  so  wise,  —  in  a  lawful  and  laudable,  though 
not  iu  the  highest  sense  of  that  word,  —  as  to  establish,  and, 


128  ANNUAL   REPORTS    ON    EDUCATION. 

with  open  heart  and  hand,  to  endow  and  sustain,  the  most  effi- 
cient system  of  universal  education  for  their  children  ;  and, 
where  the  material  bounties  of  Nature  are  comparatively  nar- 
row and  stinted,  to  explore,  in  their  stead,  those  exhaustless 
and  illimitable  resources  of  comfort  and  competency  and  inde- 
pendence which  lie  hidden  in  the  yet  dormant  powers  of  the 
human  intellect? 

But,  notwithstanding  all  I  have  said  of  the  value  of  educa- 
tion in  a  pecuniary  sense,  and  of  its  power  to  improve  and  ele- 
vate the  outward  domestic  and  social  condition  of  all  men,  yet, 
in  closing  this  Report,  I  should  do  injustice  to  my  feelings,  did 
I  abstain  from  declaring,  that,  to  my  own  mind,  this  tribute  to 
its  worth,  however  well  deserved,  is  still  the  faintest  note  of 
praise  which  can  be  uttered  in  honor  of  so  noble  a  theme  ; 
and  that,  however  deserving  of  attention  may  be  the  economical 
view  of  the  subject  which  I  have  endeavored  to  present,  yet  it 
is  one  that  dwindles  into  insignificance  when  compared  with 
those  loftier  and  more  sacred  attributes  of  the  cause  which 
have  the  power  of  converting  material  wealth  into  spiritual 
well-being,  and  of  giving  to  its  possessor  lordship  and  sove- 
reignty alike  over  the  temptations  of  adversity,  and  the  still 
more  dangerous  seducements  of  prosperity,  and  which  —  so 
far  as  human  agency  is  concerned  —  must  be  looked  to  for  the 
establishment  of  peace  and  righteousness  upon  earth,  and  for 
the  enjoyment  of  glory  and  happiness  in  heaven. 


REPORT  FOR   1842. 


GENTLEMEN,  — 

.  .  .  DURING  the  last  year,  I  have  obtained  returns  from 
almost.every  public  school  in  the  State,  respecting  the  number 
of  scholars  who  are  engaged  in  studies  above  the  elementary 
or  statutory  course  prescribed  for  the  lowest  grade  of  our 
schools.  The  result  is  as  follows  :  — 

Scholars  studying  History  of  the  United  States        .        .        .  10,177 

„            „         General  History 2,571 

Algebra 2,333* 

„            „        Book-keeping        ......  1,472 

„            „        Latin  Language 858 

„            „         Rhetoric        .......  601 

„            „         Geometry 463 

„            „        Human  Physiology 416 

Logic 330 

„             „         Surveying 249 

„            „        Greek  Language 183 

In  some  of  the  public  schools,  other  branches,  such  as  botany, 
chemistry,  natural  history,  astronomy,  intellectual  philosophy, 
and  the  French  language,  are  attended  to  ;  but,  as  these  are  not 
included  in  the  statutory  course  prescribed  for  the  highest  grade 
of  schools,  I  have  not  obtained  any  particular  information 
respecting  them.  They  are  not  extensively  pursued. 

Now,  is  not   a  bare  inspection  of  the  above  list  of  studies 

*  It  was  found  last  year,  in  the  State  of  New  York,  that  out  of  173,38-1  pupils  in 
attendance  upon  the  public  schools,  in  forty-three  out  of  the  fifty-nine  counties 
in  the  State,  only  616  were  studying  algebra. 

9  129 


130  ANNUAL   REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

sufficient  to  show  that  caprice  rather  than  intelligence  has  pre- 
sided over  their  adoption  ?  In  this  general  statement,  it  is 
impossible  to  exhibit  the  relative  proportions  in  which  these 
different  studies  are  distributed  among  the  different  towns  in 
the  Commonwealth.  It  must  suffice  to  state  generally,  that 
there  is  the  greatest  inequality,  not  only  between  different 
towns,  but  between  different  schools  in  the  same  town,  whose 
circumstances  in  other  respects  are  substantially  alike. 

But,  supposing  a  judicious  distribution  to  exist,  can  any  suf- 
ficient reason  be  given  for  the  proportion  which  prevails  among 
them?  Does  the  numerical  order  in  which  they  stand  corre- 
spond with  the  natural  order,  —  that  is,  with  an  order  founded 
upon  their  relative  importance  ?  Can  any  satisfactory  ground 
be  assigned  why  algebra  —  a  branch  which  not  one  man  in  a 
thousand  ever  has  occasion  to  use  in  the  business  of  life  — 
should  be  studied  by  more  than  twenty-three  hundred  pupils, 
and  book-keeping,  which  every  man,  even  the  day-laborer, 
should  understand,  should  be  attended  to  by  only  a  little  more 
than  half  that  number  ?  Among  farmers  and  road-makers, 
why  should  geometry  take  precedence  of  surveying  ?  and, 
among  seekers  after  intellectual  and  moral  truth,  why  should 
rhetoric  have  double  the  followers  of  logic  ? 

In  the  entire  list  above  given,  is  there  one  which  can  claim 
rightful  precedence  of  that  which  stands  almost  the  lowest  in 
it?  —  I  mean  human  physiology,  or  an  exposition  of  the  laws 
of  health  and  life.  After  a  competent  acquaintance  with  the 
common  branches,  is  there  a  single  department  in  the  vast 
range  of  secular  knowledge,  more  fundamental,  more  useful  for 
increasing  our  ability  to  perform  the  arduous  duties  and  to  bear 
the  inevitable  burdens  of  life,  more  astonishing  for  the  wonders 
it  reveals,  or  better  fitted  to  enforce  upon  us  a  lively  conviction 
of  the  wisdom  and  goodness  of  God,  than  a  study  of  our  phys- 
ical frame,  its  beautiful  adaptations  and  arrangements,  the 
marvellous  powers  and  properties  with  which  it  is  endowed, 
and  the  conditions  indispensable  to  its  preservation  in  a  state 
of  vigor,  usefulness,  and  enjoyment  ?  Yet  the  number  in  our 


REPORT   FOR    1842.  131 

public  schools  engaged  in  this  study,  during  the  last  year,  was 
only  four  hundred  and  sixteen  ;  and  more  than  one-fifth  part 
of  these  were  in  the  single  town  of  Nantucket. 

The  community  needs  a  sound  and  practical  treatise  on  the 
relative  value  and  importance  of  what  are  called  the  higher 
studies,  so  that  these  studies  might  be  taken  up  in  an  order, 
and  pursued  for  a  length  of  time,  proportioned  to  their  respec- 
tive utility.  Even  if  I  were  able  to  throw  out  any  serviceable 
hints  in  regard  to  these  branches,  or  to  assign  to  each  of  them 
its  place  on  a  scale  graduated  according  to  their  relative  merits, 
the  appropriate  limits  of  a  Report  like  this  would  debar  me 
from  the  undertaking. 

The  study  of  human  physiology,  however,  —  by  which  I 
mean  both  the  laws  of  life  and  hygiene,  or  the  rules  and  obser- 
vances by  which  health  can  be  preserved  and  promoted, — has 
claims  so  superior  to  every  other,  and,  at  the  same  time,  so 
little  regarded  or  understood  by  the  community,  that  I  shall 
ask  the  indulgence  of  the  Board  while  I  attempt  to  vindicate 
its  title  to  the  first  rank  in  our  schools,  after  the  elementary 
branches. 

In  civilized  communities,  where  the  rates  of  mortality  have 
become  a  statistical  science,  it  is  found  that  more  than  one- 
fifth,  almost  a  fourth  part,  of  the  human  race  die  before 
attaining  the  age  of  one  year.  Instead  of  filling  the  number 
of  threescore  years  and  ten,  —  the  period  spoken  of  by  the 
Psalmist  as  the  allotted  life  of  man,  —  almost  one-quarter  part 
of  the  race  perish  before  attaining  one-seventieth  part  of  their 
natural  term  of  existence.  And,  before  the  age  of  five  years, 
more  than  a  third  part  of  all  who  are  born  have  died. 

After  the  age  of  two  or  three  years,  however,  the  annual 
proportion  of  deaths  rapidly  diminishes.  Those  children  who 
have  inherited  feeble  constitutions  from  their  parents  have  been 
thinned  off,  and  the  rest  have  escaped  the  terrible  slaughtering 
of  that  ignorance  which  presides  over  the  nursery.  Nature 
then  seems  to  take  them  under  her  care  ;  she  prompts  them  to 
activity,  and  even  counsels  disobedience  and  stratagem  to 


132  ANNUAL   EEPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

secure  for  them  the  oft-prohibited  boon  of  exercise  and  out- 
door air.  Still  a  vast  majority  of  mankind  die  before  attain- 
ing one-half  of  that  age  at  which  the  faculties  of  body  and 
mind  reach  their  fullest  development  and  vigor.  Before  the 
age  of  twenty  years,  —  that  is,  before  two-sevenths  of  the 
scriptural  period  has  elapsed,  —  one-half  of  the  human  race  are 
supposed  to  have  died.  Nor  is  this  all,  or  the  worst ;  for  a 
vast  portion  of  those  who  survive  suffer  pains  which  it  is 
frightful  to  think  upon.  The  sick  and  valetudinary,  instead  of 
being  here  and  there  an  individual,  are  a  countless  host ;  and  it 
is  rare  to  find  any  person  entirely  free  from  all  ailments, 
organic  and  functional.  Instead  of  contributing  their  share  to 
those  productions  and  improvements  by  which  life  is  sustained, 
and  the  arts  of  life  and  the  resources  of  well-being  supplied, 
these  classes  are  grievous  burdens  upon  their  friends  or  upon 
society.  The  worldly  prosperity  of  thousands  of  families  is 
destroyed  by  the  diseases  or  infirmities  of  one,  if  not  both,  of 
their  heads.  Children  are  made  orphans,  or  mainly  deprived 
of  parental  nurture  and  supervision  ;  or,  on  the  other  hand, 
parents  are  bereaved  of  their  children.  And  further,  although 
it  is  most  true  that  the  calamity  of  sickness,  or  even  of  death 
itself,  is  nothing,  compared  with  crime,  yet  it  is  also  true  that 
sickness  induces  poverty,  which  is  one  of  the  tempters  to  crime  ; 
and  that  a  deranged  condition  of  the  physical  system  often 
urges  to  vicious  and  destructive  indulgences  by  the  unnatural 
appetites  which  it  creates,  and  thus  ill  health  becomes  the 
parent  of  guilt  as  well  as  of  bodily  pains. 

Should  any  one  think  that  this  view  of  the  subject  refers  too 
much  of  human  suffering  and  delinquency  to  an  ignorance  or 
disregard  of  the  physical  laws,  let  him  learn  what  the  most 
obvious  and  palpable  of  those  laws  enjoin ;  and  then  let  him 
go  through  society,  and  see  how  systematically  and  flagrantly 
they  are  violated,  and  he  will  be  in  haste  to  retract  his  former 
opinion.  I  have  the  concurrent  authority  of  many  of  our 
most  eminent  physicians  for  saying  that  one-half  of  all  human 
disability,  of  the  suffering  and  early  death  inflicted  upon  man- 


REPORT   FOR    1842.  133 

kind,  proceeds  from  ignorance,  from  sheer  ignorance,  of 
facts  and  principles  which  every  parent,  by  virtue  of  kis  pa- 
rental relation,  is  as  much  bound  to  know  as  a  judge  is  bound 
to  know  the  civil  or  criminal  law  which  he  undertakes  to  ad- 
minister, or  as  a  juror,  in  a  case  of  life  and  death,  is  bound 
to  understand  the  evidence  on  which  his  verdict  is  to  be  ren- 
dered. When  we  reflect  that  every  child  in  the  community, 
before  he  arrives  at  the  age  of  twenty  years,  might  and  should 
become  acquainted  with  those  organic  laws  upon  which  the 
Creator  of  the  body  has  made  its  health  and  vigor  to  depend, 
how  worthless  in  the  comparison  becomes  a  knowledge  of  alge- 
bra, of  ancient  mythology  or  history,  or  of  all  the  Grecian  and 
Latin  lore  which  has  come  down  to  us  from  author  or  com- 
mentator !  * 

*  Since  this  Report  was  written,  I  have  received  from  England  a  volume  of 
extraordinary  Interest  and  value,  entitled  "  Report  from  the  Poor-law  Commis- 
sioners, on  an  Inquiry  into  the  Sanitary  Condition  of  the  Laboring  Population 
of  Great  Britain,"  184:>. 

It  is  an  octavo  of  nearly  five  hundred  pages,  and  was  prepared  under  one  of 
those  Parliamentary  Commissions  of  Inquiry,  which,  so  much  to  the  honor  of 
that  country  and  the  benefit  of  mankind,  have  been  lately  instituted  in  Great 
Britain. 

The  work  was  compiled  from  the  results  of  investigations  into  the  condition  of 
the  laboring  classes,  both  in  country  and  city,  —  the  peasantry,  the  operatives  in 
factories,  the  laborers  in  workshops,  mines,  and  so  forth.  It  is  comprehensive  in 
its  facts,  and  philosophical  iu  its  deductions ;  and  its  materials  were  evidently  pre- 
pared and  arranged  by  some  of  the  ablest  and  most  benevolent  minds  in  the  king- 
dom. It  traces  back  a  vast  proportion  of  the  personal  sufferings,  physical  degen- 
eracy, and  brevity  of  life,  of  the  laboring  people,  to  their  sources ;  and  finds  their 
proximate  causes  to  be  a  want  of  cleanliness  both  of  dress  and  person,  living 
in  wet  or  damp  apartments,  insufficient  or  unhealthful  food,  and,  pre-eminently, 
the  indulgence  in  intoxicating  drinks,  and  the  breathing  of  a  corrupt  atmos- 
phere. 

The  work  ought  to  be  read  by  every  capitalist  and  manufacturer,  and  every 
builder  of  houses,  in  this  country.  I  take  advantage  of  the  opportunity  afforded, 
while  this  Report  is  going  through  the  press,  to  add  in  a  note  a  few  of  the  remark- 
able facts  with  which  the  book  abounds.  They  show  to  what  an  extent  our  health 
and  life  are  in  our  own  hands.  The  appalling  consequences  of  a  violation  of  the 
natural  laws  by  the  poor  and  laboring  classes  of  Great  Britain  are  the  results,  partly 
of  ignorance,  and  partly  of  necessity.  But  in  this  country,  where  wages  are  so  much 
higher,  and  where  the  means  of  a  comfortable  subsistence  are  so  abundant,  almost 
all  the  analogous  evils  suffered  by  our  people  are  attributable  to  an  ignorance  of 
those  laws  and  observances,  the  knowledge  and  practice  of  which  are  essential  to 
health  and  longevity. 

In  contrasting  the  comparative  chances,  or  average  length  of  life,  of  different 


134  ANNUAL   REPORTS    ON   EDUCATION. 

But  it  may  be  asked  whether  I  would  have  all  our  district 
schools  turned  into  medical  schools,  and  all  the  children  in  the 
State,  males  and  females,  educated  as  physicians.  A  few 

classes,  one  chapter  of  the  work  exhibits  the  following-  facts,  not  drawn  from  a 
single  city  or  district,  but  from  various  parts  of  the  country :  — 

IN  TRURO. 

No.  of  Average  age  of 

Deaths.  Deceased. 

33  Professional  persons  or  gentry,  and  their  families        .  .    40  years. 

138  Persons  engaged  in  trade  or  similarly  circumstanced,  and  their 

families .    33      „ 

447  Laborers,  artisans,  and  others  similarly  circumstanced,  and  their 

families 28      „ 

IN  DERBY. 

10  Professional  persons  or  gentry 49  „ 

125  Tradesmen 38  „ 

752  Laborers  and  artisans 21  „ 

BOLTON  UNION. 

103  Gentlemen  and  persons  engaged  in  professions,  and  their  fami- 
lies   34      „ 

381  Tradesmen  and  their  families  23      „ 

2,232  Mechanics,  servants,  laborers,  and  their  families    .       .       .       .    18      ,, 

BETHNAL  GREEN. 

101  Gentlemen  and  persons  engaged  in  professions,  and  their  fami- 
lies   45      „ 

273  Tradesmen  and  their  families 20       „ 

1,258  Mechanics,  servants,  and  laborers,  and  their  families  .       .       .    16      ,, 

LEEDS  BOROUGH. 

79  Gentlemen  and  persons  engaged  in  professions,  and  their  fami- 
lies   «      „ 

824  Tradesmen,  farmers,  and  their  families 27      „ 

3,395  Operatives,  laborers,  and  their  families 19      „ 

LIVERPOOL,  1840. 

137  Gentry  and  professional  persons,  &c 35      ,, 

1 ,738  Tradesmen  and  their  families 12      „ 

5,597  Laborers,  mechanics,  and  servants,  &c 15      „ 

WlUTKCHAPEL  UNION. 

37  Gentlemen  and  persons  engaged  in  professions,  and  their  fami- 
lies    45  ,, 

387  Tradesmen  and  their  families 27  „ 

1,762  Mechanics,  servants,  and  laborers,  and  their  families    .       .       .  22  „ 


REPORT    FOR    1842.  135 

remarks  will  show  that  no  difficulty  would  be  presented  by  such 
a  question. 

The  Laws  of  Health  and  Life  are  comparatively  few  and 
simple.  Every  person  is  capable  of  understanding  them. 
Every  child  iu  the  State,  before  arriving  at  the  age  of  eighteen 
year;?,  might  acquire  a  competent  knowledge  of  them,  and  of 
the  reasons  on  which  they  are  founded.  The  profession  of 
medicine,  on  the  other  hand,  is  mainly  conversant  with  the 
Laws  of  Disease.  It  is  these  which  are  so  numberless  and 
complex  as  to  defy  the  profoundest  talent,  and  the  study  of  the 
longest  and  most  assiduous  life,  for  their  thorough  comprehen- 
sion. Infinity  is  their  attribute.  Every  difference  of  climate, 
of  occupation,  of  personal  constitution  and  habits,  modifies 
their  character,  multiplies  their  number,  and  perplexes  their 
intricacy.  Human  Physiology,  or  the  science  of  health  and 
life,  may  be  written  in  one  book ;  for  Pathology,  or  the  science 


UNIONS  ix  THE  COUNTY  OF  WILTS. 

No.  of  Average  age  of 
Deaths.  Deceased. 
119  Gentlemen  and  persons  engaged  in  professions,  and  their  fami- 
lies   50  years. 

218  Farmers  and  their  families 48      ,, 

'•.','  01  Agricultural  laborers  and  their  families 33       ,, 

This  afflictive  catalogue  might  be  extended.  But  enough  has  been  exhibited  to 
show  that  health  anil  life  are  held  upon  conditions,  and  are  forfeitable  without  re- 
demption, by  a  non-compliance  with  them.  Even  the  more  favored  classes  of  Eng- 
lish society,  as  it  appear?  by  these  records,  live  out  but  a  little  more  than  half  their 
days  ;  while  the  ranks  of  the  poor  and  laboring  classes  are  thinned,  devastated,  by 
the  terrible  scourges  of  vice,  penury,  and  ignorance,  and  are  utterly  swept  away  by 
the  time  they  reach  half  the  average  life  of  their  neighbors. 

In  Manchester,  more  than  fifty-seven  per  cent  of  the  laboring  classes  die  before 
they  attain  the  age  of  five  years;  and,  in  a  district  in  Bethnal  Green,  it  was  found, 
that,  out  of  twelve  hundred  and  sixty-eight  deaths  amongst  the  laboring  classes  in 
1839,  no  less  than  seven  hundred  and  eighty-two,  or  one  in  one  and  four-sevenths, 
died  at  their  own  residences,  under  five  years  of  age. 

This  dreadful  havoc  of  human  life  and  happiness  was  attributable  principally  to 
causes  whose  nature  and  effects  are  discussed  in  the  subsequent  pages  of  this  He- 
port.  It  should  be  remarked,  however,  that  most  of  these  causes  exist  in  a 
greater  degree  of  energy  and  intensity  in  Eng  and  than  in  this  country.  Those 
who  offend  much  are  beaten  with  many  stripes;  those  who  offend  less  are  beaten 
with  fewer;  but, even  though  they  offend  in  ignorance,  they  are  still  beaten  with 
stripes.  In  regard  to  the  whole  range  of  the  laws  of  health  and  life,  Providence 
seems  to  treat  mere  ignorance  as  an  offence,  and  to  punish  it  accordingly. 


136  ANNUAL   REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

of  diseases,  thousands  and  ten  thousands  of  books  have  been 
written,  and  yet  the  subject  seems,  at  the  present  time,  to  be 
hardly  nearer  exhaustion  than  in  the  age  of  Galen  or  Hip- 
pocrates. 

The  economy  of  Providence  seems  to  be  the  same  in  regard 
to  our  natural  capacity  for  acquiring  the  knowledge  requisite 
for  the  preservation  of  our  health  that  it  is  in  regard  to  our 
capacity  for  acquiring  the  knowledge  requisite  for  the  perform- 
ance of  our  duties.  What  is  essential  to  all  is  made  attainable 
by  all.  Even  the  heathen  —  those  who  were  unblessed  by  the 
light  of  the  Gospel  —  were  "by  nature,"  in  regard  to  moral 
obligations,  "  a  law  unto  themselves,  their  conscience  bearing 
witness,  and  their  thoughts  accusing  or  else  excusing."  And 
so  our  Creator,  in  giving  us  desires  to  better  our  worldly  con- 
dition, to  improve  in  the  long  catalogue  of  useful  arts,  and  to 
adorn  the  useful  with  the  beautiful,  to  undertake  great  enter- 
prises for  the  benefit  of  our  contemporaries,  and  to  make 
better  provision  for  the  happiness  of  posterity ;  in  implanting 
in  our  bosoms  these  noble  impulses,  which  demand  such  ardu- 
ous and  long-sustained  exertions,  — must  also  have  given  us  the 
physical  capability  of  performing  the  labor,  and  of  enduring  the 
toil,  which  these  exalted  services  require.  It  would  be  an  im- 
peachment alike  of  his  wisdom  and  goodness  to  suppose  that 
he  had  tormented  the  race  by  imbuing  them  with  a  class  of 
desires  which  reason  and  conscience  approve,  but  had  withheld 
from  them  all  physical  capability  of  carrying  those  desires  into 
execution.  But  this  physical  capability  is  nothing  without  a 
mental  ability  to  acquire  the  knowledge  on  which  it  depends. 
And  hence  it  is  just  to  infer  that  this  knowledge  is  attainable, 
and  should  be  attained  by  all. 

As  it  can  never  be  well  with  us  morally,  unless  we  obey  the 
laws  of  duty  ;  so  it  can  never  be  well  with  us  physically,  unless 
we  obey  the  laws  of  health.  But  we  cannot  obey,  unless  we 
know  the  law  to  be  obeyed  ;  and  we  cannot  possess  this. knowl- 
edge, unless  we  are  endowed  with  capacities,  which,  by  cultiva- 
tion, can  be  made  competent  to  attain  it. 


REPORT   FOR   1842.  137 

When  we  look  into  our  own  family  circles,  or  abroad  upon 
the  community,  and  behold  the  utter  waste  and  havoc  which 
disease  and  infirmity  so  often  make  of  human  usefulness  and 
happiness,  the  protracted  or  condensed  agonies  of  the  chamber 
of  sickness,  the  bereavement  of  parents,  or  the  orphanage  of 
children,  we  might  be  almost  tempted  to  question  the  goodness 
of  the  Being  by  whom  we  have  been  called  into  existence, 
were  we  not  assured  that  "  affliction  cometh  not  forth  of  the 
dust,  neither  doth  trouble  spring  out  of  the  ground."  This 
"  affliction  and  trouble  "  are  designed  to  show  us  that  some 
rule  has  been  transgressed  which  the  Divine  Being  in  his 
wisdom  had  established.  They  are  always  monitors  to  warn 
us  to  obedience  when  we  have  erred  wilfully,  or,  when  we 
have  erred  ignorantly,  to  stimulate  us  to  acquire  the  requisite 
knowledge,  as  well  as  to  practise  upon  it  when  acquired. 
Every  bodily  pain  is  a  special  notification  that  some  part  of  the 
machinery  of  life  is  out  of  order. 

I  see  no  way  in  which  this  knowledge  can  ever  be  univer- 
sally, or  even  very  extensively,  diffused  over  the  land,  except 
it  be  through  the  medium  of  our  Common  Schools.  All  other 
instrumentalities  for  instructing  mankind  reach  but  a  small  part 
of  them,  and,  of  course,  must  fail  extensively  in  accomplishing 
any  general  purpose.  Only  a  comparatively  small  portion  of 
our  youth  attend  the  higher  seminaries  of  learning  ;  and,  while 
this  species  of  knowledge  is  every  way  as  important  to  females 
as  to  males,  the  latter  only  enjoy  the  benefits  of  our  colleges  or 
universities.  Besides,  the  course  of  studies  in  these  higher 
seminaries  is  already  so  full  as  almost  to  forbid  the  introduc- 
tion of  more  ;  and  those  branches  which  have  general  usage 
and  prescription  in  their  favor  will  not  readily  yield  to  others, 
however  much  more  intrinsically  important,  And  hence  it  is 
that  students  are  instructed  in  languages,  and  in  the  recondite 
truths  of  mathematics  and  astronomy  ;  they  are  taught  all  the 
motions  of  the  planets,  and  even  the  librations  of  the  moon,  as 
carefully  as  though  those  mighty  orbs  would  fly  from  their 
paths  or  lose  their  balance  if  their  course  and  equipoise  were 


138  ANNUAL    EEPORTS    ON   EDUCATION. 

not  prescribed  anew  from  year  to  year,  and  to  class  after  class  ; 
while  the  structure  of  their  own  bodies,  and  the  simple  and 
beautiful  laws  on  which  life  and  all  our  capabilities  of  useful- 
ness are  dependent,  are  almost  universally  neglected.  Lyceum 
lectures  are  a  medium  through  which  something  might  be  done 
to  inform  the  public  mind  on  this  subject ;  but  their  courses  are 
generally  too  unsystematic  and  desultory  to  be  relied  upon  for 
communicating  this  indispensable  knowledge  to  the  whole 
people.  Besides,  there  are  many  towns,  inland  and  sparsely 
peopled,  where  no  such  institution  as  a  lyceum  exists. 

I  hope  to  be  pardoned  for  evincing  a  feeling  and  a  conviction 
on  this  subject  more  deep  and  strong  than  will  meet  with  the 
sympathy  or  concurrence  of  others.  Within  the  last  six  years 
I  have  visited  schools  in  every  section  of  the  Commonwealth, 
seaboard  and  inland,  city  and  country.  Every  day's  observation 
has  added  proof  to  proof,  and  argument  to  argument,  respecting 
the  importance  of  physical  training.  Were  I  to  be  carried 
blindfold,  and  set  down  in  any  school  in  the  State,  I  could  tell 
at  a  glance,  by  seeing  the  mere  outline  of  the  bodies  and  limbs, 
without  referring  to  face  or  hands  as  a  test,  what  had  been  the 
habits  of  the  children  composing  it.  Such  as  have  been  accus- 
tomed to  live  in  the  open  air,  such  as  have  been  subjected  to 
the  exposures  and  the  hardy  exercises  of  the  farm  or  the  me- 
chanical trade,  appear  almost  like  a  different  race  of  beings 
when  compared  with  those  who  suffer  under  the  amazing  pa- 
rental folly  of  being  delicately  brought  up.  As  a  general  fact, 
the  children  of  the  rural  population,  and  of  those  who  live  in 
sparsely-settled  towns  upon  the  seaboard,  have  double  the  bodily 
energy,  the  vital  force,  the  stamina  of  constitution,  which 
belong  to  the  children  of  cities  and  of  crowded  towns.  A  fuller 
development  of  body,  of  limbs,  and  of  brow ;  a  firmer  texture 
of  muscle  ;  motions  evincive,  not  only  of  greater  vigor,  but  of 
longer  endurance  ;  in  fine,  the  whole  bodily  appearance  indi- 
cating that  they  have  been  laid  out  by  Nature  on  an  ampler 
scale,  —  characterize  the  former  as  compared  with  the  latter. 
In  whatever  would  task  the  physical  energies,  one  individual 


REPORT   FOR    1842.  139 

of  one  class  would  be  a  match  for  two  of  the  other.  This  is 
emphatically  true  of  females.  On  the  other  hand,  the  children 
bred  in  cities  excel  in  sprightliness  and  vivacity.  The  nervous 
temperament  more  generally  prevails.  Their  perceptions  are 
quicker,  and  their  power  of  commanding  more  readily,  both 
themselves  and  their  attainments,  greatly  superior.  Continu- 
ally is  the  question  forced  upon  my  mind,  why,  with  a  higher 
but  perfectly  practicable  system  of  schools  throughout  the  State, 
conducted  by  teachers  of  adequate  knowledge  and  refinement, 
and  with  a  general  diffusion  of  the  great  principles  of  the  laws 
of  health,  we  could  not  have  in  the  country  the  quickness,  ease, 
and  self-command  which  distinguish  the  city,  and  in  the  city 
the  bodily  robustness  and  the  mental  energy  which  signalize  the 
country.  The  possession  of  these  qualities,  by  each  class, 
would  make  a  new  race. 

In  visiting  schools,  I  have  found  it  a  common  occurrence, 
when  the  hour  of  recess  arrives,  and  the  scholars  are  permitted 
to  go  out  and  take  exercise  for  ten  minutes  in  the  open  air, 
that  some  half-dozen  pupils,  with  pale  faces,  narrow  chests, 
and  feeble  frames,  will  continue  bending  over  their  desks,  too 
intent  upon  their  lessons  to  be  aroused  by  the  joyous  shouts 
that  ring  through  the  schoolroom  from  abroad.  These  the 
teacher  complacently  points  out  as  the  jewels  of  his  school ; 
and  fathers  and  mothers  look  on  with  swelling  hearts  and 
glistening  eyes,  as  the  bright  vision  of  future  honors  and  renown 
rises  to  their  view.  Alas,  they  do  not  know  that  those  children 
are  victims  of  an  over-active  brain,  and  that  every  such  dispro- 
portionate mental  effort  is  a  cast  of  the  shuttle  that  weaves 
their  shrouds  !  Of  all  the  pupils  in  the  school,  it  is  most  im- 
portant that  those  who  are  disposed  to  sit  so  long  and  study  so 
intensely  should  be  lured  forth  to  engage  in  some  genial  sport. 

So,  in  nine-tenths  of  the  schools  in  the  State,  composed  of 
children  below  seven  or  eight  years  of  age,  the  practice  still 
prevails  of  allowing  but  one  recess  in  the  customary  session  of 
three  hours  ;  although  every  physiologist  and  physician  knows, 
that,  for  every  forty-five  or  fifty  minutes'  confinement  in  the 


140  ANNUAL   REPORTS    ON   EDUCATION. 

schoolroom,  all  children  under  those  ages  should  have  at  least 
the  remaining  fifteen  or  ten  minutes  of  the  hour  for  exercise  in 
the  open  air. 

There  is  a  frightful  extent  of  ignorance  on  the  subject  of  the 
physical  laws,  as  they  appertain  to  the  human  constitution  (and 
in  this  sense  only  I  use  the  phrase),  pervading  the  whole  com- 
munity. Even  educated  men,  who  are  not  physicians,  are  rare 
exceptions  to  this  remark.  The  graduates  of  colleges  and  of 
theological  seminaries,  who  would  be  ashamed  if  they  did  not 
know  that  Alexander's  horse  was  named  Bucephalus,  or  had 
not  read  Middleton's  octavo  volume  upon  the  Greek  article,  are 
often  profoundly  ignorant  of  the  great  laws  which  God  has 
impressed  upon  their  physical  frame,  and  which,  under  penalty 
of  forfeiting  life  and  usefulness,  he  has  commanded  them  to 
know  and  obey. 

In  travelling  through  the  country,  how  often  will  a  man, 
who  is  at  once  intelligent  and  benevolent,  be  pained  at  wit- 
nessing the  location  of  dwelling-houses  on  low  and  marshy  spots 
of  ground,  where  the  dampness  and  exhalations  from  beneath 
must  be  like  the  daily  administration  of  a  poison  to  the  families 
who  reside  in  them  ! 

How  few  of  our  public  houses  —  whether  the  schoolhouse, 
the  court-house,  the  lecture-room,  or  the  church  —  are  con- 
structed with  any  suitable  regard  to  ventilation  !  And  even 
when  they  have  been  constructed  upon  scientific  principles,  if 
they  are  managed  by  persons  who  are  ignorant  of  those  princi- 
ples, the  benefits  of  the  construction  are  cancelled.  In  cities, 
and  in  many  of  our  large  manufacturing  towns,  there  is  an 
enormous  prostration  of  health  and  strength  attributable  to  the 
smallness  and  the  closeness  of  the  sleeping  apartments.  In  this 
way  the  soundest  economy  is  defeated  ;  because  it  is  for  the 
interest  of  any  manufacturer  or  capitalist,  whatever  his  depart- 
ment of  business,  to  employ  healthy  workmen.  Canal-boats 
and  steamboats  commit  hardly  less  havoc  upon  life  and  com- 
fort by  their  accidents  and  explosions,  than  by  the  poisonous 
atmosphere  in  which  it  would  almost  seem  as  though  their 


REPORT   FOR    1842.  141 

conductors  regarded  it  as  a  part  of  their  official  duty  to  steep 
the  passengers.  How  often  are  the  senses  offended  by  the 
impurity  of  the  atmosphere,  on  entering  large  apartments  where 
great  numbers  of  workmen  or  workwomen  —  shoemakers, 
tailors,  compositors — are  plying  their  tasks;  especially  in 
the  evening,  when  dozens  of  smoking  lamps  are  each  sending 
off  a  stream  of  poison,  in  addition  to  the  vitiated  atmosphere 
respired  from  as  many  pairs  of  lungs  !  As  such  companies 
often  work  in  a  thin,  light  dress,  or  even  in  an  undress,  they 
regard  only  the  physical  sensations  of  heat  or  cold,  while  they 
are  neglectful  of  the  vital  necessity  of  pure  air. 

All  these  are  flagrant,  conspicuous  monuments  of  public 
ignorance  on  the  subject  of  physiology.  They  are  .practices, 
which,  if  the  common  mind  were  once  enlightened,  would  pass 
away,  like  the  barbarian  rite  of  sacrificing  a  child  to  prevent 
an  eclipse. 

How  little  is  the  diet,  especially  of  young  children,  regulated 
in  accordance  with  the  principles  of  physiology  !  Nutrition 
and  growth  depend  not  less  on  the  times  at  which  food  is  given, 
than  on  the  quality  of  the  food  itself.  Yet,  with  most  mothers, 
feeding  is  the  standing  remedy  for  every  manifestation  of  dis- 
quiet.* 

After  a  child  has  passed  the  period  of  infancy,  and  begins  to 
show  that  he  has  impetuous-  and  unborrowed  impulses  within, 
he  is  then  hired  to  do  one  thing,  or  to  abstain  from  another,  by 
the  promise  of  some  dainty  ;  and  thus  he  is  defrauded,  at  the 
very  outset  of  life,  of  that  inward,  spontaneous  emotion  of 

*  "  It  is  a  great  mistake,"  says  Dr.  A.  Combe,  "  to  treat  crying  as  an  infallible 
sign  of  an  empty  stomach.  New  as  the  infant  is  to  the  surrounding  world,  it 
shrinks  instinctively  from  every  strong  sensation,  whether  of  heat  or  of  cold,  of 
pressure  or  of  hardness,  of  hunger  or  of  repletion.  Its  only  way  of  expressing 
all  disagreeable  feelings  is  by  crying.  If  it  is  hungry,  it  cries ;  if  it  is  over-fed,  it 
cries;  if  it  sutlers  from  the  prick  of  a  pin,  it  cries;  if  it  lies  too  long  iu  the  same 
position,  so  as  to  cause  undue  pressure  on  any  one  part,  it  cries ;  if  it  is  exposed 
to  cold,  or  any  part  of  its  dress  is  too  tight,  or  it  is  held  in  an  awkward  position, 
or  is  exposed  to  too  bright  a  light,  or  too  loud  a  sound,  it  can  indicate  its  dis- 
comfort only  by  its  cries ;  nnd  yet  the  one  remedy  used  against  so  many  different 
evils  is,  not  to  find  out  and  remove  the  true  cause  of  offence,  but  to  give  it  the 
breast."  —  Combe  on  Infancy,  152. 


142        ANNUAL  REPORTS  ON  EDUCATION. 

pleasure  which  Nature  has  made  inseparable  from  every  right 
action  performed  from  a  right  motive  ;  and,  instead  of  the  feel- 
ing of  joy  which  would  be  a  sufficient  reward  for  an  angel, 
there  is  substituted  a  sensual  pleasure  which  can  only  satisfy  a 
brute.  Even  in  educated  circles,  it  is  still  a  common  thing  for 
acquaintances  and  visitors  to  send  or  carry  to  children  some 
pernicious  present  of  confectionery  or  sweetmeats,  as  a  testi- 
monial of,  or  perhaps  more  frequently  as  a  lure  to,  affection. 
Thus,  not  only  selfishness,  but  physical  disturbances,  are  caused, 
and  morbid  appetites  generated,  which,  before  the  close  of  life, 
grow  into  tyrannical  desires,  involving  character  and  happiness, 
or  subject  the  sufferer  to  agonizing  struggles  and  mortifications 
before  they  can  be  subdued.  Such  an  act  ought  to  be  regarded 
as  an  injury  at  least,  if  not  an  insult;  oftentimes  it  is  both. 
And  even  amongst  adults  who  are  accounted  rational  men  and 
women,  and  who  are  not  obnoxious  in  any  one  thing  to  the 
charge  of  sensual  indulgences,  how  little  is  the  grand  axiom 
practised  upon,  that  the  temperate  man  is  the  greatest  epicure  ! 
that  is,  that,  in  the  long-run  of  life,  those  persons  will  derive 
the  greatest  amount  of  pleasure  from  their  natural  appetites 
who  never  indulge  them  to  excess. 

While  such  practices  in  the  treatment  of  childhood  and  youth, 
even  in  the  single  article  of  diet,  continue  to  prevail,  it  will  be 
necessary  that  more  than  three  hundred  and  sixty-five  miracles 
should  be  wrought  in  their  favor,  every  year  of  their  lives, 
before  they  can  ever  become  a  vigorous  race  of  men  and  wo- 
men. But,  until  the  subject  of  physical  education  is  better 
understood,  any  general  reformation  is  hopeless. 

In  regard  to  exercise,  many  people  who  acknowledge  it  to 
be  indispensable,  and  a  necessary  of  life,  still  conceive  of  it  as 
some  given  amount  of  bodily  motion  or  of  muscular  activity, 
which  may  be  taken,  once  for  all,  at  the  end  of  a  week  or  a 
mouth  ;  or  that,  by  securing  an  annual  vacation,  they  can 
crowd  into  one  toilsome  excursion  what  should  be  distributed 
over  the  year.  They  do  not  regai-d  it,  like  food,  as  a  daily 
necessity.  They  do  not  know  that  its  utility  depends  wholly 


EEPORT   FOR    1842.  143 

upon  certain  states,  either  of  the  system  in  general  or  of  the 
digestive  organs  in  particular.  Hence  inconvenience  and  ex- 
pense are  often  incurred  in  order  to  promote  health  by  means 
of  exercise,  which,  from  its  untimeliness  or  severity,  is  sure  to 
inflict  greater  evils  than  it  was  intended  to  avert. 

Nothing  is  more  commonly  overlooked,  than  that  the  great 
sustainers  of  a  vigorous  life  —  air,  exercise,  diet  —  depend 
upon  proportion,  adaptation,  adjustment ;  that  what  is  salutary 
at  one  time  may  prove  fatal  at  another  ;  and  therefore  that 
there  should  be  a  presiding  intelligence  in  every  individual,  by 
which  his  conduct  may  be  so  modified  as  to  correspond  with 
ever-varying  circumstances.  It  is  injurious  to  health  to  be  de- 
prived of  a  sufficiency  of  food  ;  but,  if  one  is  deprived  of  exer- 
cise, it  is  better  that  he  should  be  deprived  of  a  corresponding 
portion  of  food  also.  In  the  long-run,  it  is  fatal  to  be  deprived 
of  fresh  air;  but,  without  an  adequate  quantity  of  food,  even 
fresh  air  will  consume  the  vitals  of  the  system.  Thus,  the 
hyberuating  animals  live  without  either  food  or  air  for  mouths, 
when,  if  they  exercised  and  respired  freely,  and  at  the  same 
time  were  deprived  of  food,  they  would  perish  in  a  week. 

An  accurate  knowledge  of  a  few  great  physiological  princi- 
ples, together  with  a  sound  judgment  or  discretion  in  applying 
them,  will  suffice  to  ward  off  an  inconceivable  amount  of  hu- 
man suffering,  and  to  confer  an  ability  to  make  great  additions 
to  the  public  welfare,  instead  of  subtracting  from  it.  The 
Creator  assures  us  that  "  he  doth  not  afflict  willingly  nor 
grieve  the  children  of  men;"  and  if,  in  all  things,  the  race 
should  obey  the  physical  laws  of  God,  they  would  no  more 
suffer  physical  pain,  than  they  would  suffer  remorse,  or  moral 
pain,  if  in  all  things  they  would  obey  the  moral  laws  of  God. 

This  subject  has  its  merits,  which  should  command  the  atten- 
tion of  the  statesman  and  political  economist.  All  investments 
to  preserve  or  increase  the  public  health  would  be  reimbursed 
many  fold,  in  an  increased  capacity  for  production.  One  of 
the  most  important  items  in  a  nation's  wealth  consists  in  the 
healthfulness  and  vigor  enjoyed  by  its  people.  All  agricul- 


144  ANNUAL    REPORTS    ON    EDUCATION. 

turists  and  manufacturers  must  feel  the  force  of  this  remark  in 
regard  to  their  own  workmen  ;  and  they  Avould  feel  it  still 
more  if  they  were  obliged,  at  their  own  expense,  to  support 
those  workmen  during  all  periods  of  sickness  or  incapacity  to 
labor ;  and  this  is  the  relation  in  which  the  State  stands  to  its 
citizens.  It  has  been  said  by  some  writers  on  political  economy, 
that  from  one-seventh  to  one-eighth  of  all  the  wealth  of  a  coun- 
try originates  in  the  labor  of  each  year.  Hence,  if  any  nation 
or  community  should  cease  from  production  for  seven  or  eight 
years,  the  whole  of  its  wealth  —  houses,  lands,  goods,  money  — 
would  be  consumed.  What  a  forcible  idea  of  the  value  of 
labor  is  presented  by  this  fact !  Yet  what  a  sick  workman  or 
operative  would  be  to  a  capitalist  who  was  obliged  to  maintain 
him,  a  sick  citizen  is  to  the  Republic.  Every  sick  man,  every 
man  rendered  unserviceable  by  general  debility  or  specific  ail- 
ment, must  be  subtracted  from  a  nation's  available  resources. 
He  not  only  adds  nothing  to  the  common  stock,  but  he  draws 
his  subsistence  in  some  form  —  and  often,  too,  a  very  expen- 
sive subsistence  —  from  the  storehouse  which  the  industry  of 
others  has  filled.  Omitting  all  considerations  of  personal  and 
domestic  suffering,  of  the  extinction  of  intellectual  power,  and 
of  those  moral  aberrations  which  originate  in  physical  derange- 
ment and  disease,  —  and  considering  the  race  under  the  mere 
aspect  of  a  money-making  power,  —  in  this  respect  it  is  clear, 
that  the  health  and  strength  of  one  community,  if  set  in  oppo- 
sition to  the  debility  or  infirmity  of  another,  would  be  sufficient, 
not  only  to  determine  the  balance  of  trade,  but  to  settle  all 
other  points  of  relative  superiority.  Let  such  information  be 
diffused  through  the  public  as  all  the  children  in  our  schools 
might  easily  acquire,  and  a  single  generation  would  not  pass 
away,  without  the  transfer  of  immense  sums  to  the  other  side 
of  the  profit-and-loss  account  in  the  national  ledger.  Of  course, 
I  do  not  mean  that  all  diseases  could  be  abolished  at  once,  even 
by  universal  diffusion  of  a  knowledge  of  their  causes  ;  or  that 
the  era  foretold  by  the  prophet  would  be  ushered  in,  when  "  the 
child  shall  die  a  hundred  years  old,"  and  when  there  shall  be 


REPORT   FOR    1842.  145 

no  "  old  man  that  hath  not  filled  his  days."  The  violation  of 
those  beautiful  and  benign  laws  which  the  Creator  has  in- 
wrought into  our  system  has  been  too  heinous,  and  too  long 
persevered  in  by  the  race,  to  be  expiated  or  atoned  for  in  a  single 
age.  Disease  and  debility,  transmitted  through  a  long  line  of 
ancestors,  have  acquired  a  momentum  by  the  length  of  the 
descent  which  cannot  at  once  be  overcome.  But  I  do  mean, 
if  this  subject  were  generally  understood,  that  such  a  change 
would  be  wrought  in  a  single  generation,  that  a  broad  and 
deep  current  of  wealth  would  be  made  to  change  its  direction ; 
and,  instead  of  millions  annually  flowing  outward  from  the 
common  treasury  to  defray  the  various  expenditures  of  sick- 
ness, that  treasury  would  be  replenished  by  an  equal  number 
of  millions,  coined  in  the  mint,  and  from  the  ore,  of  labor- 
loviug  health.  Yet,  amid  all  our  pecuniary  speculations,  this 
grand  financial  operation  of  substituting  health  and  strength 
for  sickness  and  debility  —  that  is,  immense  gains  for  immense 
expenditures  —  has  been  unheard  of. 

In  the  army  and  navy,  where  the  expediency  of  giving  bat- 
tle has  been  discussed  in  a  council  of  war,  or  afterwards, 
when  the  causes  of  defeat  have  been  explained  by  the  van- 
quished, the  state  of  the  sick-list  has  been  made  the  subject  of 
inquiry.  The  historian,  too,  in  his  account  of  campaigns, 
recognizes  health  and  sickness  as  among  the  grand  causes  of 
success  or  disaster.  But  the  manly  health  and  vigor  of  a  peo- 
ple engaged  in  the  arts  of  peace  —  as  among  the  most  essen- 
tial items  in  a  nation's  valuation,  as  a  capital  ready  for  profit- 
able investment  in  any  industrial  enterprise,  and  therefore  as 
a  prolific  source  of  public  revenue  as  well  as  of  private 
wealth  —  have  been  overlooked  by  statesmen  and  lawgivers, 
in  all  their  schemes  for  national  aggrandizement. 

The  pecuniary  merits  of  this  subject  may  be  presented  under 
another  aspect.  Children,  at  different  ages  and  under  different 
circumstances,  may  be  regarded  as  representing  investments 
of  different  sums  of  money.  These  investments  consist  in  the 
amount  which  has  been  expended  for  their  nursing,  rearing, 
10 


1-16  ANNUAL    REPORTS    ON   EDUCATION. 

clothes,  board,  education,  aud  so  forth,  and  in  the  value  of  the 
time  of  others  which  has  been  appropriated  to  them.  Though 
differing  exceedingly  in  regard  to  different  persons,  yet,  in  this 
country,  the  aggregate  expense,  with  its  accruing  interest,  of  the 
great  majority,  at  the  age  of  twenty  or  twenty-one  years,  can 
hardly  be  estimated  at  less  than  from  five  hundred  to  a  thou- 
sand dollars,  after  deducting  the  value  of  all  services  performed. 
Now,  if  half  mankind  die  by  the  time  they  arrive  at  this  age, 
or  before  it,  —  and  half  of  these  come  to  their  untimely  end 
through  the  ignorance  of  their  parents  or  themselves,  —  what  an 
amazing  price  does  our  ignorance  cost  us  !  "With  what  reck- 
less prodigality  do  we  continue  to  cherish  it !  What  spend- 
thrifts we  are,  not  only  of  the  purest  sources  of  affection  and 
domestic  happiness,  but  of  wealth  ! 

Compared  with  the  economical  value  of  physiological  knowl- 
edge to  a  nation,  what  is  the  utility  of  discovering  a  north-west 
passage,  or  of  exploring  the  sources  of  the  Niger,  or  circum- 
navigating a  continent  of  ice  around  the  south  pole  ?  Yet  no 
systematic  measures  have  ever  been  taken  by  any  government 
for  its  universal  diffusion  amongst  the  people,  although  it  is 
certain  that  such  knowledge  is  a  condition  precedent,  without 
which  a  high  point  of  health  for  the  whole  community  can 
never  be  reached.  Our  Common  Schools  are  a  channel  through 
which  this  knowledge  —  as  delightful  in  the  acquisition  as  it  is 
useful  in  possession  —  may  be  universally  diffused  ;  and,  in 
the  long-run,  its  legitimate  products  will  be  found  to  transcend 
in  value  the  gains  of  the  most  adventurous  commerce  or  the 
spoils  of  the  most  successful  war. 

Perhaps  some  may  deem  it  a  visionary  notion,  that  any  con- 
siderable amelioration  of  the  public  health  can  be  effected  by  a 
more  extended  acquaintance  with  the  physical  laws.  Many 
persons  attribute  disease  to  accident  or  chance,  or  to  some 
occult  or  remote  cause  lying  beyond  human  ken,  and  there- 
fore beyond  human  control.  Some  believe  diseases  to  be  judg- 
ments directly  inflicted  by  Heaven  upon  the  body  for  offences 
committed  against  the  moral  law.  Others,  again,  suppose  pain 


REPORT   FOR    1842.  147 

and  untimely  bereavement  to  be  a  part  of  the  inevitable  lot  of 
humanity,  designed  to  test  the  strength  of  our  confidence  in  the 
goodness  of  the  Creator  ;  and  they  therefore  deem  it  a  duty  to 
practise  resignation  to  what  they  suppose  to  be  the  divine  w-ill, 
rather  than  to  inquire  whether  there  may  not  be  a  duty  of  pre- 
vention as  well  as  of  acquiescence.  This  last  view  often  degen- 
erates into  a  sort  of  fatalism,  —  a  belief  that  what  is  to  be  will 
be.  and  that  our  destiny  is  fixed  irrespective  of  our  conduct. 

Amid  this  vagueness  and  confusion  of  thought,  —  often  ag- 
gravated by  superstitious  views  of  the  divine  government,  — 
the  frightful  extent  of  maladies  which  we  bring  upon  ourselves, 
as  the  direct  consequences  of  our  own  misconduct,  ceases  to  be  a 
subject  of  wonder.  We  attribute  to  Divine  Providence  what  be- 
longs to  our  own  improvidence.  We  refer  to  chance  what  flows 
from  the  violation  of  unchangeable  lawrs.  Oftentimes  we  sub- 
mit passively  to  pain,  without  seeking  to  find  antidote  or  reme- 
dy, when  the  very  object  of  the  pain  is  to  admonish  us  that  we 
have  oft'ended,  and  to  quicken  our  intellect  to  discover  in  what 
the  offence  has  consisted,  or  to  apprise  our  moral  nature  of  the 
consequences  of  a  known  disobedience.  In  most  cases,  how- 
ever, the  ignorant  appeal  to  empiricism  to  relieve  them  from 
the  consequences  of  their  ignorance  ;  and  thus  they  aggravate 
the  evils  they  would  remedy.  An  immense  extent  of  suffering, 
of  abridgment  of  human  life,  is  regularly  bought  and  paid  for 
among  us.  A  market  of  imposition  is  opened  to  supply  the  de- 
mands of  ignorance  ;  and  this  must  continue  to  be  so  until  the 
people  are  more  enlightened.  Did  the  pretenders  to  medi- 
cal science  who  infest  the  country  in  such  formidable  num- 
bers confine  themselves  to  the  barbarian's  practice  of  charms 
and  incantations,  the  mischief  wrought  by  their  arts  would  be 
far  less  deplorable  ;  but,  accustomed  as  they  are  to  more  potent 
prescriptions,  they  commit  wider  havoc  of  human  health  and 
life  than  the  meilicine-men  of  the  savages  themselves. 

In  regard  to  this  great  subject,  the  first  rule,  in  point  of  au- 
thority as  well  as  of  reasonableness,  is,  that  "  sin  is  a  trans- 
gression of  the  law."  And  the  consequences  of  a  transgression 


148  ANNUAL   REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

of  the  physical  laws  are  equally  visited  upon  the  body  of  the 
offender,  whether  he  were  acquainted  with  the  laws  or  not. 
An  infant,  though  helpless,  and  ignorant  of  the  quality  of  fire 
into  which  it  accidentally  falls,  will  be  consumed  by  it  as  cer- 
tainly as  a  Hindoo  devotee  who  leaps  into  it  for  self-destruc- 
tion. In  the  foundering  of  a  slave-ship  at  sea,  the  stolen  victim 
will  be  drowned  as  soon  as  the  ruthless  kidnapper.  When 
carbonic-acid  gas  enters  the  lungs,  it  extinguishes  life  with 
equal  certainty  and  rapidity,  whether  the  heart  of  the  sufferer 
be  good  or  evil.  On  this  subject,  therefore,  the  first  rule,  that 
"  sin  is  a  transgression  of  the  law,"  is  universal ;  and 
equally  universal  is  the  last,  that  "  the  way  of  transgressors 
is  hard." 

The  hastiest  glance  at  the  condition  in  which  we  are  placed 
in  this  life  will  demonstrate,  not  merely  the  utility,  but  the 
necessity,  of  physical  education,  as  a  department  of  knowledge 
to  be  universally  cultivated.  We  are  introduced,  at  birth,  into 
the  midst  of  the  great  agencies  of  Nature.  Each  one  of  these 
agencies  is  sufficiently  powerful  to  obliterate  our  senses,  to 
maim  our  persons,  or  to  extinguish  our  lives  ;  and  yet  we  are 
profoundly  ignorant  of  their  properties  and  of  their  modes  of 
attack.  We  bring  into  life,  it  is  true,  a  certain  amount  of  vital 
force,  which  is  antagonistic  to  the  forces  of  Nature  ;  but  this 
vital  force  at  first  is  so  feeble,  that,  if  not  protected  against  its 
assailants,  it  is  subdued  at  once,  and  life  is  annihilated. 

The  chemical  affinities  or  forces,  for  instance,  hold  perpetual 
combat  with  the  vital  force.  Our  bodies  are  the  battle-ground 
where  these  hostilities  are  carried  on.  If  the  vital  force  be 
driven,  for  a  single  minute,  from  any  part  of  our  bodies  or 
organs,  forthwith,  in  obedience  to  the  chemical  law,  decompo- 
sition, or  mortification,  commences  ;  and,  if  the  chemical  force 
be  not  overborne  and  beat  back  by  the  vital  force,  the  mor- 
tification extends,  and  death  ensues. 

And,  what  is  more,  the  vital  force  with  which  we  are  endowed 
cannot  be  sustained,  for  an  hour,  without  drawing  for  suppoi't 
upon  the  hostile  elements  by  which  we  are  encompassed  ;  that 


REPORT   FOR    1842.  149 

is,  a  certain  portion  of  these  elements  is  essential  to  our  exist- 
ence, while  an  excess  of  them  is  fatal  to  it ;  and,  further,  the 
result  is  equally  fatal  whether  we  take  too  much  or  too  little. 
Air  is  a  necessary  of  life,  from  the  first  moment  of  our  introduc- 
tion into  it  ;  and  yet  the  extinction  of  life  will  ensue  as  certainly 
from  exposing  the  whole  body  to  the  action  of  the  changes 
and  currents  of  air  as  from  an  entire  deprivation  of  it.  Neces- 
sary as  is  the  air,  yet  if  its  temperature  varies  very  much 
from  that  of  the  blood,  either  on  the  side  of  coldness  or  of 
warmth,  each  extreme  is  equally  fatal.  And,  again,  if  the  air 
is  too  moist  or  too  dry,  the  vital  organs  are  clogged  by  its  hu- 
midity, or  inflamed  by  its  aridness.  Drink  is  necessary  ;  but,  at 
first,  the  urn  of  life  is  so  shallow,  that  a  few  drops  in  excess 
will  sink  it  forever.  Food  is  necessary :  if  withheld,  death 
follows  by  privation ;  if  administered  too  freely,  death  equally 
follows  by  repletion  ;  and  if  of  an  unwholesome  quality,  then 
it  becomes  a  poison.  Light  is  necessary  to  awaken  the  visual 
sensibility  of  the  eyes  ;  yet  too  strong  a  beam  will  extinguish 
them  forever.  Sound  is  necessary  to  break  the  silence  of  the 
ear  ;  yet,  if  too  violent  and  shrill,  it  will  rend  the  delicate  organ 
it  should  only  have  vibrated. 

Now,  Nature  parcels  out  to  us  no  fixed,  definite  quantities  or 
qualities  of  these  elements,  which  are  essential  in  degree,  in 
excess  fatal.  In  the  course  of  a  year,  from  the  melting  heats 
of  summer  to  winter's  congelations,  we  are  carried  through 
variations  in  atmospheric  temperature  amounting  to  more  than 
a  hundred  degrees.  Even  in  a  single  day  or  hour,  this  tempera- 
ture varies  to  an  extent  utterly  destructive  of  health  and  life 
itself,  if  our  prudence  does  not  mitigate  its  changes.  It  varies, 
too,  from  the  extreme  dryness  of  the  north-west  wind,  which 
will  extract  moisture  from  kiln-dried  wood,  to  the  humidity  of 
a  southerly  or  south-easterly  wind,  in  which  a  fish  would  hard- 
ly perceive  that  it  was  out  of  its  own  element.  We  are  also 
placed  in  the  midst  of  a  boundless  profusion  and  variety  of  ma- 
terials for  food,  botli  of  the  animal  and  vegetable  kinds,  and 
these  kinds  are  intermixed  with  attractive  though  poisonous 


150  ANNUAL    REPORTS    ON   EDUCATION. 

substances  ;  and  yet  Nature  utters  no  warning  voice  when  we 
are  about  to  pluck  and  eat  unwholesome  fruits,  nor  does  she 
stretch  forth  a  hand  to  arrest  our  hands  when  we  are  indulging 
to  a  surfeit.  Although,  thei'efore,  the  vital  force  which  we  bring 
into  life,  if  duly  nurtured  and  protected,  will  speedily  obtain 
immense  accessions  of  strength,  and  power  of  endurance,  yet  it 
is  always  surrounded,  pressed  upon,  besieged,  by  the  mightier 
forces  of  Nature  ;  and  hence  not  only  our  health  and  strength, 
but  our  very  existence,  depends  upon  a  knowledge  how  to  adapt 
oui'selves  to  these  external  agencies.  Neither  heat  nor  cold, 
nor  moisture  nor  dryness,  nor  food  nor  raiment,  is  meted  out 
and  apportioned  to  us  as  needed  for  our  daily  use  and  for  the 
prolongation  of  life.  We  are  left,  without  any  revelation,  to  find 
out,  by  our  own  study,  what  kinds,  in  what  quantities,  under 
what  circumstances,  they  must  be  used  to  yield  us  the  longest 
life  ami  the  greatest  power.  As  all  the  agencies  and  objects  of 
Nature  which  surrounds  us  and  come  in  contact  with  us  are 
unintelligent  in  regard  to  our  wants,  if  we  also  are  unintelligent 
in  regard  to  their  properties,  then  we  and  they  hold  the  same 
relation  to  each  other  as  that  of  particles  in  a  chaos. 

In  our  early  years,  these  adjustments,  adaptations,  protec- 
tions, are  left  to  parental  knowledge  and  vigilance  ;  afterwards 
the  responsibility  is  transferred  from  parents  to  offspring.  But 
parents  are  deplorably  ignorant.  Hence  they  allow  uuhealthful 
indulgences.  They  inculcate  false  principles.  They  establish 
bad  habits.  As  an  inevitable  consequence,  sickness  and  suffer- 
ing abound.  Disease  or  debility  of  some  vital  organ  is  the  com- 
mon lot  rather  than  the  occasional  fact.  Untimely  death  is  so 
frequent  as  no  longer  to  excite  surprise.  And  maladies  whose 
pains  are  severer  than  those  of  death  are  bequeathed  from  par- 
ents to  children  as  a  disastrous  and  perpetual  heritage. 

Suppose  any  portion  of  our  population  to  be  as  unlearned  in 
the  science  of  physiology  as  a  tribe  of  savages,  and  a  hundred 
reasons  will  be  apparent  why  such  portion  would  suffer  more  of 
disease  and  physical  degeneracy  than  savages  themselves.  In 
civilized  communities,  there  are  many  causes  creative  of  disease 


REPORT   FOR   1842.  151 

which  have  no  existence  in  a  savage  state.  In  the  former,  the 
population  is  always  more  dense  than  in  the  latter.  Hence  peo- 
ple are  crowded  together  in  masses ;  and  this  mode  of  living, 
where  ignorance  prevails,  is  invariably  accompanied  with  a 
dearth  of  pure  air  ;  and  thus  at  once  an  indispensable  constitu- 
ent of  health  is  taken  away,  and  a  prolific  source  of  disease 
substituted  for  it.  In  the  various  processes  of  the  arts  culti- 
vated by  a  civilized  people,  unhealthful  occupations  are  pur- 
sued. All  in-door  and  sedentary  employments  come  within  this 
description.  In  many  branches  of  manufacture,  noxious  prod- 
ucts of  gases  are  evolved,  which  the  operator  inhales  to  the 
detriment  of  health,  and  often  to  the  direct  and  obvious 
abridgment  of  life.  Among  savages,  there  is  no  painter's 
colic.  No  polisher  of  steel  breathes  steel-dust  to  inflame  and 
corrode  his  lungs.  No  smelter  lives  in  an  atmosphere  of  corro- 
sive gases.  No  preparcr  of  beverages  inhales  the  carbonic  acid 
which  is  evolved  in  the  process  of  fermentation.  No  savage 
tribe  has  ever  reached  such  a  depth  of  degradation  as  to  ren- 
der the  enactment  of  penal  laws  necessary  to  rescue  innocent 
and  helpless  children  from  excessive  labor  in  factories  and  coal- 
mines. Amid  the  luxuries  of  a  civilized  community,  the  more 
degraded  classes  are  surrounded  by  temptations  always,  and 
by  opportunities  occasionally,  for  indulging  their  appetites  in 
forms  of  excess  from  which  barbarians  are  happily  exempted. 
All  these  are  powerful  agents  for  breaking  down  the  health  and 
constitution  of  those  who  occupy  one  extreme  of  the  social  scale. 
The  other  extreme  is  also  assailed  by  causes  hardly  less  potent 
for  evil.  What  are  seductively  but  falsely  called  the  refinements 
of  life ;  an  ability  to  indulge  in  luxuries  and  epicurean  diet, 
without  any  necessity  for  a  corresponding  degree  of  active  ex- 
ercise ;  fashions  of  dress  in  impotent  defiance  of  climate ;  the 
conversion  of  night  into  day ;  systematic  bodily  indolence,  low- 
ering the  tone  of  the  system,  and  thus  rendering  necessary  all 
the  guards  which  human  art  can  devise  against  those  inclemen- 
cies of  the  seasons  which  ought  to  be  braved  instead  of  being 
shrunk  from,  —  all  these  are  mighty  causes  of  physical  deteri- 


152  ANNUAL    REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

oration,  from  which  the  savage  whom  we  pity  is  free.  These 
are  evils  which,  to  a  lamentable  extent,  characterize  the  civiliza- 
tion of  the  present  age.  Comfort  has  been  sought  so  blindly  as 
to  bring  a  thousand  discomforts  in  its  stead.  Means  used  to 
prolong  life  have  shortened  it,  because  adopted  in  ignorance  of 
its  conditions.  Yet,  much  as  these  errors  destroy  the  vigor, 
abridge  the  years,  and  impair  the  happiness,  of  the  parents, 
their  consequences  are  visited  with  terrible  aggravation  upon 
children. 

And  this  is  true  of  both  the  classes  above  referred  to.  Were 
the  genealogy  of  families  to  be  traced,  it  would  be  commonly 
found  that  those  who  occupy  what  are  usually  called,  by  way 
of  distinction,  the  highest  and  the  lowest  grades  in  society,  run 
out  after  two  or  three  generations.  Among  the  very  poor,  mor- 
tality is  greatest  below  the  age  of  five  years.  Among  the 
wealthy,  skill  and  appliances  pressrve  their  offspring  through 
the  years  of  childhood  to  perish  between  the  ages  of  fifteen  and 
twenty-five,  just  as  the  hopes  and  prospects  of  life  are  dawning 
upon  them.  The  lineage  of  the  poorest  comes  to  a  termination 
by  poverty  and  wretchedness ;  that  of  the  richest  goes  off  in 
chronic  and  hereditary  distempers,  gout,  apoplexy,  and,  espe- 
cially among  females,  by  consumption.  Both  are  replenished 
from  the  middling  classes  of  society,  who  owe  their  vigor  and 
the  perpetuation  of  their  families  rather  to  the  happy  fortune 
of  being  compelled  to  labor,  to  be  out  much  in  the  open  air, 
and  to  incur  what  they  call  exposures  and  hardships,  than  to 
any  knowledge  of  those  laws  which  they  ignorantly  observe, 
but  whose  observance,  though  ignorant,  is  thus  generously  re- 
warded. 

Can  reasons  so  cogent  and  demonstrative  as  these  be  offered 
in  favor  of  the  adoption  in  our  schools  of  any  of  the  other 
higher  branches  of  knowledge?  Here  is  a  study  upon  whose 
cultivation  the  power  to  pursue  all  others  with  vigor  and 
alacrity  depends.  Algebra  and  other  branches  of  mathematics 
may  discipline  the  intellect,  and  enable  it  to  concentrate  all  its 
divergent  forces  into  a  focus  of  light,  to  be  thrown  on  any  par- 


REPORT   FOR    1842.  153 

ticular  point.  Rhetoric  and  logic  may  make  us  acquainted 
with  rules  whereby  to  judge  of  the  taste  or  reasonings  of  others, 
or  to  fashion  our  own.  An  acquaintance  with  the  learned  lan- 
guages may  enable  us  to  read  a  few  books,  written  in  the  in- 
fancy of  society,  before  philosophy  had  acquired  its  present 
depth  and  expansion,  and  when  scarcely  any  thing  was  known 
of  those  great  civilizers  of  mankind,  the  useful  arts.  But 
an  observance  of  the  physical  laws  —  and  knowledge  must 
necessarily  precede  the  observance  —  would  prepare  us  to 
enter  upon  any  one  in  the  whole  range  of  studies,  or  upon  any 
of  the  active  duties  of  life,  with  tenfold  capacity  and  ardor. 
Soundness  of  health  is  preliminary  to  the  highest  success  in 
any  pursuit.  In  every  industrial  avocation,  it  is  an  indispensa- 
ble element ;  and  the  highest  intellectual  eminence  can  never  be 
reached  without  it.  It  exerts  a  powerful  influence  over  feelings, 
temper,  and  disposition,  and,  through  these,  upon  moral  charac- 
ter. If,  now  and  then,  as  a  rare  exception  to  the  general 
course  of  events,  an  extraordinary  individual  appears,  who, 
without  the  sustaining  power  of  bodily  vigor,  enlightens  the 
race  by  his  solitary  contemplations,  yet  it  is  believed  that  such 
prodigies  have  never  transmitted  their  powers  to  their  offspring, 
and  that  no  instance  has  existed  where  great  executive  effi- 
ciency has  been  united  to  intellectual  or  moral  pre-eminence  in 
the  absence  of  physical  health. 

So,  too,  in  the  common  course  of  nature,  it  is  as  improbable 
that  a  mother  who  is  physically  diseased  will  rear  a  healthy 
family  of  children,  as  it  is  that  an  immoral  mother  will  train 
children  to  morality. 

Yet,  incredible  as  it  may  seem,  the  means  of  acquiring  vigor, 
quickness,  endurance,  have  been  sought  for,  not  by  the  clergy- 
man, the  lawyer,  the  artist,  the  cultivator  of  letters,  the  mother, 
but  by  the  wrestler,  the  buffoon,  the  runner,  the  opera-dancer. 
There  are  ten  professors  of  pugilism  in  our  community  to  one 
of  physical  education  in  our  seminaries  of  learning. 

If  opportunities  for  ease,  and  an  eager  competition  for  ener- 
vating luxuries  and  refinements,  take  possession  of  society, 


154  ANNUAL   REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

without  any  corresponding  knowledge  of  the  laws  of  health, 
the  race  itself  must  rapidly  deteriorate.  Such  a  degeneracy 
must  not  only  be  considered  as  one  of  the  greatest  calamities 
that  can  befall  a  people,  but  it  must  be  entered  on  the  catalogue 
of  its  greatest  sins.  We  look  with  abhorrence  upon  those  bar- 
barous tribes  who  practise  infanticide  ;  but  they  are  as  little 
conscious  of  the  wrong  of  depriving  their  offspring  of  mere 
animal  life  as  we  are  of  the  wrong  of  depriving  ours  of  health, 
that  is,  of  all  the  physical  blessings  which  life  affords ; 
and  an  enlightened  posterity  may  not  be  without  difficulty  in 
determining  which  is  the  greater  offence  against  nature,  —  to 
relieve  the  impotent,  the  diseased,  the  deformed  child  at  once, 
of  all  mortal  suffering,  or  to  rear  a  race  of  puny,  dwarfish, 
imbecile  children,  the  inheritors  of  parental  maladies,  doomed 
to  suffer  through  all  the  years  of  their  existence  for  offences 
which  they  did  not  commit,  and  to  leave  to  their  own  offspring 
a  patrimony  of  aggravated  and  redoubled  miseries. 

About  seven  millions,  or  one-half  of  the  free  white  popula- 
tion of  the  United  States,  are  under  eighteen  years  of  age. 
Could  we  allow  to  these  only  an  average  period  of  twenty  four 
or  five  years,  after  having  reached  majority,  how  important  to 
the  country  would  be  their  condition  as  to  health  and  strength  ! 
How  much  more  important,  yet  how  much  less  regarded,  than 
if  they  were  an  army  of  seven  millions  of  men !  And  what 
significancy  and  impressiveness  does  it  give  to  the  fact,  that 
half  of  mankind  die  before  reaching  the  age  of  twenty  years. 
The  amount  of  individual,  domestic,  social,  and  public  interests 
dependent  upon  the  physical  well-being  of  this  multitude,  can- 
not be  appreciated  by  any  finite  mind.  It  is  too  vast  for  our 
comprehension.  We  can  hardly  conceive  of  the  latent  power 
which  exists  even  in  a  single  healthy,  well-formed  infant. 
What  a  magazine  of  forces  lies  pent  up  within  the  narrow 
limits  of  its  frame  !  What  endurance,  celerity,  energy, 
achievement !  As  a  mere  material  agent,  a  physical  machine, 
there  is  something  almost  sublime  in  the  idea  of  its  hidden 
capacities  and  might.  Who,  without  the  evidence  of  observa- 


REPORT   FOR    1842.  155 

tion  and  history,  would  be  so  credulous  as  to  believe,  that  in 
the  tiny,  flaccid  arms  of  a  group  of  infant  children,  there  were 
concealed  such  energies  as  could  turn  a  granite  quarry  into  the 
dwellings  and  temples  of  a  city,  or  convert  a  forest  into  ships, 
or  a  wilderness  into  a  garden,  or  almost  turn  the  earth  inside 
out  to  bring  up  its  deep-deposited  treasures  for  human  comfort 
or  embellishment?  Yet  we  know  that  these  helpless  beings  are 
endowed  with  innate  forces  which  render  such  achievements 
possible  and  practicable  ;  that  they  can  not  only  satisfy  the 
wants  of  the  body,  but  provide  in  abundance  for  the  higher 
wants  of  the  soul,  and,  during  the  period  of  a  short  life,  can 
prepare  bounties  and  blessedness  for  continents  and  centuries. 

But,  on  the  other  hand,  the  "  glassy  essence  "  of  the  child's 
life  may  be  so  treated  that  he  will  become  more  and  more  fra- 
gile ;  that  he  will  be  tormented  with  the  pains  and  infirmities  of 
disease,  instead  of  exulting  in  the  vigor  and  buoyancy  of  health  ; 
not  able  to  impart  aid  to  others,  but  constantly  extorting  assist- 
ance from  them  ;  adding  nothing  to  the  common  stock,  but 
drawing  his  own  subsistence  from  it ;  and,  instead  of  leaving 
the  world  indebted  to  him  for  the  services  he  has  rendered  it, 
departing  from  it  like  an  absconding  debtor  from  among  abused 
creditors.  And,  if  this  is  so  important  in  regard  to  a  single 
individual,  how  vastly  is  this  importance  increased  when  multi- 
plied by  the  number  of  all ! 

The  idea  is  sometimes  entertained,  even  by  men  otherwise 
intelligent,  that  Nature  imparts  to  each  individual  a  certain  spe- 
cific or  fixed  quantity  of  physical  force  ;  that  this  bestowment 
marks  the  extent  or  limit  of  ability  ;  and  therefore,  when  we 
have  expended  this  quantity,  whether  more  or  less  rapidly,  we 
come  to  a  point  of  exhaustion,  which  is  not  only  natural,  but 
necessary.  In  other  words,  the  assumption  is  that  each  indi- 
vidual has  a  certain  capacity  ;  that  this  capacity  is  once  filled  ; 
and,  when  it  is  exhausted,  we  might  as  well  attempt  to  pour 
more  than  its  own  contents  from  a  vessel  of  water,  as  to  obtain 
more  from  the  bodily  system  than  the  cubic  measurement  at 
which  it  was  originally  gauged.  The  same  idea  is  sometimes 


156  ANNUAL   REPOETS   ON  EDUCATION. 

more  learnedly,  though  with  equal  error,  expressed  under  an- 
other similitude.  Different  individuals  are  said  to  be  like  so 
many  galvanic  batteries,  capable  respectively  of  generating  a 
certain  amount  of  force,  according  to  the  magnitude  of  the 
machine  and  the  perfectness  of  its  construction.  This  force,  it 
is  asserted,  may  be  economized  or  squandered  ;  but,  with  every 
expenditure  of  power,  a  certain  portion  of  the  machine  is  de- 
composed ;  and  when,  either  by  the  frequency  or  the  intensity 
of  the  shocks,  the  whole  chemical  energies  of  the  apparatus 
are  destroyed,  we  have  nothing  left  but  worthless  oxides  of 
copper  and  zinc. 

Nothing  can  be  more  false,  or  more  disparaging  to  the  benev- 
olence and  skill  of  the  Creator,  than  this  view  of  our  corporeal 
mechanism.  The  bodily  machine  has  the  faculty,  after  having 
given  off  its  strength,  of  recovering  it  anew.  This  process  it 
can  repeat  thousands  and  thousands  of  times.  It  is  recupera- 
tive, self-replenishing,  self-repairing.  Each  muscular  effort 
may,  indeed,  be  attended  by  a  waste  or  loss  of  a  part  of  the 
muscle  or  organ  that  is  used  ;  but,  if  the  effort  put  forth  is  not 
excessive,  that  very  waste  is  supplied  by  the  deposit  of  new 
material  which  is  capable  of  making  a  more  vigorous  effort 
than  the  part  whose  place  it  has  taken.  Thus  we  receive  more 
than  we  give.  The  expenditure  is  followed,  not  by  loss,  but  by 
accumulation  ;  and  this  increase,  or  reduplication,  may  go  on 
for  fifty  years  without  abatement. 

But  these  wonderful  resources  of  the  body  can  be  developed 
only  by  conforming  to  the  laws  of  its  organization.  These 
laws  are  not  an  isolated  system,  independent  of  and  uncon- 
nected with  every  thing  else.  They  have  the  most  intimate  re- 
lation to  the  properties  and  laws  of  the  external  world.  Diet, 
air,  exercise,  clothing,  the  changes  of  temperature  and  the  vicis- 
situdes of  the  seasons,  light,  moisture,  the  elevation  or  depression 
of  different  localities,  come  within  their  purview.  With  every 
new  combination  of  circumstances,  the  law  is  modified,  or, 
rather,  a  new  law  applies  to  the  case.  The  practical  applica- 
tion of  the  law,  therefore,  is  a  matter  of  adjustment,  propor- 
tion, fitness,  relevancy,  —  that  is,  of  KNOWLEDGE. 


REPORT   FOR    1842.  157 

Although  the  proofs  from  which  these  views  are  derived  are 
abundant,  and  obvious  to  every  intelligent  observer,  yet  I  am 
desirous  of  corroborating  my  own  opinion  by  testimony  in 
which  the  public  will  repose  undoubting  confidence.  For  this 
purpose,  I  here  introduce  a  few  letters  from  eminent  physicians 
whose  characters  are  a  guaranty  for  the  correctness  of  their 
statements.  The  circular  to  which  the  letters  are  a  reply  is 
prefixed. 

CIRCULAR. 
To . 

M>i  df-ar  Sir,  — Ever  since  I  became  at  all  acquainted  with  the  laws  of 
health  and  life,  I  have  had  daily  and  hourly  occasion  to  lament  the  unneces- 
sary as  well  as  immense  loss  which  is  suffered,  by  individuals  and  by  the 
community,  in  consequence  of  the  violation  of  those  laws. 

The  loss  consists  in  the  personal  suffering  of  many,  with  its  attendant 
expenses,  in  the  impaired  ability  for  usefulness  of  a  still  larger  number,  and 
in  the  premature  death  of  a  vast  majority  of  mankind. 

In  looking  at  these  calamities  with  a  view  to  their  prevention  or  diminu- 
tion, it  seems  to  me  important  that  a  distinction  should  be  made  between 
those  transgressions  of  the  law  which  arise  from  ignorance  merely,  and  those 
which  are  committed  by  yielding  to  the  impulses  of  inordinate  appetites. 
For  the  prevention  of  those  which  flow  solely  from  ignorance,  mere  knowl- 
edge will  be  an  antidote  ;  but,  to  prevent  those  which  punish  the  improper 
indulgences  of  appetite,  some  change  must  be  effected  in  the  moral  condition 
of  the  patient.  Even  in  the  latter  case,  however,  a  clear  knowledge  of  the 
benefits  naturally  resulting  from  an  observance  of  the  laws  of  health  and 
life  would  come  powerfully  in  aid  of  a  moral  reformation. 

I  am  aware  that  there  is  a  class  of  cases  which  do  not  fall  exclusively  un- 
der either  of  these  heads,  — cases  which  may  be  called  mired,  because  they 
include  a  surrender  to  the  dominion  of  appetite,  notwithstanding  certain 
vague  and  obscure  notions  —  a  sort  of  half-knowledge  —  of  injurious  con- 
sequences. If,  however,  even  in  this  class  of  cases,  that  which  alone  is  en- 
titled to  be  called  knowledge  —  that  is,  a  clear,  vivid  perception  of  the  conse  • 
quences  attached  to  an  act  —  would  have  saved  the  victim,  I  see  not  why 
such  cases  should  not  be  arranged  under  the  head  of  evils  resulting  from 
ignorance. 

From  a  retrospect  of  your  extensive  medical  practice,  and  from  your  ob- 
servations on  health  rind  longevity,  I  trust  you  will  be  able  to  arrive  at,  or 
at  least  to  approximate,  some  pretty  definite  conclusion  respecting  the  pro- 
portion of  sickness,  physical  disability,  and  premature  death,  which  may  be 
fairly  attributed  to  an  ignorance  of  physiological  principles  already  discov- 


158  ANNUAL    REPORTS    ON   EDUCATION. 

ered,  and  which  most  persons  would  avoid  if  proper  attention  were  paid  to 
early  education  and  habits.  Or,  in  other  words,  in  the  present  state  of 
the  science  of  physiology,  how  great  a  proportion  of  disease,  of  suffering,  of 
a  diminution  of  the  physical  capacity  of  usefulness,  and  of  the  abridgment 
of  life,  comes  from  sheer  ignorance  (as  contradistinguished  from  that  which 
proceeds  from  causes  not  known,  or  from  inordinate  indulgences),  and  which, 
therefore,  we  might  hope  to  see  averted,  if  the  community  had  that  degree 
of  knowledge  which  is  easily  attainable  by  all. 

Bv  so  doing,  I  think  you  will  furnish  a  powerful  argument  in  favor  of 
making  those  conditions  on  which  health  and  life  depend  a  subject  of  study, 
not  only  for  adults,  but  especially  for  the  young ;  and,  in  order  to  reach  the 
latter  c!:iss  as  extensively  as  possible,  you  would  prove  the  expediency  of  in- 
troducing the  study  of  physiology  into  our  common  schools,  after  the  pri- 
mary studies  have  been  mastered. 

Should  you  do  me  the  favor  to  reply  to  this  letter,  I  hope  you  will  not 
think  yourself  confined  within  the  narrow  outline  I  have  sketched,  but  will 
extend  your  remarks  to  any  topics  which  will  subserve  the  two  great  objects 
I  have  in  view,  —  namely,  the  prevention  of  suffering,  and  the  increase  of 
the  physical  capabilities  of  the  community. 
Very  truly  yours, 

HORACE  MAXX, 
Secretary  of  the  Board  of  Education. 


LETTER  FROM  DR.  JAMES  JACKSOX. 

Hox.  HORACE  MAXX. 

My  dear  Sir,  —  I  agree  with  you  entirely  as  to  the  lamentable  evils 
which  arise  from  the  violation  of  the  laws  of  Nature  in  regard  to  health 
and  life.  You  will  add  much  to  the  benefits  yon  have  already  conferred  on 
the  rising  generation,  and  on  the  community,  if  you  cause  to  be  instilled 
into  the  young  a  knowledge  of  the  value  of  health,  and  of  the  means  of 
preserving  it. 

The  evils  you  describe  are  undoubtedly,  in  many  instances,  incurred 
from  ignorance.  An  acquaintance  with  the  functions  of  the  living  body, 
and  with  the  causes  which  influence  those  functions  for  good  or  for  evil, 
would  have  a  great  tendency  to  prevent  such  evils.  But  the  proportion  ot 
cases  in  which  ignorance  alone,  "sheer  ignorance,"  is  the  cause  of  disease, 
&c.,  is  not  perhaps  so  large  as  you  are  disposed  to  br-lk'vc.  By  far  the 
greatest  proportion  of  cases  in  which  the  health  is  injured,  and  life  is  short- 
ened or  rendered  useless,  unnecessarily,  consists  of  the  cases  you  call 


REPORT   FOR    1842.  159 

"  mi.nd."  Ignorance  has  a  share  in  producing  them,  a  greater  or  less  share, 
but  is  not  the  sole  cause. 

You  now  ask  in  how  great  a  portion  of  all  the  cases  of  sickness,  im- 
paired health,  ic..  ignorance  is  either  the  sole  cause,  or  co-operates  with 
other  causes  in  producing  the  result.  I  find  it  impossible  to  give  a  very 
precise  answer  to  this  inquiry ;  but  I  feel  assured  that  the  answer  should  be, 
mare-tlian  oitr-hulf.  When  it  is  brought  to  mind  that  the  ignorance  of  par- 
ents is  included  in  the  terms  of  the  inquiry,  the  justice  of  the  answer  will 
probably  be  admitted  by  all  who  are  conversant  with  the  subject. 

The  first  great  difficulty  in  the  young,  and  often  in  those  who  have 
passed  their  youth,  is,  that  they  are  ignorant  of  the  value  of  health.  They 
may  acknowledge  in  words,  but  they  do  not  realize,  how  much  the  enjoy- 
ment of  life  is  abridged  by  ill  health.  Still  less  are  they  aware  how  much 
the  usefulness  of  one's  days  may  be  impaired  by  disease,  or  even  by  chronic 
ailments,  which  are  scarcely  called  diseases.  While  men  desire  long  life, 
they  too  often  disregard  the  importance  of  being  able  to  use  all  their  powers 
and  faculties  unimpaired  during  the  years  they  do  live.  The  first  thing, 
therefore,  is  to  make  the  young  understand  that  they  should  endeavor  to 
cultivate  and  maintain  all  their  powers,  and  be  ready  to  bring  them  into 
healthy  exercise  at  all  times.  To  this  end,  they  must  learn,  not  only  to  be 
properly  equipped  for  the  warfare  of  life,  but  also  not  to  take  on  the  bur- 
dens of  bad  habits,  which  will  impede  them  in  their  inarch. 

If  these  views  of  the  importance  of  sound  health  be  presented  clearly 
and  fully  to  the  young,  they  may  then  be  desirous  to  learn  the  art  of  living 
well.  Teaching  principles  alone  will  not  insure  the  practice  of  this  art,  but 
it  will  promote  it.  The  study  of  Physiology  will  lay  the  foundation.  To 
the  common  student,  who  does  not  intend  to  devote  himself  to  medicine,  it 
would  suffice  to  learn  the  great  or  most  important  functions  of  the  human 
system. — such  as  those  by  which  we  convert  our  nutriment  into  blood, 
and,  distributing  this  to  the  various  parts  of  the  body,  form  from  it  the 
various  solid  and  fluid  substances  ;  those  by  which  we  carry  off  the  useless 
materials  by  the  various  emmictories  ;  those  by  which  we  recognize  the 
exUtence  and  qualities  of  the  material  things  around  us;  and  those  by 
which  we  perform  the  voluntary  motions.  To  these  might  be  added  the 
changes  which  the  body  and  mind  undergo  from  infancy  to  old  age,  the 
mutual  influence  of  the  mind  and  body  on  each  other,  and  perhaps  some 
others. 

A  general  acquaintance  with  the  matters  thus  described,  which  might  be 
illustrated  by  demonstrations  to  a  very  limited  extent  on  brute  animals  and 
plants,  could,  I  think,  easily  be  communicated  to  young  people  from  four- 
teen to  sixteen  years  of  age.  But  this  instruction  in  physiology  would  not 
be  enough.  It  should  be  followed  by  instruction  in  hygiene.  This  is  the 
branch  of  medical  science  which  regards  the  preservation  of  health  and 
the  attainment  of  long  life.  Rules  on  this  subject  may  be  given  to  those 


160  ANNUAL   REPORTS    ON   EDUCATION. 

who  are  ignorant  of  physiology ;  but  the  subject  can  be  presented  much 
more  advantageously  to  those  who  are  not  ignorant  of  it. 

The  advantages  of  such  instruction  as  we  have  in  view  may  be  doubted 
by  many  persons.  I  would  not  exaggerate  those  advantages,  nor  hold  out 
expectations  which  may  be  disappointed.  I  should  not  look  for  a  marked 
change  in  the  habits  of  society  in  any  short  time.  But,  as  knowledge  of 
this  kind  becomes  diffused  in  the  community,  there  would  probably  be  an 
increased  desire  for  it ;  many  of  the  thoughtful  would  continue  to  study  the 
matter  as  they  were  growing  up;  and  future  mothers,  at  least,  would  be 
anxious  to  apply  their  learning  for  the  benefit  of  their  children.  If  they 
would  do  this  successfully,  the  generations  winch  are  to  follow  us  would  be 
rising  in  the  scale  of  physical  well-being  at  least.  I  say  physical  well-being 
at  least ;  but  I  have  a  full  conviction  that  there  would  be  some  corresponding 
moral  improvement.  The  tendency  of  physical  health,  attained  by  well- 
trained  habits,  must,  I  think,  promote  that  manliness,  that  virtue,  which  en- 
ables men  to  keep  in  the  paths  of  rectitude.  There  would  be  fewer  of  those 
deviations  which  one  excuses  to  himself  by  saying  he  could  not  help  it. 
At  any  rate,  some  of  the  evils  of  life  might  be  mitigated  or  averted. 
Meanwhile,  the  studies  proposed  connect  themselves  readily  with  other 
branches  of  natural  history.  How  useful,  how  beneficial  to  the  mind,  are 
all  branches  of  natural  history,  I  need  not  say  to  you.  Perhaps  I  owe  you 
an  apology  for  having  been  led  off  so  much  from  the  immediate  object  of 
your  inquiry. 

I  am,  dear  sir,  with  sincere  respect, 

Your  friend  and  servant, 

JAMES  JACKSON. 
6,1842. 


LETTER  FROM  DR.  S.  B.  WOODWARD. 

STATE  LCTNATIC  HOSPITAL,  WORCESTER, 

Jan.  2,  1843. 
HON.  HORACE  MANN. 

Dear  Sir,  —  I  have  received  your  late  letter,  and  improve  the  earliest 
opportunity  to  reply. 

From  the  cradle  to  the  grave,  we  suffer  punishment  for  the  violation  of 
the  laws  of  health  and  life. 

In  infancy,  mismanagement,  arising  from  ignorance  or  neglect  of  these 
laws,  not  only  destroys  many  lives,  but  impairs  the  health  of  thousands  who 
survive,  gives  bad  development  to  organs  essential  to  life,  and  entails  the 
elements  of  disease  and  death  upon  them. 

The  more  common  errors  are,  bandaging  the  body  and  limbs,  neglect 


REPORT   FOR    1842.  161 

of  cleanliness,  hot  beds,  hot  and  ill-ventilated  apartments,  bad  clothing, 
covering  some  parts  too  much  and  too  closely,  and  others  too  little  or  not 
at  all ;  bad  food,  too  much  feeding:,  and  especially  administering1  drugs  for 
those  slight  indispositions  which,  in  a  short  time,  would  be  removed  with- 
out remedies,  &c.  Thus  the  infant  is  subjected  to  suffering,  to  disease  and 
death,  before  it  is  responsible  for  a  single  error. 

The  exposures,  imprudences,  and  evil  habits  of  the  young  are  the  causes 
of  many  of  the  diseases  of  that  period  of  life,  particularly  of  CONSUMPTION, 
the  great  destroyer  of  this  most  interesting  portion  of  the  human  family. 
Many  of  the  victims  of  this  disease  have  an  hereditary  predisposition  trans- 
mitted from  parents,  and  also  feel  the  influence  of  a  neglect  of  proper 
training  in  the  periods  of  infancy  and  childhood. 

As  far  as  I  have  known,  the  educated  and  wealthy  classes  of  society 
manage  their  children  with  less  regard  to  the  natural  laws  of  life  than  the 
common-sense  yeomanry  of  the  country.  They  are  less  healthy,  less  robust, 
and  die  prematurely  in  greater  proportion. 

The  former  restrain  from  active  pursuits,  and  pamper  appetite  too  much, 
often  preferring  delicacy  of  appearance  to  vigor  of  health ;  and  by  this 
mistake  they  bring  suffering  and  disease  upon  their  offspring,  which  is  felt 
in  all  after-life. 

The  latter,  by  encouraging  activity,  and  simplicity  of  diet,  insure  for  their 
children  vigorous  health,  a  power  of  repelling  the  causes  of  disease,  and  of 
throwing  off  disease  when  it  attacks  them. 

Considering  the  many  errors  which  we  adopt,  and  adhere  to  in  life ;  the 
many  imprudences  of  which  we  arc  guilty ;  the  hazards  we  run,  and  the 
exposures  which  we  voluntary  make,  which  are  rash  and  unnecessary,  —  it  is 
not  surprising  that  a  large  proportion  of  our  suffering,  and  the  premature 
deaths  which  take  place  in  the  community,  are  ascribable  to  violations 
of  the  natural  laws  of  life  and  health. 

Death"  from  old  age  is  rare.  Many  of  the  aged  die  of  acute  disease, 
which  almost  always  arises  from  imprudent  exposure,  and  violation  of  the 
laws  of  health.  Many  such  persons  have  sufficient  general  vigor  to  hold 
out  much  longer  than  is  common ;  but  the  ravages  of  disease  upon  one 
organ  destroys  its  functions,  the  system  succumbs  to  local  causes,  and 
death  follows. 

I  have  no  doubt  that  half  the  evils  of  life,  and  half  the  deaths  that 
occur  among  mankind,  arise  from  ignorance  of  these  natural  laws,  and 
that  a  thorough  knowledge  of  them  would  diminish  the  sufferings  incident 
to  our  present  state  of  being  in  very  nearly  the  same  proportion. 

Yours  very  respectfully, 

S.   B.    WOODWABD. 
11 


162  ANNUAL   REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

LETTER  FROM  DR.  EDWARD  JARVIS. 

COXCORD,  MASS.,  13th  December,  1842. 
To  THE  Hox.  HORACE  MANN. 

My  dear  Sir,  —  Yours  of  September  I  received  in  due  time,  requesting 
my  opinion  of  the  proportions  of  disease  caused  by  ignorance  of  our  organi- 
zation and  physical  powers,  or  from  neglect  of  this  knowledge.  My  records 
and  data  on  which  I  could  found  a  more  accurate  opinion  are  in  Kentucky ; 
and  therefore  I  have  hesitated  until  now  to  give  any  answer. 

From  an  observation  of  thirteen  years,  I  have  been  led  to  believe  that 
three-fourtlis,  perhaps  more,  of  the  ailments  of  men  come  from  a  want  of 
sufficient  knowledge  of  their  frame,  or  a  disregard  for  it. 

Considering  how  men  are  educated  to  view  life,  —  the  body,  its  organs 
and  powers,  and  their  relation  to  external  nature,  —  it  is  not  at  all  surpris- 
ing that  this  should  be  so.  Out  of  the  ignorance  of  anatomy  and  physi- 
ology have  grown  two  radical  errors  :  — 

1st.  The  body,  its  faculties  and  powers,  are  supposed  to  have  an  indefi- 
nite capacity  of  endurance,  both  of  use  and  abuse;  and  hence  have  arisen 
innumerable  disorders. 

2d.  Diseases,  derangements,  injuries,  are,  in  some  way  or  other,  supposed 
to  be  the  direct  acts  of  Providence,  moving  in  a  mysterious  way,  and  not  to 
come  from  human  agency,  —  from  our  neglect  or  misuse  of  Heaven's  gifts. 

"  Diseases  are  thy  servants,  Lord; 
They  come  at  thy  command," 

is  more  than  an  adjuration  of  the  pious  poet ;  it  is  too  much  a  common 
faith :  and  therefore  we  are  not  taught  to  use  the  means  in  our  hands,  nor 
made  to  feel  our  own  responsibility  for  the  preservation  of  our  health. 

To  say  nothing  of  those  disorders  that  come  from  dissipation,  I  believe 
that  the  whole  chapter  of  accidental  injuries  is  caused  by  violation  of  the 
natural  laws,  through  ignorance  often,  through  temerity  oftener,  and,  in 
most  cases,  for  want  of  that  care  which  is  usually  given  to  the  preservation 
of  property. 

The  ordinary  diseases  of  the  human  body,  —  fever,  consumption  and  in- 
flammations, and  derangements  of  the  digestive  apparatus,  nervous  system, 
&c.,  —  though  not  so  palpably  the  consequences  of  the  violations  of  the  laws 
of  our  members  as  what  are  called  accidents,  yet  I  doubt  not  that  most 
of  them  can  be  charged  remotely  or  directly  to  these  errors. 

The  earth  was  given  us  by  a  generous  Providence  for  our  habitation. 
Our  organs  and  their  functions,  and  the  necessities  of  our  frames,  are  per- 
fectly fitted  to  external  nature.  Between  the  wants  of  the  animal  body  and 
the  elements  there  is  a  beautiful  harmony.  For  every  need  of  our  organs 
or  our  life,  God  has  created  an  abundant  supply.  Some  of  these  things 


REPORT   FOR    1842.  163 

arc  supplied  to  us  all  ready  fov  use,  —  as  the  air  for  the  lungs  and  respira- 
tion, the  light  for  the  eye,  the  water  for  drink ;  other  things  are  given  us  in 
the  raw  material,  unfit  for  use.  But  then  we  have  intellect  given  us  to  per- 
ceive the  powers  and  worth  of  these,  and  their  convertibility  to  such  shapes 
or  combinations  as  our  bodies  may  require.  We  have  also  hands  to  do  this 
work ;  and  thus  lias  our  beneficent  Creator  provided  for  our  clothing,  our 
shelter,  our  food,  and  our  exercise.  So  far,  mere  life  is  maintained.  But 
this  is  clone  in  the  best  manner  by  the  use  of  every  faculty  and  organ  ;  for 
the  exercise  of  every  one  of  these  is  not  only  necessary  for  its  own  develop- 
ment, but  for  the  health  and  energy  of  all  the  rest. 

By  the  faithful  and  discreet  use  of  all  these  means  and  powers,  — by  not 
corrupting  the  air  we  breathe  nor  the  water  we  drink ;  by  suiting  our  food 
exactly  to  our  powers  of  digestion  and  to  the  wants  of  nutrition ;  by 
adopting  our  clothing  precisely  to  the  temperature,  and  the  power  of  the 
body  to  sustain  atmospheric  changes ;  by  protecting  ourselves,  by  house 
and  by  fire,  from  the  elements  ;  by  a  proper  exercise  of  all  our  faculties, 
neither  timid  nor  rash,  neither  abusing  nor  exhausting  them,  nor  letting 
them  rust  from  neglect,  —  we  may  probably  live  to  a  good  old  age,  and  avoid 
many,  if  not  most,  diseases.  Certainly  we  may  thus  escape  all  accidents, 
and  very  materially  prolong  life  on  earth. 

This  requires  much  study  and  continual  observation, — 

1st.  To  understand  the  structure  of  our  bodies. 

2d.  To  know  the  relations  of  our  organs  to  the  external  world. 

3d.  To  learn  the  use  and  extent  of  our  faculties. 

Herein  lies  our  fundamental  deficiency.  We  want  the  proper  knowledge 
to  begin  with,  and  a  habit  of  observation  afterwards.  Consequently,  we  have 
a  world  full  of  almost  innumerable  diseases,  and  premature  death  comes 
upon  most  men.  Hence,  in  Boston,  from  1811  to  1839,  instead  of  holding 
on  in  a  life  of  vigor  until  finished  by  the  exhaustion  of  old  age,  from  thirty- 
three  to  forty-three  per  cent  of  the  population  died  before  they  passed  their 
fifth  year ;  and  less  than  seven  out  of  one  hundred  reached  their  three- 
score and  ten.  In  Concord,  twenty-two  per  cent  died  under  five  years, 
and  eighteen  in  every  hundred  passed  their  seventieth  year.  The  average 
duration  of  life  for  the  last  thirteen  years  was  only  thirty-seven  years  and 
five  months ;  and  even  this  period  was  far  from  being  a  perfect  life,  for  the 
whole  catalogue  of  diseases  was  fastened  upon  this  brief  earthly  space. 

A  careful  observation  shows  how  this  happens,  considering  the  complicated 
structure  of  our  bodies,  the  almost  infinite  variety  of  circumstances  that  may 
affect  them  for  good  or  for  evil,  and  the  perpetual  necessity  of  adapting  the 
material,  the  support  and  food  of  life,  to  our  organization.  I  believe  that 
men  give  less  time  to  the  study  of  the  laws  that  govern  these  matters  than 
they  do  to  the  regulations  of  their  animals  or  their  machinery,  which  con- 
tribute to  their  profit  or  pleasure. 

I  can  explain  this  better  by  examples. 


164  ANNUAL    REPORTS    ON   EDUCATION. 

I  was  long  in  the  habit  of  attending,  in  way  of  my  profession,  upon  the 
family  of  a  very  sagacious  farmer.  He  always  lived  with  his  eyes  open,  and 
was  a  keen  observer  of  every  thing  but  his  own  frame.  Hence  he  was  very 
successful  in  raising  pigs  and  managing  cattle.  He  carefully  watched  the 
effects  of  the  food,  and  varied  it  to  suit  the  appetite  and  health  of  his  animals. 
Meal,  potatoes,  corn,  pumpkins,  boiled  or  raw,  mixed  in  every  proportion, 
or  singly,  were  prepared  and  changed,  just  as  he  saw  that  the  hogs  would 
thrive  the  best  and  fatten  the  fastest.  Hay,  corn,  oats,  meal,  roots,  cut-hay, 
these  were  given  to  his  oxen  and  horses  according  as  he  noticed  the  effects 
on  their  strength,  spirit,  and  power  of  endurance.  For  these  purposes,  he 
had  no  fixed  principles  or  inflexible  habits  ;  but  his  daily  observation  of 
the  effects  of  food  was  his  law  of  permanence  or  change. 

He  told  me  once,  rather  incidentally  than  otherwise,  that  for  a  year  or  two 
he  had  suffered  much  from  heart-burn,  or  acid  stomach.  He  felt  it  some 
after  breakfast,  and  so  much  after  dinner  as  to  impair  his  energies,  and  some- 
times so  severely  as  to  prevent  the  possibility  of  labor.  On  some  days  this 
was  very  distressing.  But  he  very  rarely  had  this  pain  in  the  evening.  On 
inquiry,  I  discovered  that  he  ate  brown  (rye  and  Indian  corn)  bread  for  break- 
fast, and  the  same  more  plentifully  for  dinner ;  but  for  supper  he  ate  wheaten 
bread.  Occasionally,  he  had  Indian-pudding  at  noon,  and  then  his  stomach 
suffered  the  most  distress.  The  same  attention  to  the  effects  of  his  own  diet 
that  he  gave  to  the  effects  of  their  food  on  his  cattle  and  hogs  would  have 
detected  this  error  in  its  very  beginning,  and  might  have  saved  him  many 
months  of  suffering.  But,  when  I  proposed  the  change,  he  hardly  compre- 
hended the  necessity. 

I  know  of  some  men  who  make  it  a  rule  to  work  their  horses  at  the  top 
of  their  strength,  using  them  only  in  their  fullest  flesh  and  spirit,  and  resting 
them  before  much  fatigued.  But  they  work  themselves  at  the  bottom  of  their 
strength.  If  they  rest,  it  is  only  when  nearly  or  quite  exhausted;  and  they 
return  to  action  as  soon  as  they  gather  power  to  crawl  to  their  labor. 

There  are  two  opposite  principles  or  notions  somewhat  common,  both 
warring  against  health,  interfering  with  the  vital  energies,  and  rendering 
the  human  frame  more  or  less  susceptible  of  disease. 

First.  There  is  a  sort  of  stoicism  relative  to  food,  labor,  and  self-sacri- 
fice. Men  under  the  influence  of  this  feeling  eat  every  thing  that  is  set 
before  them,  of  whatever  kind,  and  however  prepared,  whether  it  suits 
their  digestive  powers  or  not.  To  think  any  food  that  is  offered  them  is 
indigestible,  and  therefore  unsuitable  to  them,  to  request  any  change  on 
their  account,  savors  to  them  of  childish  fault-finding,  and  of  unmanly  self- 
ishness. With  the  same  feeling,  they  go  through  every  variety  of  labor  and 
exposure  to  which  business  or  pleasure,  duty  or  kindness,  may  call  them. 
Through  fatigue,  through  severe  cold,  storm,  or  heat,  they  run  and  toil,  for- 
getful of  the  animal  machinery  by  which  they  move,  and  regardless  of  the 
influence  of  the  elements  or  over-action  upon  it.  Of  course,  these  feelings 


REPORT    FOR    1842.  165 

and  habits  must  open  the  way  to  digestive  disturbance  in  some,  and  to  colds, 
rheumatisms,  fevers,  &c.,  in  others. 

Second.  There  is  often  precisely  the  reverse  feeling,  —  a  selfish  regard  to 
appetite  and  comfort.  Governed  by  this,  some  eat  more  for  appetite  than  for 
nourishment.  They  regard  good  eating,  but  not  good  digestion.  They 
swallow  crudities,  perverse  cookeries,  and  absurd  mixtures,  provided  these 
please  the  palate  ;  but  the  poor  stomach  is  forgotten.  Others  err  by  the 
quantity  of  their  food  :  they  thus  over-tax  their  digestive  powers,  and  often 
derange  them.  If  not  this,  they  are  stupid  and  sleepy  after  eating ;  their 
activity  of  life  is  for  the  time  suspended,  because  all  the  nervous  energies 
are  absorbed  in  aid  of  the  over-tasked  stomach. 

The  selfish  regard  to  personal  comfort,  which  avoids  the  exercise  of  some 
or  of  many  of  the  organs  or  powers,  and  thereby  leaves  them  feeble ;  which 
abhors  the  ordinary  exposures,  and  thus  renders  the  body  incapable  of  en- 
during the  changes  of  temperature  which  it  must  sometimes  meet,  —  this, 
in  various  ways,  disarms  the  system  of  much  of  its  vital  energy,  prevents 
the  full  development  of  life,  and  reduces  the  power  of  resistance  to  those 
influences  which  are  apt  to  engender  disease. 

There  is  one  other  important  evil  following  from  this  ignorance  of  the 
laws  of  health ;  that  is,  a  total  misconception  of  the  nature  and  location 
of  disease,  and,  therefore,  a  want  of  a  guide  to  the  way  and  means  of  re- 
covery ;  and  many,  in  attempting  to  attain  this,  carry  their  bodies  through 
all  sorts  of  experiments,  even  those  of  an  opposite  nature,  to  cure  the  same 
disorder.  On  the  other  hand,  every  sort  of  disorder  is  submitted  to  the  same 
experiment,  as  if  every  possible  combination  of  derangement  and  of  remcdy 
would  produce  one  and  the  same  result  of  health  and  strength.  Hence  arises 
quackery,  which  is  the  natural  fruit  of  popular  ignorance  upon  the  subject 
in  which  it  pretends  to  operate. 

One  man  advertises  that  all  diseases  arc  primarily  in  the  blood,  and  for 
this  state  of  things  he  has  a  certain  remedy.  He  finds  many  people,  with  all 
kinds  of  ailments,  to  believe  him ;  and  they  gladly  try  his  method  upon  them- 
selves. Another  rises,  and  declares  that  all  diseases  originate  in  the  liver,  and 
straight  the  former  patients  change  their  faith  :  with  no  change  of  symptoms 
or  evidence,  they  suddenly  cease  to  believe  their  various  derangements  come 
from  the  blood,  and  become  convinced  that  they  proceed  from  the  liver,  and 
take  the  corresponding  medicine.  From  the  liver  to  the  stomach,  from 
the  stomach  to  the  nerves,  their  ignorant  credulity  bandies  about  their 
fickle  faith,  while  their  poor  frames  endure  all  the  trials  of  ignorance,  and 
their  impoverishing  purses  pay  all  the  cost. 

The  remedy  for  all  tin's  is  in  a  better  education.  If  our  people  were  as 
well  taught  the  organization  of  their  bodies  as  they  are  the  structure  of  a 
clock  or  a  wagon;  if  they  understood  the  uses,  powers,  and  limits  of  the 
animal  frame  as  well  as  they  do  the  objects  and  capacities  of  machinery,  — 
they  would  make  a  much  more  faithful  use  of  their  health  and  strength,  and 
save  themselves  from  many  diseases. 


166  ANNUAL   REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

For  this  purpose,  our  children  should  be  taught  in  school  the  law  of  their 
members,  as  early  and  as  carefully  as  they  are  taught  geography  or  philoso- 
phy. Anatomy  and  physiology  should  be  studied,  not  as  barren  facts,  but 
as  a  law  for  their  government.  They  should  have  it  impressed  upon  them 
as  a  conscientious  duty  to  take  care  of  their  health,  to  develop  and  preserve 
their  powers  of  life  in  their  fullest  energy.  They  should  feel  that  they  have 
no  more  right  to  impair  or  diminish  or  pervert  or  waste  this  life  by  negli- 
gence, by  misuse,  or  by  over-exertion,  and  thus  commit  fractional  and  grad- 
ual suicide,  than  they  have  to  put  an  end  to  it  by  a  blow  in  complete  suicide. 
Both  of  these  are  violations  of  the  same  law  of  society,  of  nature,  and  reli- 
gion. They  differ  in  degree,  but  not  in  kind. 

Every  child,  then,  should  be  first  taught  the  nature  of  his  own  bodily  ma- 
chine, and  the  relation  of  this  to  external  objects.  Then  he  should  be  made 
to  feel  a  conscientious  responsibility  for  its  faithful  use.  Upon  himself  it 
must  depend  whether  this  shall  give  him  the  highest  uninterrupted  pleasure, 
or  the  greatest  pain  ;  whether  it  supply  him  with  wealth  more  than  all 
other  means,  or  involve  him  in  hopeless  poverty. 

Very  truly  and  respectfully  yours, 

EDWARD  JARVIS. 


LETTER   FROM   DR.  M.    S.   PERRY. 

BOSTON,  Oct.  25,  1842. 

DEAR  SIR,  —  I  received  your  letter  of  Sept.  23,  in  which  you  propound 
to  me  the  following  question :  "  In  the  present  state  of  the  science  of 
phvsiology,  how  great  a  propon ion  of  suffering,  of  disease,  of  a  diminution 
of  the  physical  capacity  of  usefulness,  and  of  the  abridgment  of  life,  comes 
from  sheer  ignorance,  and  which,  therefore,  we  might  hope  to  see  averted  if 
the  community  had  that  degree  of  knowledge  which  is  easily  attainable  by 
all  ? " 

To  this  question,  I  regret  to  say,  I  cannot  give  any  definite  answer ;  but 
I  have  taken  pains  to  record  the  exciting  causes  of  disease  (as  far  as  they 
could  be  ascertained)  in  fifty  case;;  which  have  come  under  my  care  since  I 
received  your  letter,  and  in  twenty-live  more  which,  within  the  last  two 
months,  have  entered  the  Massachusetts  General  Hospital.  These  last  were 
recorded  by  the  resident  student.  Some  of  those  that  came  under  my  care 
were  children  ;  but  I  thought  I  would  take  fifty  successive  cases  without  ref- 
erence to  age.  Those  that  entered  the  hospital  were  adults. 

The  result  is,  that  more  than  half  of  the  fifty  cases  were  induced  by 
causes  which  might  have  been  avoided  if  the  individuals  had  understood  the 
laws  of  health ;  for  I  may  safely  say  that  not  one  of  them  did  understand 
those  laws. 


REPORT   FOR    1842.  167 

The  cause  of  sickness  in  fourteen  of  the  cases  received  at  the  hospital 
was  ascertained.  They  were  exposure  to  wet  and  cold,  fatigue,  and  want 
of  exercise.  Of  the  other  cases,  whose  cause  was  not  known,  it  is  but  fair 
to  suppose,  from  the  nature  of  the  diseases,  that  more  than  half  of  them 
arose  from  similar  causes.  Allowing  this  supposition  to  be  correct,  we  shall 
have  more  than  three-quarters  of  the  twenty-five  patients  made  sick  by  causes 
which  might  have  been  avoided  if  they  had  possessed  the  requisite  knowl- 
edge, and  been  placed  under  circumstances  where  they  could  have  applied 
it. 

I  think  a  large  majority  of  the  patients  that  come  under  the  care  of  physi- 
cians are  made  sick  from  the  following  causes  :  Exposure  to  atmospheric 
changes,  excess  in  eating  and  drinking,  fatigue,  impure  air,  and  want  of  ex- 
ercise. Now,  in  order  to  avoid  these  exciting  causes  of  disease,  an  individual 
should  not  only  understand  the  laws  of  physiology,  but  the  influence  of 
physical  and  moral  agents.  Important  as  these  subjects  are,  I  will  ven- 
ture to  say  that  not  one  individual  in  a  hundred  amongst  us  does  under- 
stand them  ;  and  if  you  can  direct  the  attention  of  the  community  to  them, 
and  induce  them  to  introduce  the  study  of  these  sciences  into  our  Public 
Schools,  you  will  confer  a  great  blessing  upon  the  present  and  future  gen- 
erations. 

It  is  generally  supposed  that  there  has  been,  within  the  last  few  years,  a 
decrease  in  the  annual  mortality  in  this  city.  But  in  a  paper  lately  written 
by  S.  Shattuck,  Esq.,  on  the  vital  statistics  of  Boston,  he  says,  "  The  average 
value  of  life  is  greater  now  than  during  the  last  century,  but  not  as  great  as 
it  was  twenty  years  ago.  It  was  at  its  maximum  from  1811  to  1820  ;  and, 
since  that  time,  it  has  somewhat  decreased."  He  also  says,  "  It  is  a  melan- 
choly fact,  and  one  which  should  arrest  the  attention  of  all,  that  forty-three  per 
cent,  or  maiiij  one-half,  of  all  the  deaths  which  have  taken  place  within  the  last 
nine  years,  are  of  persons  under  nine  years  of  age ;  and  the  proportional  mortality 
of  this  age  has  been  increasing." 

W.  R.  Gray,  Esq.,  in  a  paper  published  in  tho  last  number  of  "The  Statis- 
tical Journal,"  says  that  the  rate  of  annual  mortality  has  increased  in  Eng- 
land, since  1820,  ten  per  cent,  and  probably  twelve  and  a  half.  These  facts 
show  the  importance  of  directing  public  attention  to  the  causes  of  disease,  in 
order,  if  possible,  to  avert  a  still  greater  annual  increase  of  suffering  and 
death. 

Respectfully  yours, 

M.  S.  PERRY. 
HORACE  MANX,  ESQ. 

This  list  of  authorities  might  be  indefinitely  extended.  Many 
personal  interviews  with  eminent  members  of  the  medical  pro- 
fession have  confirmed  my  belief  in  the  above  conclusions.  But, 


168  ANNUAL   REPORTS    ON   EDUCATION. 

to  any  one  who  understands  even  the  more  obvious  principles 
of  physiology,  the  evidence  which  is  inherent  in  the  nature  of 
the  subject  supersedes  the  necessity  of  extrinsic  proof.  Yet 
thousands  of  the  more  advanced  scholars  in  our  schools  are 
engaged  in  studying  geometry  and  algebra,  rhetoric  and  dec- 
lamation, Latin  and  Greek,  while  this  life-knoivledge  is  neg- 
lected. Having  passed  through  our  Public  Schools,  through 
select  schools  and  academies,  without  ever  having  had  their 
attention  turned  to  the  great  science  of  health  and  life,  our 
young  men  and  women,  who  are,  or  who  are  soon  to  be,  the 
fathers  and  mothers  of  the  next  generation,  devote  their  leisure 
time  to  the  reading  of  novels  and  the  other  bubble  literature  of 
the  day,  and  neglect  that  knowledge  on  which  so  much  of  person- 
al and  almost  all  of  domestic  happiness  and  hopes  are  so  obvi- 
ously founded.  In  the  fallacious  tranquillity  of  ignorance,  per- 
nicious indulgences  are  yielded  to,  indispensable  observances 
are  omitted,  Tinhealthful  habits  are  formed ;  and,  as  the  inevi- 
table consequence,  debility  or  sickness  ensues,  old  age  is  ante- 
dated, feeble  parents  are  succeeded  by  feebler  children,  the 
lineage  dwindles  and  tapers  from  less  to  less,  the  cradle  and 
swaddling-clothes  are  frequently  converted  into  the  coffin  and 
the  shroud,  occasional  contributions  are  sent  off  to  deformity, 
to  idiocy,  and  to  insanity,  until,  sooner  or  later,  after  incredible 
sufferings,  abused  and  outraged  Nature,  finding  all  her  com- 
mandments broken,  her  admonitions  unheeded,  and  her  punish- 
ments contemned,  applies  to  the  offending  family  her  sovereign 
remedy  of  extinction. 

Considering,  then,  the  paramount  importance  of  this  subject, 
it  seems  to  me  desirable  that  it  should  be  commended  to  the 
favor  of  the  public,  not  merely  by  argument  and  the  authority 
of  distinguished  names,  but  by  a  presentation  of  some  of  its 
leading  and  most  essential  doctrines.  The  duty  of  prescribing 
text-books,  and  of  regulating  the  studies  in  our  schools,  is  de- 
volved by  the  Legislature  upon  the  school  committees.  These 
committees  are  chosen  annually  by  the  people.  The  people, 
then,  are  to  be  reached,  —  not  by  coercion  of  law,  but  by  per- 


REPORT   FOR   1842.  1G9 

suasion  and  conviction.  And  I  am  so  well  satisfied  that  the 
people  of  Massachusetts  are  competent  to  understand  and  appre- 
ciate the  preponderating  merits  of  this  study,  and  that,  to  en- 
sure it  priority  over  any  and  all  others  of  the  higher  branches 
pursued  in  our  schools,  it  only  needs  to  have  its  claims  pre- 
sented before  the  tribunal  of  an  intelligent  public  opinion,  that 
I  propose  to  occupy  the  residue  of  this  Report  with  a  brief 
outline  of  the  more  obvious  principles  of  physiological  science, 
and  of  their  practical  bearing  upon  the  great  interest?  of  health 
and  life. 

What  we  are  accustomed  to  call  the  Human  System  is  a 
variety  of  systems.  It  is  not  one,  but  many.  Between  these 
different  systems,  there  is  the  most  remarkable  diversity  of  ap- 
pearance, structure,  functions,  uses  ;  yet  all  are  harmoniously 
associated  together  for  the  formation  of  a  complex  whole. 

1.  In  the  first  place,  as  a  foundation  and  framework  for  all 
the  rest,  there  is  the  Osseous  or  Bony  System,  consisting  of 
about  two  hundred  and  forty  different  pieces.  A  great  portion 
of  these  are  levers.  They  are  adapted  to  raise  weights,  or  to 
overcome  other  resistances.  Had  the  farmer  and  the  manufac- 
turer, or  the  mechanic  of  any  kind,  a  mind  properly  instructed 
on  this  subject,  how  elevating  and  delightful  it  would  be  for 
them  to  trace  analogies  and  resemblances  between  the  labo- 
riously-wrought utensils  and  instruments  which  they  use,  and 
those  similar  but  more  perfect  instruments,  which,  by  the  be- 
nevolence of  God,  grow  unconsciously  into  symmetry  and 
strength,  and  operate  with  such  precision  and  celerity  in  their 
own  bodies  and  limbs  ! 

Some  of  our  bones  are  not  levers,  but  defences  ;  and  some 
serve  the  double  purpose  of  a  defence  for  what  they  contain, 
and  as  a  centre  of  motion  for  some  other  parts  ;  yet  all  of  these 
grow  where  they  are  needed,  —  of  the  requisite  size,  form,  solidi- 
ty, strength,  —  without  oversight  or  direction  of  ours,  so  that, 
when  we  wake  up  to  consciousness  of  our  formation  (if  we 
ever  do  wake  up  to  that  consciousness),  there  we  find  these 
solid  portions  of  our  frame,  each  fitted  to  its  appropriate  place, 


170  ANNUAL   REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

and  each  performing  its  assigned  duty,  according  to  the  benevo- 
lent intentions  of  its  Divine  Architect. 

2.  There  is  the  Muscular  System.  This  is  wholly  different 
from  the  osseous  or  bony.  The  oue  is  solid  and  almost  unbend- 
ing ;  the  other  pliant,  flexible,  elastic.  The  muscles  are  fas- 
tened at  each  end  to  some  bone,  or  some  organ  intended  to  be 
moved  by  them.  They  all  have  the  power  of  contracting  them- 
selves, that  is,  of  diminishing  their  own  length  ;  and,  by  so 
doing,  they  bring  their  extremities  nearer  together,  and  thus 
cause  motion.  If  the  bone  to  which  one  end  of  a  muscle  is 
attached  is  a  fixed  point,  then  the  whole  motion  is  communi- 
cated to  the  organ  or  part  to  which  the  other  end  is  fastened. 
Such  is  the  case  with  the  muscles  of  the  eye,  —  one  end  being 
attached  to  an  immovable  bone,  and  the  other  to  some  part  of 
l.he  eye-ball ;  and  thus  all  its  variety  of  motions,  whether  to 
the  right  or  left,  upwards,  downwards,  or  obliquely,  are  effect- 
ed. The  infant  uses  all  these  muscles,  and  is  excited  to  emo- 
tions of  wonder  and  delight  by  the  visible  objects  which 
surround  him,  before  he  knows  that  he  has  either  an  organ  of 
vision,  or  muscles  to  direct  it.  This  is  not  to  be  wondered  at ; 
but  it  is  to  be  wondered  at,  that  so  many  persons  go  through  a 
long  life  as  ignorant  as  an  infant  of  these  beautiful  facts.  In 
the  human  body,  there  are  said  to  be  between  four  hundred  and 
forty  and  four  hundred  and  fifty  different  muscles.  With  these, 
all  the  myriads  of  different  motions  of  which  we  are  capable  are 
performed.  The  muscles  overlay,  interlace,  and  cross  each 
other  in  all  directions ;  and  yet  so  admirable  is  their  arrange- 
ment, and  so  exquisite  the  skill  with  which  they  are  fitted  to 
play  upon  each  other,  that  their  whole  work  is  done  without 
perceptible  friction  and  in  absolute  silence.  What  machine  or 
mill  made  by  the  art  of  man,  consisting  of  more  than  four  hun- 
dred bauds  or  cords,  moving  more  than  two  hundred  solid 
pieces,  and  having  the  requisite  number  of  joints  and  pullies, 
was  ever  so  skilfully  constructed  as  to  move  inaudibly  for  fifty 
or  seventy  years?  In  the  most  rapid  and  dexterous  operation 
which  an  artisan  ever  performs  ;  when  the  tool,  which  he  grasps 


REPORT   FOR    1842.  171 

in  one  hand  to  fashion  the  material  which  he  holds  in  the  other, 
moves  with  such  velocity  as  almost  to  elude  eye-sight,  —  neither 
the  tool  nor  the  material  has  half  the  motions,  which,  at  the 
same  time,  are  taking  place  in  the  muscles  of  the  eye  and  hand 
of  the  operator.  Yet  the  work  of  man  we  admire,  while,  our 
whole  lives  long,  we  regard  with  stupid  indifference  the  work 
of  the  Creator. 

3.  Next  in  order  may  be  mentioned  the  Nervous  System. 
Of  this  system,  the  grand,  central  body  is  the  brain,  which  is  a 
mass  or  congeries  of  nervous  matter.  The  brain  sends  off 
nerves  to  each  of  the  five  senses,  and  to  every  part  of  the  body. 
The  pairs  of  nerves  which  go  to  the  eye,  the  ear,  and  the  or- 
gans of  taste  and  smell,  pass  to  their  points  of  destination  by 
the  shortest  convenient  route.  Through  these  media  the  mind 
holds  intercourse  with  the  external  world.  It  is  along  these 
lines  of  communication  that  impressions  from  outward  objects 
are  transmitted  inward,  and  that  each  different  property  of 
color,  sound,  odor,  taste,  makes  itself  perceived  in  the  dark  and 
silent  chambers  of  the  brain.  A  few  years  ago  an  apparatus 
was  invented  in  England,  which  consisted  of  bundles  of  metallic 
wires,  several  miles  in  length,  each  wire  being  carefully  wound 
round  with  some  covering  impenetrable  to  moisture,  and  the 
whole  placed  under  ground  to  secure  them  from  injury.  At 
each  extremity  of  these  wires  there  was  a  system  of  correspond- 
ing signs ;  and  the  apparatus  was  so  adjusted,  that,  by  means 
of  galvanism,  any  motion  produced  at  one  end  of  the  train 
would  write  out  its  corresponding  and  intelligible  sign  at  the 
other.  In  this  way,  information  could  be  communicated  along 
the  whole  track  with  the  speed  of  lightning.  The  invention 
attracted  great  attention  from  the  learned.  Something  of  the 
kind  has  lately  been  projected  in  this  country  ;  and  perhaps,  at 
a  future  period,  it  may  be  improved,  and  applied  to  purposes 
of  practical  utility.  But  what  is  this  compared  with  the  optic 
nerve,  which,  although  only  two  or  three  inches  in  length, 
makes  known  to  us  the  existence  of  objects,  however  magnifi- 
cent or  minute,  with  all  their  variety  and  splendor  of  coloring, 


172  ANNUAL   REPORTS   ON  EDUCATION. 

alike  whether  they  are  within  the  reach  of  our  fingers,  or 
whether  they  are  stars  in  the  depths  of  immensity  ?  Yet  we 
accord  our  admiration  to  the  mechanism  of  man,  but,  through 
general  ignorance  and  stupidity,  withhold  it  from  the  infinitely 
greater  skill  of  the  Maker  of  man. 

With  what  a  variety  of  sounds  does  the  nerve  of  hearing  — 
a  little  soft  cord  two  inches  long,  and  not  larger  than  a  straw 
—  make  us  acquainted  !  No  arithmetic  can  compute  the  num- 
ber of  sounds  which  come  from  the  hum  or  chirp  of  insects ; 
from  the  song  of  birds  ;  from  the  occupations,  the  speech,  or 
the  music  of  men  ;  from  the  voices  of  animals  ;  from  trees  and 
streams  ;  from  the  ocean  and  the  air  ;  and  yet  with  what  facil- 
ity and  distinctness  does  this  bit  of  nervous  matter  communi- 
cate the  whole  to  the  mind,  so  that  we  can  readily  assort  or  un- 
ravel these  sounds,  and  refer  each  to  its  true  origin !  and  all 
this  is  effected  without  any  artificial  change  of  stops  or  keys. 

If  we  admire  a  single  instrument  of  many  strings,  or  a  ca- 
thedral organ  with  its  many  pipes,  what  ought  we  to  think  of 
that  minute  contrivance,  the  ear,  which,  within  a  space  of  less 
than  one  square  inch,  vibrates  to  every  sound  in  the  vast 
orchestra  of  Nature ! 

By  far  the  largest  branch  of  nerves  which  the  brain  sends 
off  passes  down  in  the  interior  or  hollow  of  the  spinal  column, 
and  is  thence  distributed  to  every  part  of  the  body.  This 
branching,  or  ramification,  of  the  nerves  is  inconceivably  minute. 
They  penetrate  all  parts  of  the  frame,  and  stand  as  sentinels  at 
every  point,  to  warn  us  of  the  approach  of  danger.  There  is 
no  spot  on  the  surface  of  the  body  so  minute  that  we  can  touch 
it  with  the  point  of  the  sharpest  needle,  without  striking  we 
know  not  how  many  of  these  nervous  filaments,  which  imme- 
diately give  us  notice  of  the  aggression.  In  fineness,  as  com- 
pared with  the  nerves,  a  spider's  web  or  the  thread  of  a  silk- 
worm is  as  cord  or  cable. 

But  the  nerves  which  descend  along  the  interior  of  the  spine, 
though  alike  to  the  eye,  to  the  touch,  or  even  to  any  chemical 
test,  are  wholly  different  in  their  functions.  That  part  of  the 


REPORT   FOR    1842.  173 

branch  which  occupies  the  posterior  or  back  side  of  the  column 
is  appropriated  to  the  transmission  of  sensations  to  the  mind. 
They  are  the  nerves  through  which  we  feel.  Those,  on  the 
other  hand,  which  occupy  the  anterior  or  front  side,  are  nerves 
of  motion,  —  those  by  means  of  which  we  act  or  move.  If  the 
nerves  of  motion  were  cut  or  broken  off  at  any  point,  all  parts 
of  the  body  below  the  point  of  separation  would  lose  the  power 
of  motion  ;  and,  therefore,  though  the  extremest  pain  from 
laceration  or  burning  were  suffered  in  any  part  dependent  on 
those  nerves,  yet  we  should  be  unable  to  escape  or  withdraw 
from  it.  On  the  other  hand,  if  the  nerves  of  sensation  were 
destroyed,  our  feet  or  hands  might  lie  in  the  fire  and  be  con- 
sumed, without  our  feeling  any  sense  of  pain  as  a  warning  to 
remove  them.  The  rapidity  with  which  communications  are 
made  along  these  thoroughfares  is  amazing,  being  equalled  only 
by  that  of  light,  electricity,  galvanism,  or  other  of  the  impon- 
derable bodies.  If  a  man  in  a  crowd  feels  the  heel  of  another 
beginning  to  press  upon  his  foot,  the  intelligence  is  forwarded 
to  the  brain  along  the  nerves  of  sensation  ;  and  forthwith  an 
order  is  despatched  from  the  brain  along  the  nerves  of  motion 
for  the  removal  of  the  foot  out  of  harm's  way.  If  the  person 
enjoys  good  health  and  has  ordinary  quickness,  the  infoi'rnation 
will  be  transmitted  to  the  brain,  and  the  order  sent  back  to  the 
foot  in  sufficient  season  to  save  it  from  injury.  This  process 
takes  place  in  all  cases  when  the  hand  is  exposed  to  be  burned 
by  any  heated  substance,  whether  solid  or  fluid.  The  attention 
of  thousands  has  been  arrested  by  the  celerity  of  movement 
with  which  the  hand  has  been  withdrawn  from  contact  with  a 
basin  of  hot  water  or  a  hot  shovel,  who  never  knew  or  thought 
of  the  wonderful  mechanism  by  which,  in  the  momentary  inter- 
val between  the  touch  and  the  escape,  a  message  had  been  sent 
from  the  hand  to  the  brain,  delivered,  considered,  and  an  an- 
swer, exactly  adapted  to  the  exigency  of  the  case,  forwarded  to 
the  scene  of  action  by  another  post-route,  in  season  for  the 
removal  of  the  endangered  member.  In  the  case  of  the  jug- 
gler, the  tumbler,  and  the  rope-dancer,  with  what  inconceivable 


174  ANNUAL    REPORTS   ON  EDUCATION. 

velocity  and  frequency  must  the  couriers  of  the  mind  pass  up 
the  nerves  of  sensation  with  their  intelligence,  and  down  the 
nerves  of  motion  with  their  orders  ! 

There  is  still  a  third  set  of  nerves,  which  are  connected  with 
the  involuntary  motions  of  the  vital  organs,  —  with  the  beating 
of  the  heart,  with  the  motions  of  the  stomach  in  digestion,  of 
the  lungs  in  respiration,  &c. 

4.  Again:  there  is  the  digestive  system,  by  which  the  crude 
and  heterogeneous  masses  that  are  taken  as  food  are  broken 
down  and  dissolved  in  such  a  manner,  that  they  can  be  carried 
by  the  circulatory  system  to  every  part  of  fae  body,  —  to  be- 
come, in  one  place,  bone  ;  in  another,  muscle  ;  in  another,  brain  ; 
in  others,  hair  or  teeth  or  skin  ;    here    to    suffuse  the  cheek 
with  the  beautiful  hues  of  health,  and  there  to  light  up  the  eye 
with  the  fires  of  intelligence. 

5.  Another  system    is  that  of  the  blood-vessels,  or  of  the 
circulation.     It  was  said  above  that  no  part  of  the  surface  of  the 
body  could  be  pricked  with  the  point  of  the  finest  needle,  with- 
out striking  a  nerve ;  and  this  is  equally  true  in  regard  to  the 
blood-vessels ;    that  is,  both  the   nerves  and  the  blood- ve>si- Is 
lie  so  closely  side  by  side,  that  a  needle  cannot  find  any  unoc- 
cupied space  or  interstice  between  them.     Although  the  whole 
blood  of  the  system  pours  through  the  heart,  and  issues  forth 
from  it  into  the  aorta  in  one  great  stream,  yet  this  stream  is 
afterwards  so  minutely  subdivided  as  to  reach  every  part  of  the 
-body.     Not  the  space  of  a  pin's  point  is  deprived  of  it ;  for,  if 
the  blood  should  cease  to  nourish  any  part,  that  part  would  im- 
mediately perish  with  mortification.     Hence  the  current  must 
have  its  winding  passages,  its  arches,  its  culverts ;  and,  when  it 
reaches   the  bones,  it  must  descend  into   them,  as  by  subter- 
ranean channels,  to  permeate  and  nourish  their  solid  structure. 
Nor  does  this  process  of  circulation  consist,  as  we  are  accus- 
tomed to  suppose,  in  the  mere  flowing  round  and  round  of  the 
same  fluid.    The  blood  carries  nutritious  particles  as  its  freight, 
and  every  point  in  the  whole  body  is  a  port  where  it  unlades 
its  treasures  ;  and,  iu  return,  it  receives  the  waste  or  used-up 


REPORT  FOR   1842.  175 

particles,  which  every  part  of  a  healthy  body  is  constantly 
throwing  off. 

Besides  all  these  there  are  the  lungs,  or  the  respiratory  sys- 
tem, the  systems  of  absorbents,  lymphatics,  secretories,  excre- 
tories,  &c.,  —  all  going  to  make  up  that  one  mechanism, 
which  with  brevity  we  call  the  human  system.  Physiologists 
enumerate  more  than  twenty  of  the  elementary  or  compound 
tissues  of  which  the  body  is  composed. 

But  what  I  mainly  aim  at  here  is  to  direct  attention  to  the 
differences  which  obtain  amongst  all  these  component  parts,  and, 
therefore,  to  the  necessity  of  some  knowledge  of  each.  How 
entirely  unlike  each  other,  both  in  structure  and  function,  are 
the  solid  and  fluid  portions !  —  the  bones  and  the  blood,  the 
opaque  muscle  and  the  transparent  humors  of  the  eye,  the  vege- 
tative and  almost  insentient  hair,  and  the  keenly  living  nerve, 
the  stomach  which  is  the  principal  organ  of  digestion,  and  the 
lungs  which  are  the  principal  organs  of  respiration.  One 
thousandth  part  of  what  we  daily  take  into  the  stomach  would 
kill  us  instantaneously  if  taken  into  the  lungs.  What  is  indis- 
pensable to  the  lungs  would  extinguish  life  in  a  moment  if 
taken  into  the  blood-vessels.  And  so  of  the  rest.  The  truth 
of  practical  importance  to  be  noted  here  is,  that  each  system 
not  only  has  its  peculiar  uses,  but  its  peculiar  diseases,  and 
therefore  needs  its  peculiar  care.  The  hard  and  cohesive  bones 
are  liable  to  become  either  brittle  or  soft.  The  softer  parts, 
the  heart,  for  instance,  are  liable  to  ossification,  which  is  only 
a  bone  made  in  a  wrong  place.  The  muscles  are  attacked  by 
rheumatism  and  spasms,  the  lungs  by  consumption,  the  liver 
by  hepatisis,  and  the  digestive  organs,  which  in  this  country  are 
abused  more  than  any  others,  by  a  host  of  maladies  greater  than 
any  other. 

Hence  the  necessity  of  our  knowing  each  organ  and  its  func- 
tions ;  for  how  can  one  wisely  superintend  a  complicated  ma- 
chine who  is  only  acquainted  with  one,  or  with  but  a  few,  of 
its  parts?  All  these  various  systems  are  brought  together, 
compacted,  and  harmonized  into  one.  Within  the  narrow  com- 


176  ANNUAL   REPORTS   ON  EDUCATION. 

pass  of  our  frames  are  collected,  and  placed  side  by  side,  all 
contradictory  and  conflicting  elements, — earthy  matter  which 
will  not  burn,  and  phosphorus  Avhich  takes  fire  by  exposure  to 
the  open  air  ;  oil  and  water  ;  fire  and  water  ;  acid  and  alkali ; 
solid  and  fluid ;  vegetable  and  animal ;  iron,  and  the  oxygen 
that  corrodes  it.  And  these  are  not  only  made  to  agree,  but  to 
co-operate ;  they  are  not  merely  tolerant  of,  but  essential  to, 
each  other.  Each,  however  apparently  hostile,  is  indispensable 
to  the  well-being  of  all  the  rest.  Such  are  the  wonderful  inge- 

o  O 

nuity  and  marvellous  adaptations  of  a  mechanism,  respecting 
which,  though  our  life  and  welfare  are  dependent  upon  it,  we 
are  content  to  remain  in  profound  ignorance. 

What  but  an  ignorance  of  the  plurality  of  our  vital  organs 
can  account  for  the  fact  that  men  are  so  heedless  of  an  attack 
upon  any  one  of  them,  because  the  rest  are  in  a  sound  condi- 
tion? An  ambitious  student  thinks  little  of  an  over-excitement 
of  the  brain,  because,  as  he  says,  he  is  perfectly  well  in  other 
respects,  —  his  digestion  is  good,  his  lungs  are  sound,  his  mus- 
cles are  strong.  But  when  the  over-working  of  the  brain 
brings  on  inflammation,  and  this  matures  into  insanity,  of  what 
avail,  then,  is  his  good  digestion,  or  his  sound  lungs,  or  his 
strong  muscles,  but  to  render  him  a  more  formidable  and  de- 
structive madman  ?  A  mother  is  subject  to  colds  and  coughs  ; 
but  her  appetite  is  good,  her  nervous  system  is  steady,  and  her 
mind  clear.  Why  should  she  be  alarmed  at  occasional  pains 
in  the  side?  But  when  successive  exposures  prolong  a  cold 
into  a  permanent  inflammation,  and  consumption  follows,  every 
vital  part,  however  vigorous  before,  must  perish  with  the 
lungs.  And  so  of  each  of  the  many  vital  organs  on  which 
life  is  dependent.  We  retain  existence  only  on  the  condition 
of  taking  care  of  them  all.  We  talk  about  the  seat  of  life,  as 
though  the  vital  principle  had  some  one  fortress  or  citadel,  by 
the  defence  of  which  our  existence  would  always  be  safe.  But 
life  has  no  such  one  citadel ;  or,  if  it  has,  it  is  assailable  through 
a  hundred  gates,  at  any  one  of  which  death  may  enter  and 
expel  it. 


REPORT   FOR    1842.  177 

The  various  systems  of  the  body  are  not  only  designed  to 
work  harmoniously  together,  but,  in  a  healthy  ami  proper  child, 
they  are  endued  with  proportionate  and  corresponding  ener- 
gies :  they  are  pre-adapted  to  last  and  to  work  for  equal 
periods  of  time.  The  stomach  was  not  made  to  last  for  ten 
years,  and  then  to  break  down,  the  lungs  for  twenty,  the  heart 
for  thirty,  and  the  brain  for  forty  or  fifty,  and  so  on  ;  but  an  iden- 
tical term  of  existence  was  imparted  to  all,  so  that  they  might 
run  on  in  the  race  of  life  together,  and  come  simultaneously  to 
their  goal.  Yet,  owing  to  our  ignorance  and  mismanagement  of 
ourselves,  and  especially  to  the  mismanagement  of  children  by 
ignorant  parents,  one  or  another  of  these  great  vital  organs  is 
destroyed  while  the  rest  are  in  comparative  health  and  vigor ; 
or  some  two  organs,  by  different  abuses,  incur  diseases  which 
require  incompatible  remedies,  so  that  what  is  done  to  cure  the 
disease  of  one  aggravates  that  of  the  other.  Not  one  individ- 
ual in  a  hundred,  in  our  times,  dies  of  old  age,  —  that  is,  after 
each  of  the  vital  powers  has  expended  its  quantum  of  force, 
and  when  the  whole  sink  together  to  a  peaceful  close.  In  more 
than  ninety-nine  cases  in  every  hundred,  death  is  a  terrible 
struggle  between  the  vital  energy  of  a  majority  of  the  organs, 
which  cling  with  strong  tenacity  to  life,  and  the  fierce  disease 
or  premature  decay  of  some  other,  which  drags  them  reluctant 
and  resisting  down  to  the  grave.  Thus  are  the  value  and  pro- 
ductive force  of  the  healthful  organs  annihilated  and  lost.  A 
business  partnership  or  corporation  may  be  dissolved,  and  each 
of  its  constituent  members  may  enter  some  other  sphere  of 
industry  to  provide  support  for  a  dependent  family,  or  to  add 
something  to  the  common  weal.  But,  in  this  partnership  of 
the  vital  powers,  the  withdrawing  of  any  one  partner  causes 
not  only  a  dissolution  of  the  firm,  but  the  death  of  all  the  other 
members.  There  is  no  survivorship.  If  one  perishes,  all 
perish.  How  often  do  we  see  this  exemplified,  when,  from  the 
decay  of  some  one  only  of  the  vital  powers,  a  clergyman,  who 
is  a  minister  of  religious  consolation  and  hope  to  his  people,  is 
removed  in  the  prime  of  his  life  and  in  the  midst  of  his  use- 

12 


178  ANNUAL   REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

fulness ;  or  a  mother,  on  whose  counsel  and  guidance  a  family 
of  children  are  leaning  for  support,  sinks  to  an  untimely  grave  ; 
or  a  statesman,  upon  whose  life  the  welfare  of  millions  seemed 
to  hang,  is  hurried  prematurely  to  the  tomb  !  In  such  cases 
we  ungratefully  and  impiously  attribute  the  event  to  the  inter- 
ference of  our  heavenly  Father,  when  we  might  as  well  em- 
bark all  our  treasures,  our  friends,  and  our  family,  on  board  a 
ship  which  had  some  one  fatal  defect,  and  because  she  foundered 
in  the  first  gale,  or  was  dashed  to  pieces  on  the  nearest  rocks, 
throw  the  responsibility  upon  Heaven  for  not  having  suspended 
the  laws  of  Nature  to  save  us  from  the  consequences  of  our 
own  folly.  Why  did  our  Creator  give  us  these  faculties  of  in- 
quiry, of  forethought,  of  prevention,  if  we  are  not  to  use 
them?  And  what  the  necessity  of  our  using  them,  if  he  were 
always  to  stand  by,  and  rescue  us  from  the  effects  of  our  pre- 
meditated fool-hardiness?  The  possession  of  the  power  is 
accompanied  by  the  obligation  to  use  it ;  that  is,  to  learn  and 
to  obey  the  wise  and  beneficent  laws  of  the  Creator.  His  lan- 
guage in  regard  to  the  physical  law  seems  to  be  the  same  as 
in  regard  to  the  moral,  —  that  it  is  easier  for  heaven  and  earth 
to  pass  than  for  one  tittle  of  the  law  to  fail. 

The  first  developed  power  of  the  infant  is  that  of  taking  the 
food,  which  is  to  be  metamorphosed  into  the  tissues  of  its 
body,  to  be  turned,  by  the  transforming  power  of  the  organs, 
from  dead  substance  into  living  and  sentient  material.  The 
main  preparation  of  food  for  the  purpose  of  nutrition  is  effected 
in  the  stomach.  The  stomach  is  an  organ  of  curious  construc- 
tion, and  it  is  endowed  with  astonishing  properties.  Its  appear- 
ance is  simply  that  of  an  oval  or  oblong  sac,  or  bag,  suspended 
across  the  body  from  left  to  right,  just  below  the  diaphragm, 
and  a  little  below  midway  of  the  trunk,  —  the  largest  end 
being  situated  on  the  left  side  of  the  body.  It  is  separated 
from  the  heart  and  lungs  only  by  the  diaphragm.  On  the 
upper  side  of  the  stomach,  and  towards  the  left,  there  is  an 
opening,  where  the  food  which  we  swallow  is  received  ;  and 
at  its  other  extremity,  on  the  right,  another  opening,  through 


REPORT   FOR    1842.  179 

which  the  food,  when  properly  digested,  passes  out.  If  the 
stomach  had  no  property  beyond  that  of  a  common  bag  or  ves- 
sel made  of  cloth  or  skin,  it  is  obvious  that  it  would  hold,  in  a 
quiescent  state,  whatever  was  poured  into  it,  except  so  far  as 
motion  might  be  communicated  to  its  contents  from  without. 
But  it  is  indispensable,  for  the  purposes  of  digestion,  that  the 
food  taken  into  the  stomach  should  be  kept  in  constant  motion  ; 
otherwise  the  solid  and  heaviest  particles  would  sink  to  the 
bottom,  the  lightest  would  float  upon  the  top,  and  their  specific 
gravities  would  be  their  law  of  arrangement.  But,  without 
continual  agitation,  the  simplest  food  could  no  more  be  turned 
into  chyme  (which  is  its  condition  when  it  passes  out  of  that 
organ)  than  cream  could  be  turned  into  butter  without  that 
agitation  which  we  call  churning.  And  could  the  food  be 
ever  so  well  digested,  yet,  without  this  motion,  how  could  it  be 
thrown  out  afterwards?  The  stomach  is  therefore  endued  with 
the  power  of  spontaneous  or  involuntary  motion.  Food  is  the 
natural  excitant  of  this  motion.  Hence,  in  every  healthy 
stomach,  as  soon  as  food  enters  it,  motion  is  commenced,  and 
is  continued  until  digestion  is  completed,  and  its  contents,  in 
the  form  of  chyme,  are  discharged.  To  effect  this  motion,  the 
stomach  possesses  two  distinct  sets  of  muscular  coats,  each  coat 
consisting  of  fibres  which  pass  around,  respectively,  in  opposite 
directions.  Suppose  an  egg,  instead  of  a  hard  shell,  to  have  a 
soft  skin,  and  suppose  this  skin  to  consist  of  two  sets  of  mus- 
cular fibres,  one  of  which  should  run  around  it  from  the  large 
end  to  the  small  one,  while  the  other  set  should  run  round  in 
the  opposite  direction,  that  is,  in  the  line  of  the  shortest  cir- 
cumference. If  the  longer  fibres  of  this  covering  should  con- 
tract (and  it  has  been  before  mentioned  that  the  power  of 
contraction,  or  shortening  themselves,  is  the  property  of  all 
muscles),  it  is  obvious  that  the  egg  would  be  made  more 
nearly  round,  and  its  contents  compressed  from  the  ends  to- 
wards the  middle.  If,  then,  these  longer  fibres  should  relax, 
and  the  shorter  ones  contract,  the  egg  would  be  elongated  ; 
the  contents  being  pressed  outwards  towards  the  ends.  Now 


180  ANNUAL   REPORTS    ON  EDUCATION. 

these  sets  of  fibres  might  be  so  alternately  contracted  and 
relaxed  as  to  drive  the  contents  of  the  egg  round  and  round, 
from  side  to  side,  and  from  end  to  end.  And  such  is  the  struc- 
ture and  action  of  the  stomach. 

These  motions  of  the  stomach  are  primarily  necessary  for 
the  purpose  of  mingling  with  the  food  a  certain  ingredient 
which  is  indispensable  to  digestion.  This  ingredient  is  a  fluid, 
and  is  called  the  gastric  juice.  It  is  effused  or  exuded  from  the 
mucous  membrane  or  inner  coat  of  the  stomach.  For  the  pro- 
cess of  digestion  there  is  no  substitute  for  this  fluid,  nor  has 
any  thing  like  it  ever  been  prepared  by  the  art  of  man.  Boil- 
ing in  water,  for  any  length  of  time,  will  not  digest  food. 
Roasting,  baking,  the  action  of  fire  in  any  form,  or  of  steam, 
or  of  any  chemical  solvents,  will  not  accomplish  the  object. 
So  far  as  we  know,  there  is  but  one  agent  in  the  world  which 
has  this  power,  and  but  one  place  where  that  agent  is  found. 
That  agent  is  the  gastric  juice,  and  the  stomach  the  place  of  its 
preparation. 

As  soon  as  a  mouthful  of  solid  food  is  received  into  this  or- 
gan, its  flexible  sides  immediately  contract  upon  it ;  and,  if  not 
interfered  with  by  having  another  mouthful  forced  in  too  soon, 
they  clasp  it,  and  hold  it  for  the  space  of  a  minute.  By  this 
clasping  movement,  the  gastric  juice  is  shed  out  or  expressed, 
and  then,  by  the  motion  of  the  food  round  and  round,  the  juice 
is  intimately  mingled  with  its  whole  mass.  Important  practi- 
cal rules  will,  by  and  by,  be  deduced  from  these  arrangements 
of  Nature. 

The  natural  food  of  the  infant  being  milk,  and  this  being  a 
fluid,  it  is  obvious  that  the  above-described  motions  of  the  mus- 
cular coats  can  propel  it  round  and  round  until  each  drop  of 
it  is  brought  into  contact  with  the  gastric  juice,  by  whose  agency 
and  mixture  it  is  coagulated.  This  is  the  first  step  in  the  pro- 
cess of  its  digestion.  Yet  so  ignorant  of  this  fact  are  many 
mothers,  that,  when  an  infant  throws  up  a  little  curd  from  the 
stomach,  they  take  it  as  a  sign  of  sickness,  and  hastily  adminis- 
ter an  emetic. 


REPORT   FOR    1842.  181 

Bnt  what  shall  be  done  when  the  child  begins  to  require 
more  solid  food,  —  bread,  meat,  fruit,  vegetables?  The  coats 
of  the  stomach,  which  are  softer  and  more  flexible  than  wash- 
leather,  remain  as  before.  The  inner  surfaces  of  this  organ  do 
not  now  become  harder  to  correspond  with  the  more  solid  food 
received.  They  are  not  converted  into  a  triturating  apparatus, 
like  the  gizzard  of  a  fowl,  for  the  purpose  of  breaking  down 
and  grinding  the  solid  food  which  the  system  is  now  prepared 
to  assimilate.  Nor  is  this  organ  suddenly  provided  with  any 
cracking  machine,  like  that  of  a  lobster,  by  which  hard  bodies 
—  shells  or  bones  —  can  be  pulverized  and  adapted  to  the  wants 
of  the  system.  What  corresponding  provision,  then,  has  Nature 
made  to  meet  the  new  wants  of  its  child? 

Simultaneously  with  the  period  when  the  body  requires  more 
concentrated  aliment,  and  the  stomach  is  prepared  to  receive 
substances  of  a  firmer  texture,  the  teeth  appear.  Whoever 
knows  the  structure  of  the  stomach,  and  therefore  its  inability 
for  effecting  the  minute  mechanical  division  of  any  hard,  tena- 
cious, or  cohesive  material,  can  have  no  doubt  as  to  the  neces- 
sity and  proper  function  of  the  teeth.  And  here  is  the  first 
great  sin  against  the  laws  of  health,  committed,  with  few  excep- 
tions, by  all  the  people  of  this  country.  We  eat,  not  merely 
with  indecent,  but  with  unhealthful  haste.  As  a  nation,  we 
have  a  profusion  and  an  attractiveness  of  food  such  as  no  other 
people  upon  the  earth  enjoys.  We  consume  quantities  which 
would  astonish  the  inhabitants  of  other  countries  ;  and  these 
quantities  are  often  swallowed  en  masse,  almost  as  a  wild 
animal  gorges  its  prey,  and,  of  course,  without  that  mastica- 
tion which  is  indispensable  to  health.  In  eating,  we  dispense 
with  the  use  of  the  teeth,  as  though  our  stomachs  were  provided 
with  some  machinery  —  a  grater,  a  pestle  and  mortar,  or  an 
upper  and  nether  millstone  —  to  do  the  work  of  comminution. 
But,  such  not  being  the  case,  it  follows,  that,  if  we  would  enjoy 
health,  our  food  must  be  finely  ground  before  it  is  swallowed  ; 
for  nothing  is  more  certain  than  that  food  which  is  insufficiently 
masticated  will  be  imperfectly  digested  ;  that  what  is  irnper- 


182         ANNUAL  REPORTS  ON  EDUCATION. 

fectly  digested  tends  to  produce  disorder  through  the  whole  ali- 
mentary canal,  and  cannot  make  good  blood  ;  and,  without  good 
blood,  we  cannot  have  good  health,  good  spirits,  or  the  full  use 
of  any  of  our  faculties  either  bodily  or  mental. 

Another  reason  for  retaining  the  food  in  the  mouth  for  a  long 
time  is,  that  there  are  certain  glands,  opening  into  the  mouth 
about  the  cheeks  and  jaw-bones,  which  throw  a  great  quantity 
of  saliva  into  this  cavity  during  the  process  of  mastication. 
Food  saturated  with  this  saliva  before  entering  the  stomach  is 
much  more  easily  digested.  The  saliva,  too,  has  a  strong 
affinity  for  air ;  and  in  this  way  the  oxygen  of  that  element  is 
carried  into  the  stomach,  and  there,  by  its  combining  with 
other  elements,  caloric  is  given  off,  which  helps  to  raise  the 
stomach  to  a  higher  temperature,  and  thus  aids  the  process  of 
digestion. 

That  food  may  be  taken  slowly,  it  ought  to  be  taken  in  com- 
pany, and  with  agreeable  conversation.  Mental  pleasures 
should  save  our  meals  from  the  grossness  of  mere  animal 
enjoyment.  Cheerfulness  should  always  preside  at  the  table. 
Food  fails  of  half  its  nourishing  qualities  when  eaten  in  soli- 
tude, in  sullenness,  or  with  any  painful  or  dissocial  feelings. 
No  family  will  enjoy  a  full  measure  of  health,  any  more  than 
of  domestic  tranquillity,  who  are  habitually  selfish,  morose,  or 
unkind  at  their  meals.  Care  and  anxiety  of  mind  should  never 
be  guests  at  the  family  board.  The  very  secretions  of  the  body 
are  vitiated  by  anger,  solicitude,  or  any  of  the  painful  emotions. 
The  fruits  of  the  labor  of  man  never  nourish  us  so  much  as 
when  they  are  taken  with  good  will  towards  all  mankind  ;  and 
it  is  one  of  the  physical  conditions  of  deriving  the  greatest 
benefit  from  the  bounties  of  Heaven,  that  they  shall  be  received 
with  gratitude  to  their  Author. 

Another  strong  argument  in  favor  of  taking  our  food  slowly 
is  founded  on  our  knowledge  of  the  capacity  of  the  stomach. 
Man  is  sometimes  defined  to  be  an  omnivorous  animal ;  which 
seems  to  be  understood  by  many  people  to  mean,  not  that  he 
is  capable  of  eating  some  of  all  kinds  of  food,  but  that  he  is 


REPORT   FOR    1842.  183 

able  to  eat  all  of  each  kind.  Instead  of  supposing  that  the 
stomach  does  not  occupy  more  than  one-twelfth  of  the  cavities 
of  the  trunk,  they  seem  to  reverse  this  proportion,  and  to  grad- 
uate their  indulgence  of  appetite  accordingly.  An  ordinary- 
sized  stomach  of  au  adult  is  generally  said  to  be  capable  of 
holding  about  three  pints  ;  and  some  physiologists  are  of  the 
opinion  that  the  quantity  of  gastric  juice  poured  into  this  organ 
at  a  hearty  meal  is  one  pint.  Supposing,  however,  that  only  two- 
thirds  or  oue-half  of  this  quantity  of  gastric  juice  is  poured 
into  that  organ  at  a  meal :  if  we  eat  slowly,  the  stomach  is 
filled  with  the  food  and  with  the  gastric  juice  at  the  same  time  ; 
and,  when  the  natural  limit  of  its  distention  is  reached,  appetite 
vanishes,  and  a  feeling  of  satisfaction  ensues.  But  if  we  eat 
rapidly  or  gormandize,  the  stomach  is  filled  with  food  alone, 
and  the  gastric  solvent  must  be  afterwards  injected  ;  that  is, 
when  this  organ  is  already  brimmed,  its  muscular  coats  must 
be  strained  or  distended  for  the  reception  of  more.  As  diges- 
tion cannot  begin  until  this  juice  is  intimately  mingled  with  the 
food,  the  stomach  labors  to  discharge  a  sufficient  quantity  of  it, 
and  also  to  make  room  to  receive  it.  Though  full,  it  must 
force  in  more  as  the  means  of  preparing  its  contents  for  egress. 
It  is  obvious  that  such  a  strain  upon  its  muscular  fibres  must 
weaken  them.  They  become  like  a  bow  which  has  been  bent 
so  far  as  to  lose  its  elasticity.  A  few  repetitions  of  such  abuse 
will  impair  the  tension  of  the  muscles  for  years,  perhaps  for 
life.  Instances  occur  where,  through  a  beastly  indulgence  of 
appetite,  the  muscular  coats  of  this  organ  are  so  strained  that 
they  lose  their  contractile  power,  and  remain,  like  a  man 
beneath  a  load  which  he  cannot  lift.  In  such  cases,  the 
stomach  becomes  a  motionless,  that  is,  a  lifeless  organ  ;  the 
food  remains  a  foreign  substance,  and  death  speedily  ensues. 

Another  fact  deserves  remark  under  this  head.  The  watery 
parts  of  our  beverage,  or  liquid  food,  are  not  digested,  but  ab- 
sorbed. In  eating  slowly,  time  is  given  for  this  process  of 
removal ;  but,  in  eating  rapidly,  the  orgau  is  encumbered,  at 
once  and  without  relief,  by  the  accumulated  bulk  and  weight  of 
all  we  swallow. 


184  ANNUAL    REPORTS    ON    EDUCATION. 

And  again :  however  solid  the  food  we  take,  whether  meat, 
unsodden  vegetables,  or  the  fruit  of  nuts,  —  hardly  less  solid 
and  indigestible  than'the  shell  that  encloses  them,  —  it  must  all 
be  reduced  to  a  pulp,  to  a  soft,  semi-fluid  substance,  before  it 
is  prepared  to  pass  out  of  the  stomach,  to  be  carried  into  the 
circulation,  and  be  deposited,  in  infinitely  minute  particles,  over 
the  system,  as  a  part  of  the  living  organization.  Now,  as 
every  one  knows,  all  solid  masses,  when  saturated  with  or 
steeped  in  water  until  they  become  soft,  are  greatly  enlarged 
in  bulk.  If,  then,  the  stomach  is  filled  with  solids,  how  much 
must  it  be  overstrained  when  the  volume  of  these  solids  is  en- 
larged by  their  being  reduced  to  a  fluid !  The  farmer  is 
familiar  with  cases  of  this  kind ;  for  it  is  the  cause  of  death  to 
neat  cattle  or  horses  who  gorge  themselves  with  dry  grain,  and 
then  have  access  to  water. 

I  will  add  but  one  more  reason  why  all  our  food  should  be 
masticated  until  it  is  ground  to  a  powder,  and,  being  mixed 
with  saliva,  become  almost  a  fluid,  before  it  is  thrown  into 
the  stomach.  The  gastric  juice  cannot  penetrate  at  once  to  the 
interior  of  solid  lumps,  or  hard  knots  of  food,  —  of  compact 
muscle,  or  of  tendinous  or  ligamentous  substances.  In  such 
cases,  it  must  commence  the  dissolving  process  on  their  out- 
sides  ;  and  only  wheii  the  outer  layer  is  dissolved  and  removed 
can  it  begin  to  operate  upon  the  next  layer,  and  so  on,  until 
the  whole  process  of  solution  is  effected.  This  occupies  much 
time ;  and,  while  the  gastric  juice  is  at  work  on  the  exterior  of 
the  mass,  a  most  uuhealthful  fermentation,  or  chemical  change, 
caused  by  heat  and  moisture,  is  going  on  in  its  interior. 

Yet  notwithstanding  all  this  accumulation  of  mischiefs,  so 
obvious  as  soon  as  stated,  how  common  it  is  for  most  parents 
to  hurry  children  at  their  meals,  even  beyond  the  rate  prompted 
by  the  keenness  of  young  appetites  !  Not  only  example  but 
commands  are  added  to  the  impulses  of  hunger  ;  and  thus  a 
habit  of  gorging  food,  as  unseemly  as  it  is  unhealthful,  is 
formed,  which  lasts  them  through  the  shortened  life  it  allows. 
Derangement,  weakness,  inflammation  of  all  the  digestive  or- 


REPORT   FOR    1842.  185 

gans  throughout  their  whole  extent,  dyspepsia,  that  prolific 
mother  of  diseases,  follow  in  the  train  of  this  unbecoming  and 
unnatural  practice.  The  food  being  the  material  from  which 
all  the  tissues  of  the  body  are  formed,  —  the  crystalline 
humors  of  the  eye,  the  exquisitely-delicate  substance  of  the 
brain  and  nerves,  the  finely-wrought  muscles,  —  unless  this 
food  is  well  prepared  before  it  enters  the  circulation  to  be  dis- 
tributed over  the  frame,  it  is  in  vain  to  expect  organs  which 
are  sound  to  the  core ;  it  is  in  vain  to  expect  muscles,  com- 
pacted to  the  power  of  greatest  endurance,  or  acuteness  of  the 
senses,  or  nerves  quick  answering  to  the  commands  of  the  will. 
A  spinner,  from  wool  half  combed,  half  carded,  and  full  of  knots 
and  tangles,  may  as  well  expect  to  draw  out  an  even  and 
beautiful  thread ;  a  weaver,  from  a  thread,  here  sleazy,  and 
there  twisted  to  a  wire,  now  coarse  as  cord,  and  now  atten- 
uated to  a  spider's  line,  may  as  well  expect  to  form  the  elegant 
product  of  the  loom  ;  and  a  manufacturer,  through  all  the  stages 
of  whose  work  the  unskilfulness  of  each  preceding  process  has 
redoubled  the  difficulties  and  imperfections  of  all  succeeding 
ones,  may  as  well  expect  to  command  the  highest  prices  in  the 
market,  or  to  win  the  highest  premiums  at  the  fair,  as  anyone, 
subjected  to  the  universal  law  of  mortality,  who  thus  violates 
the  very  preliminaries  and  antecedents  of  health,  can  expect  to 
attain  to  that  vigor  and  robustness  of  limb  and  frame,  or  to 
reach  the  full  term  of  life,  or  to  enjoy  the  mental  capacities, 
for  which  a  bounteous  Providence  had  originally  endowed 
him. 

Yet  how  many  of  our  social  regulations  pertaining  to  diet 
are  a  systematic  infraction  of  these  laws  of  Nature  !  Some  of 
them  could  not  have  contravened  those  laws  more  had  such 
been  the  express  purpose  of  their  adoption.  The  arrange- 
ments of  many  families,  the  short  intermissions  of  our  schools, 
and,  in  some  instances,  of  our  churches  and  other  public  as- 
semblies, the  haste  of  travellers,  the  brief  time  occupied  in  eat- 
ing in  boarding-houses  for  work-people,  whether  mechanics  in 
shops,  or  laborers  on  public  works,  or  operatives  in  factories ; 


186  ANNUAL    REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

all  these  practices  tend  powerfully  to  depress  the  standard  of 
health  amongst  us,  and  to  expose  us  on  all  sides  to  the  invasion 
of  disease.  In  all  these  and  in  other  particulars,  the  customs 
of  our  people  have  been  adopted  in  ignorance  of  the  laws  of 
physiology,  and  they  never  will  be  reformed  until  that  igno- 
rance is  dispelled.  Passengers  in  railroad-cars  and  on  board 
steamboats  seem  to  eat  with  a  rapidity  suggested  by  their  new 
powers  of  locomotion,  as  though  the  processes  of  Nature  could 
be  expedited  by  their  impatience  of  delay.  Students  in  acade- 
mies and  colleges,  when  eating  at  a  common  table,  are  no  ex- 
ceptions to  this  general  statement ;  and  though  an  hour  of 
mental  relaxation  and  of  social  excitement  —  of  hilarity,  genial 
yet  gentlemanly  —  is  needed  in  an  especial  manner  by  students 
at  their  meals,  yet,  in  many  of  our  literary  institutions,  they 
are  subjected  to  the  Auburn  and  Sing-Sing  discipline  of  eating 
in  perfect  silence. 

Another  wide  departure  from  Nature's  "  Health  Regula- 
tions," in  regard  to  diet,  consists  in  eating  at  unseasonable 
times.  Different  nations,  ancient  and  modern,  as  well  as  dif- 
ferent classes  in  the  same  nation,  vary  greatly  from  each  other 
in  respect  both  to  the  hours  of  meals  and  the  frequency  of  their 
succession  ;  and  much  has  been  said  of  the  relative  propriety 
of  their  customs.  But  a  universal  rule,  as  it  regards  the  indi- 
vidual, is,  never  to  eat,  either  while  the  previous  meal  is  still 
undergoing  the  process  of  digestion,  or  immediately  after  that 
process  is  completed.  After  food  is  received  into  the  stomach, 
it  is  warmed  if  too  cold,  it  is  cooled  if  too  warm,  until  it  ac- 
quires the  temperature  of  about  100°.  If  too  dry,  the  stomach 
demands  moisture  ;  if  too  watery,  the  water  is  drained  off  until 
it  is  prepared  to  be  mingled  with  the  gastric  juice.  In  a  healthy 
adult,  the  process  of  digesting  a  hearty  meal  occupies  from  three 
to  five  or  six  hours,  according  to  the  more  or  less  digestible 
quality  of  the  food.  Now,  Avhen  the  follicles  of  the  stomach 
have  given  out  what  gastiic  juice  they  contain,  when  the  work 
of  digestion  has  so  far  advanced  that  the  qualities  of  the  food 
are  chemically  changed  from  what  they  were  when  received, 


REPORT   FOR    1842.  187 

what  can  be  more  unnatural  or  absurd  than  to  introduce  a  new 
mass  of  raw  material,  which  requires  a  new  exuding  of,  and 
saturation  by,  the  gastric  juice,  already  exhausted,  and  which 
must  be  miugled  by  the  action  of  the  stomach  with  the  food  of 
the  preceding  meal,  now  half  prepared  or  nearly  prepared  to 
leave  the  organ?  If  in  any  culinary  preparation  an  equal 
quantity  of  new  raw  material  were  introduced  just  as  the  pro- 
cess of  cooking  the  original  should  be  completed,  it  would" 
hardly  make  the  compound  more  unsavory  to  the  palate  than 
this  practice  makes  the  chyme  unhealthful  to  the  body.  Yet 
how  often  is  this  done,  either  through  ignorance,  or  to  gratify 
appetite,  or  to  subserve  some  temporary  convenience  about 
meals,  or,  what  is  worse  than  all,  for  the  monstrous  purpose 
of  eating  a  meal  or  two  in  advance  !  To  wrap  ourselves  in  furs 
and  flannels  during  the  heats  of  summer,  as  a  preparation  for 
winter's  cold,  would  not  be  a  greater  outrage  against  Nature 
than  to  eat  in  advance  of  hunger.  A  rule,  never  violated  with- 
out incurring  serious  penalties,  either  immediate  or  remote,  is, 
not  to  eat  a  second  time  until  the  previous  contents  of  the  stom- 
ach have  been  digested  and  are  passed  away,  and  that  organ 
has  had  a  season  of  repose.  Alternate  action  and  rest  is  the 
universal  law  of  every  power  and  faculty,  both  of  body  and 
mind.  So,  too,  after  taking  even  a  moderate  meal,  all  severe 
exertion,  whether  mental  or  physical,  should,  for  a  brief  season, 
be  remitted.  Especially  is  this  important  in  regard  to  students 
and  others  who  lead  sedentary  lives. 

Following  the  course  of  Nature,  I  should  be  next  led  to  trace 
the  steps  by  which  the  digested  food  is  carried  to  the  blood,  to 
be  distributed  through  the  circulation  for  the  growth  and  nour- 
ishment of  every  part  of  the  body.  But  my  present  object 
being  only  to  show  the  practical  and  every-day  value  of  physio- 
logical knowledge,  I  pass  by,  with  a  single  remark,  those 
wonderful  processes  which  Nature  performs  in  the  secret  labo- 
ratory of  the  system.  "Whoever  feels  delight  in  tracing  effects 
to  causes,  or  loves  to  contemplate  the  wisdom  and  beneficence 
of  the  Creator,  will  find,  in  this  department  of  his  works,  au 


188  ANNUAL   REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

inexhaustible  source  of  intellectual  gratification  ;  and,  at  every 
step  of  his  progress,  exclamations  of  thankfulness  and  adora- 
tion will  burst  spontaneously  from  his  lips.  But  it  must  suffice 
to  observe,  that  after  the  aliment,  in  a  fit  state  for  nutrition, 
has  been  passed  from  the  stomach,  and  has  received  the  appro- 
priate secretions  from  the  liver  and  pancreas,  it  is  then  taken 
up,  or  drawn  out  from  the  great  alimentary  canal,  through  tubes 
'  or  ducts  which  are  microscopically  fine  and  inconceivably  nu- 
merous. These  tubes  or  ducts  (technically  called  lacteals, 
from  the  Latin  word  lac,  signifying  milk,  because  the  substance 
which  they  take  up  very  nearly  resembles  milk  in  its  color  and 
consistence),  after  traversing  winding  passages,  and  passing 
through  various  ganglia,  are  at  length  all  gathered  into  one 
tube  or  channel  called  the  thoracic  duct,  which  ascends  behind 
the  heart  in  a  direction  towards  the  left  shoulder,  and  empties 
its  precious  contents  into  the  left  subclavian  vein,  just  before 
that  vein  pours  the  returning  blood  of  the  whole  system  into 
the  heart. 

Over  our  nourishment,  after  it  passes  from  the  stomach,  until 
its  stream  is  mingled  with  the  blood,  and  reaches  the  heart,  we 
have  no  control,  except  through  medicinal  agents.  On  leaving 
the  stomach,  it  descends,  as  it  were,  into  subterranean  channels, 
beyond  our  reach  or  direction ;  and,  in  the  invisible  recesses 
of  the  body,  it  passes  through  organs  whose  uses  are  not 
known,  and  is  subjected  to  chemical  changes  which  the  art  of 
the  physiologist  has  not  yet  detected ;  but,  on  reaching  the 
heart,  that  vital  stream  may  be  said  to  re-appear  upon  the  sur- 
face, because  in  that  organ  it  is  directly  subject  to  mechanical 
action  from  without. 

The  human  heart  is  sometimes  said  to  be  a  double  organ  ; 
but  by  this  it  is  only  meant  that  its  right  and  left  sides  perform 
different  operations,  the  right  side  of  the  heart  propelling  the 
blood  into  the  lungs,  and  the  left  side  propelling  it  over  the 
rest  of  the  body.  These  sides  of  the  heart,  though  similar  in 
their  general  structure  and  uses,  and  constituting  the  same 
general  organ,  are  yet,  as  to  the  course  of  the  blood,  distant  from 


REPORT   FOR    1842.  189 

each  other  the  entire  length  of  their  respective  circulations  ; 
that  is,  the  blood  in  the  right  side  of  the  heart  cannot  reach  its 
left  side  (although  separated  only  by  a  thin  partition)  without 
going  through  the  lungs,  and  the  blood  in  the  left  side  cannot 
reach  the  right  side  without  going  round  the  whole  system, 
except  through  the  lungs. 

But  when  the  blood,  now  enriched  with  nourishment  from 
the  food,  enters  the  lungs,  it  is  emphatically  ours.  Here,  in  a 
large  sense,  our  strength,  our  health,  our  life,  are  placed  in  our 
own  keeping.  Here  is  an  organ  by  whose  proper  use  a  vast 
portion  of  all  the  diseases  which  afflict  humanity  may  be  pre- 
vented. Here  is  a  point,  too,  where  many  diseases  may  be 
met  and  cured.  Here  we  are  invested  with  almost  unlimited 
power  over  health  and  life,  and  attached  to  this  power  is  a 
corresponding  responsibility. 

That  our  blood  is  our  life  is  not  only  the  declaration  of 
Scripture,  but  the  common  conviction  of  mankind.  But  no 
part  of  our  animal  organism,  no  part  of  animated  nature  with 
which  we  are  acquainted,  is  so  short-lived  as  the  blood.  The 
insects  which  live  but  for  a  season,  the  tribes  of  ephemera 
which  die  on  the  day  of  their  birth,  are  common  emblems  of 
the  brevity  of  life ;  but  the  shortest  of  their  terms  of  existence 
is  longevity,  compared  with  the  vital  principle  of  the  blood. 
Water,  milk,  the  expressed  juices  of  vegetables,  unfermented 
liquors,  will  ordinarily  remain  for  hours  unchanged ;  but  the 
blood  will  perish  irrecoverably  in  a  few  minutes,  if  not  reno- 
vated by  a  foreign  power.  It  is  probably  the  most  perishable 
of  all  organized  living  substances.  Yet  this  blood  has  inex- 
haustible resources  of  life  in  pure  air.  On  this  element  it  con- 
stantly relies.  Without  air,  the  life  of  the  blood  expires,  like 
the  flame  of  a  candle  beneath  an  extinguisher ;  but  give  it  air, 
and  its  vital  power  will  subsist  for  days  and  sometimes  for 
weeks,  even  though  no  food  or  drink  is  taken  into  the  system. 
Let  the  lacteals  pour  into  the  blood  the  results  of  their  most 
perfect  elaboration,  ami,  without  air,  it  dies  forthwith,  and  the 
process  of  corruption  or  putrefaction  commences.  Food  is  an 


190  ANNUAL   REPORTS    ON    EDUCATION. 

occasional  want,  air  a  perpetual  oue.  So  indispensable,  so 
continual,  so  instant  at  all  times,  is  the  necessity  of  pure  air  to 
vitalize  the  blood  and  sustain  the  life  of  man ! 

In  the  course  of  its  circulation,  the  blood  comes  to  the  lungs 
in  search  of  life,  that  is,  of  pure  air.  From  the  trunk,  from 
the  brain,  from  all  the  extremities,  it  is  hastened  onward  to  the 
lungs,  just  as  a  diver  ascends  to  the  surface  of  the  water  in 
quest  of  breath.  As  the  blood  is  driven  into  the  lungs  bv  the 
strong  propulsion  of  the  heai't,  so  the  air  is  forced  downwards 
into  the  same  organs  by  a  pressure  equal  to  a  weight  of  (bur- 
teen  pounds  on  the  surface  of  each  square  inch.  The  lungs 
are  the  common  ground  where  these  two  great  life-sustaining 
agents  meet ;  and  here  they  are  sure  to  meet,  unless  forcibly 
kept  from  each  other  by  the  most  egregious  folly  and  wicked- 
ness of  man.  If  air  is  admitted  into  the  lungs  to  greet  the 
blood  on  its  arrival  there,  and  to  impart  its  vital  properties  to 
that  fluid,  then  the  blood  flows  back  rejoicingly  to  every  part 
of  the  body,  carrying  health,  spirits,  strength,  activity,  endur- 
ance, and  bountifully  dispensing  a  gladsome  sense  of  existence 
wherever  it  goes.  But  if,  on  the  other  hand,  the  air  is  debarred 
from  admission  into  the  lungs,  or  if  only  impure  air  is  admit- 
ted, then  the  blood  flows  back  in  its  course,  languid,  infectious, 
inflicting  torpor  upon  every  sense,  and  disease  upon  every 
organ.  Hence  it  is  not  too  much  to  say,  that  the  relation  of 
the  blood  and  the  air  to  each  other,  and  the  mechanism  of  the 
lungs  where  these  wonder-working  agencies  meet  to  recipro- 
cate benefits,  constitute  one  of  the  most  valuable  as  well  as 
most  interesting  departments  of  worldly  knowledge. 

The  air,  as  it  is  seen  and  felt  and  breathed,  appears  to  be  a 
simple,  unconipounded  body;  but,  in  reality,  it  is  composed 
of  three  ingredients,  as  different  from  each  other  as  light  from 
darkness,  or  fire  from  ice  :  and  a  chemist  will  separate  these 
three  elements  from  each  other  as  readily  as  an  expert  seam- 
stress will  untwist  a  cord  composed  of  three  difFe rent-colored 
threads.  These  three  ingredients  are  oxygen,  nitrogen  or 
azote,  and  carbonic-acid  gas.  The  oxygen  constitutes  twenty- 


REPOET  FOR   1842.  191 

one  parts  in  a  hundred  of  the  whole  bulk.  Dr.  Combe  says, 
that  about  seventy-eight  parts  in  a  hundred  are  nitrogen ;  and 
the  residue  only,  or  one  per  cent,  is  carbonic-acid  gas.  Some 
physiologists  differ  a  little  from  this  authority  in  regard  to  the 
proportion  of  carbonic  acid  in  the  air.  But  this  is  not  material. 
Dr.  Combe  further  says,  that,  at  every  breath,  "  eight  or  eight 
and  a  half  per  cent  of  the  oxygen  or  vital  air  has  disap- 
peared, and  been  replaced  by  an  equal  amount  of  carbonic 
acid."  This  being  the  case,  it  follows  that  breathing  the  same 
air  only  three  or  four  times  successively  would  exhaust  it  of 
all  its  oxygen,  and  leave  carbonic  acid  in  its  place. 

The  oxygen  of  the  air  is  the  supporter  of  human  life.  Every 
thing  else  may  be  as  it  should  be,  — perfectness  of  organization, 
soundness  in  every  part,  nourishment,  temperature,  —  but  take 
away  oxygen,  and  almost  instantaneously  the  strongest  man  is 
a  corpse.  This  ingredient,  which  is  the  supporter  of  life,  is 
identically  the  same  with  that  which  supports  combustion. 
Wherever  the  flame  of  a  candle  will  of  itself  go  out,  a  man 
will  die.  Keeping  this  universal  truth  in  view,  that  it  is  the 
same  principle  which  supports  human  life  and  which  supports 
combustion,  and  every  individual  will  have  a  thousand  illustra- 
tions at  hand  to  show  the  relation  in  which  he  stands  to  this 
vital  element  of  the  air.  Few  persons  are  unacquainted  with 
the  experiment  of  letting  down  a  caudle  into  a  stagnant  well, 
vault,  or  pit  of  any  kind  ;  and  it  is  understood,  that  if,  in  such 
places,  a  candle  will  not  burn,  a  man  will  not  live.  Carbonic 
acid  being  much  heavier  than  an  equal  bulk  of  oxygen  or 
nitrogen,  it  settles  in  the  lowest  places.  It  therefore  fills  up 
any  depressions  or  excavations  which  remain  for  a  long  time 
unoccupied  or  unopened.  It  becomes  the  sediment  of  the  atmos- 
phere as  mud  is  the  sediment  of  water.  When  a  stream  flows 
rapidly,  the  earthy  particles  or  impurities  which  it  may  con- 
tain are  mingled  with  the  whole  mass  of  the  water ;  but,  if  the 
stream  expands  into  a  quiet  lake,  the  earthy  materials  subside 
to  the  bottom.  So  in  regard  to  the  air  :  whenever  it  is  in  mo- 
tion, the  carbonic  acid  is  held  in  mechanical  solution  with  its 


192  ANNUAL   EEPORTS    ON   EDUCATION. 

whole  body  ;  but  this  ingredient  will  rest  at  the  bottom  of  unoc- 
cupied vaults,  wells,  &c.,  until  it  is  expelled  from  them  by  some 
mechanical  force,  or  neutralized  by  some  chemical  agency. 
If  ever  there  were  any  one  who  had  so  little  philosophy  in  his 
composition  as  to  apply  an  extinguisher  to  a  candle  without 
thinking  why  he  succeeds  in  putting  out  its  flame,  he  has  only 
to  learn  that  it  is  because  the  extinguisher  cuts  off  the  stream 
of  air  that  sustained  the  blaze.  Our  lungs  are  in  precisely  the 
same  condition :  if  isolated  from  the  air,  we  perish  by  suffoca- 
tion ;  but,  organically  speaking,  it  is  not,  as  most  people  sup- 
pose, because  life  departs,  but  because  it  ceases  to  come.  If 
Othello  "  put  out  the  light"  of  the  candle  by  an  extinguisher 
before  smothering  Desdemoua  in  her  bed,  he  only  repeated  in 
the  second  operation,  so  far  as  the  natural  laws  are  concerned, 
what  he  had  done  in  the  first.  We  kindle  our  fires  by  repeated 
blasts  from  the  mouth  or  from  a  hand-bellows  ;  we  apply  a 
sheet-iron  blower  to  a  grate  ;  all  our  stoves  and  furnaces  are  so 
constructed  that  we  can  graduate  the  current  of  admitted  air ; 
and  we  should  at  once  discard  the  workman  as  a  bungler,  who 
should  fail  in  any  of  the  contrivances  for  that  purpose.  The 
smith  and  the  forger  increase  the  intensity  of  heat  for  their 
respective  operations  by  the  use  of  a  stationary  bellows  worked 
by  the  arm  or  by  steam  ;  the  engineers  of  the  steamship  and 
locomotive  admit  a  quantity  of  air  into  the  fire-chamber  exactly 
proportioned  to  the  amount  of  work  to  be  done  ;  and  in  all 
these  cases  we  say,  colloquially,  that  we  increase  the  draught 
of  air;  but  it  is  an  increase  of  the  quantity  of  oxygen  only 
which  produces  these  results.  Let  the  draught  which  is  applied 
consist  of  nitrogen,  or  of  carbonic  acid,  and  the  fire,  instead  of 
being  roused,  will  be  extinguished  in  an  instant.  Even  gun- 
powder will  not  burn  without  oxygen.  It  is  not  the  seventy- 
nine  huudredths,  therefore,  of  nitrogen  and  of  carbonic  acid, 
but  the  twenty-one  huudredths  of  oxygen,  to  which  we  are  alike 
indebted  for  the  mechanical  power  of  steam,  for  the  brilliant 
flame  of  lamps,  the  genial  heat  of  fires,  and  for  our  own  physi- 
cal existence  from  minute  to  minute.  And  yet,  with  all  these 


REPORT   FOR    1842.  193 

proofs  and  examples  continually  before  our  eyes,  we  fly,  as  a 
people,  from  the  invigorating  influence  and  exhilarations  of  the 
open  sky ;  there  is  a  more  and  more  eager  quest  for  indoor  and 
enervating  employments  ;  we  strive  to  circumvent  Nature  by 
occupying  winter  apartments  whose  doors  and  windows  are 
almost  hermetically  sealed ;  we  sleep  in  narrow  and  close 
rooms  ;  we  send  our  children  to  inhale  disease  in  uuventilated 
schoolhouses ;  we  attend  the  lecture-room  or  other  large  as- 
sembly, where  there  are  no  provisions  for  a  change  of  air  ;  and 
many  mechanics  and  operatives,  although  they  know,  from 
constant  experience,  that  their  own  machinery  will  cease  to 
move  if  fresh  air  is  not  supplied  to  the  engine,  still  breathe  an 
atmosphere  themselves  which  would  hardly  keep  their  own 
fires  alive.  Amid  an  almost  universal  want  of  knowledge 
respecting  the  physical  laws,  each  man's  ignorance  is  kept  in 
countenance  by  that  of  his  fellows. 

It  was  remarked  above,  that,  keeping  the  fact  in  view  that 
the  oxygen  of  the  air  is  alike  the  supporter  of  life  and  of  com- 
bustion, every  man  could  find  numberless  illustrations,  in  his 
daily  experience,  of  his  constant  dependence  upon  this  element 
for  the  continuance  of  life.  The  application  of  this  truth  is 
still  more  direct  and  significant  when  we  consider  that  it  is  no 
other  than  this  very  process  of  combustion  itself  by  which  the 
degree  of  warmth  necessary  to  our  existence  is  kept  up  in  our 
bodies.  In  healthy  lungs  and  blood-vessels,  no  less  than  in 
the  fireplaces  and  furnaces  of  our  dwellings,  or  in  smitheries, 
forges,  and  locomotives,  is  there  a  constant  combustion  going 
on  while  life  lasts.  Strange  as  it  may  seem,  yet  it  is  still  true, 
that,  every  living  man  is  on  fire,  though  in  some,  as  we  might 
naturally  infer  from  their  torpidity  and  sluggishness,  there  are 
only  a  few  smouldering  and  decaying  embers,  enveloped  in 
their  own  soot  and  cinders,  and  on  the  verge  of  extinction. 
The  standing  temperature  of  our  bodies,  at  all  seasons  of  the 
year,  is  98°.  If  our  temperature  falls  below  that,  and  so  con- 
tinues, the  machinery  will  no  longer  play,  and  life  ceases.  The 
mean  temperature  of  our  atmosphere,  for  the  whole  year,  is 

13 


194  ANNUAL    REPORTS    ON   EDUCATION. 

about  47°.  Sometimes,  however,  it  falls  to  a  dozen  or  more 
degrees  below  zero,  making,  in  such  cases,  a  difference  of  one 
hundred  and  ten  or  more  degrees  between  our  own  tempera- 
ture and  that  of  the  air  by  which  we  are  surrounded.  Our 
persons  are  just  like  any  other  substance  enveloped  in  a  me- 
dium colder  than  itself.  It  is  a  universal  law  that  there  is  a 
constant  tendency  to  equilibrium  among  bodies  of  different 
temperatures,  and,  of  course,  a  constant  loss  of  heat  on  the 
part  of  the  warmer  body.  Whenever,  therefore,  the  tempera- 
ture of  the  atmosphere  is  below  98°  (and,  in  our  climate,  it 
is  always  so,  except  during  a  very  few  hours  of  a  very  few 
days  in  the  year),  heat  is  constantly  radiating  from  our  bodies 
into  the  surrounding  air.  With  the  thermometer  below  zero, 
and  with  lungs  and  blood  as  much  exposed  to  the  open  air  as 
in  a  living  subject,  a  man  of  ordinary  size,  if  instantly  struck 
dead,  would  probably  lose  every  particle  of  his  warmth  in  half 
an  hour.  And  yet,  with  sufficient  food,  and  a  proper  quantity 
of  exercise,  many  men  —  travellers,  shipwrecked  sailors,  and 
others  —  have  been  known  to  sustain  the  system  at  the  life- 
point  of  98°  for  hours  and  even  days  together,  without  any 
aid  from  artificial  fires.  This  striking  result  is  effected  by  the 
generation  of  heat  —  that  is,  literally  by  fires  —  within  them- 
selves. Material  capable  of  being  burned  —  in  this  connec- 
tion, it  would  be  strictly  correct  to  call  it  fuel  —  is  derived 
from  our  food,  and  from  the  tissues  of  the  body  previously 
formed  from  the  food.  This  fuel  is  carried  into  the  blood.  In 
the  lungs,  the  oxygen  of  the  air  is  also  absorbed  into  the  blood  ; 
and  here,  therefore,  the  combustible  material  and  the  supporter 
of  combustion  meet.  Fire  is  kindled,  by  means  of  which  :he 
temperature  of  our  bodies  is  i-aised  to  98°.  And  not  only  so, 
but  a  quantity  of  surplus  heat  is  generated  sufficient  to  repair 
the  immense  loss  occasioned  by  our  being  immersed  in  an 
atmosphere  so  much  colder  than  ourselves,  and  which  is  con- 
stantly stealing  from  us  so  much  of  our  warmth. 

This  combustible  material  is  called  carbon.     Chemically,  it 
is  the   same   material  with  the  combustible  part  of  our  wood, 


REPORT   FOR   1842.  195 

coal,  peat,  or  other  fuel.  The  blood  of  every  person  in  health 
is  richly  freighted  with  it.  A  part  of  this  carbon  is  obtained 
directly  from  our  food  ;  a  portion  of  it  is  obtained  from  the 
wa.?te  or  used-up  particles  of  the  body.  In  a  healthy  subject, 
every  organ  is  undergoing  a  rapid  process  of  waste  and  reno- 
vation. All  muscular  efforts,  all  nervous  activity,  cause  a  loss 
of  the  very  substance  of  the  muscles  and  nerves  themselves ; 
but  new  particles,  fresh,  young,  and  vigorous,  take  the  place 
of  the  old  ones.  The  old,  however,  though  detached  and  cast 
off  from  the  living  tissues,  are  not  worthless.  They  are  thrown 
into  the  current  of  the  blood  ;  and  as  they  consist,  to  a  consid- 
erable extent,  of  carbon,  they  are  burned.  This  is  the  same 
economy  which  a  man  practises  when  he  repairs  or  pulls  down 
his  old  house ;  he  uses  the  waste  materials  of  the  old  dwelling 
to  keep  up  a  fire  to  warm  himself  in  the  new  one. 

If  any  one  doubts  that  an  active  fire  is  sustained  in  the  in- 
terior of  the  body,  let  him  explain  how  it  is  that  the  lungs  of  a 
person  in  health  are  never  cold.  Such  a  person  may  remain 
for  hours  in  an  atmosphere  below  zero  :  he  breathes  eighteen 
or  twenty  times  a  minute,  and,  therefore,  eighteen  or  twenty 
times  a  minute  he  admits  a  blast  of  this  ice-like  atmos- 
phere into  the  whole  substance  of  the  lungs.  Frost  may 
f'riuge  his  eyes ;  icicles  depend  from  his  mouth  ;  his  ears, 
cheeks,  and  nose  may  be  frozen :  and  yet  his  lungs  will  expe- 
rience no  sensation  of  coldness.  Suppose  the  interior  of  our 
hands,  our  arms,  or  our  feet,  were,  like  the  lungs,  permeated  by 
tubes,  or  hollowed  out  like  honeycomb,  and  that  an  atmos- 
phere below  the  point  of  congelation  were  constantly  rushing 
iuto  these  tubes,  or  cells,  abstracting  their  heat  and  imparting 
it.s  own  cold,  —  how  long  before  they  would  be  frost-bitten? 
Nothing  but  the  genial  warmth  generated  in  the  lungs  by  the 
carbon  of  the  body  and  the  oxygen  of  the  air  saves  them,  dur- 
ing any  cold  winter's  day,  from  such  a  fatal  catastrophe. 

In  bulk,  the  principal  ingredient  of  the  air  is  nitrogen.  It 
constitutes  more  than  seven-tenths  of  the  whole  mass  of  the 
air.  This  ingredient,  so  far  as  the  lungs  are  concerned,  seems 


196  ANNUAL   REPORTS    ON   EDUCATION. 

to  have  no  active  properties.  It  is  a  mere  diluent.  If  oxygen 
composed  the  whole  body  of  the  air,  almost  every  thing,  except 
ice  and  granite,  would  be  consumed  in  it.  A  common  candle 
would  be  burnt  out  in  a  few  minutes.  Should  fire  ever  escape 
from  our  control,  it  would  end  in  a  universal  conflagration. 
By  the  stimulus  of  pure  undiluted  oxygen,  received  into  the 
lungs,  all  vital  movements  would  be  so  accelerated,  that  life 
would  be  consummated  in  a  few  days.  But  nitrogen  reduces 
the  stimulus  of  the  air  to  that  precise  degree  which  conduces 
at  once  to  the  greatest  activity  and  the  longest  duration  of 
existence. 

Carbonic  acid  constitutes  but  a  very  little  of  the  whole  bulk 
of  the  air,  being  estimated  by  some  chemists  at  one  per  cent, 
though  by  others  at  somewhat  more.  Its  properties  are  strik- 
ingly distinct  from  those  of  either  of  the  ingredients  with 
which  it  is  combined.  Oxygen,  as  has  been  said,  is  the  sup- 
porter of  life  ;  nitrogen  is  neutral ;  but  carbonic  acid  is  a 
deadly  poison.  Constituting,  however,  so  small  a  portion  as  it 
does,  and  being  equally  diffused  through  the  whole  mass  of 
what  we  call  pure  air,  it  works  no  mischief.  It  is  only  when 
breathed  by  itself,  or  when  it  is  a  large  proportional  of  what 
we  breathe,  that  its  destructive  properties  are  manifested. 
When  breathed  alone,  death  immediately  ensues. 

Whenever  combustion  takes  place,  this  carbonic  acid,  this 
deadly  poison,  is  generated  rapidly  and  in  great  quantities. 
AVlieu  oxygen  and  carbon  combine  in  the  body,  they  evolve 
heat,  and  carbonic  acid  also.  It  is  the  same  operation  pre- 
cisely which  is  carried  on  when  a  brazier  or  pan  of  charcoal 
is  burned  in  our  rooms.  The  oxygen  of  the  air  in  the  room 
combines  with  the  carbon  in  the  coal,  and  gives  out  heat  and 
carbonic  acid.  So  in  the  body,  the  oxygen  of  the  air  received 
into  the  blood  through  the  lungs  combines  with  the  carbon 
already  in  the  blood,  and  gives  out  both  the  heat  and  the  gas. 
If,  then,  there  were  not  some  mode  of  expelling  this  gas  as 
fast  as  it  is  formed,  \ve  should  soon  be  killed  by  a  poison  of 
our  own  creating.  It  has  been  said  that  the  blood  goes  to  the 


REPORT   FOR   1342.  197 

lungs  in  quest  of  oxygen.  That,  however,  is  not  its  only  er- 
rand. It  goes  there,  also,  to  discharge  the  carbonic  acid  which 
has  been  generated  by  the  combustion  that  has  taken  place  dur- 
ing the  circulation  of  the  blood  around  the  body.  The  lungs, 
therefore,  are  a  contrivance  not  only  to  introduce  oxygen  into 
the  blood,  but  to  take  carbonic  acid  out  of  it.  We  know  that 
if  we  burn  coal  in  a  close  room,  and  breathe  the  gas  which  it 
exhales,  it  Avill  produce  suffocation  and  death.  So  if  the  lungs 
were  closed,  that  is,  if  we  should  cease  to  throw  off  the  car- 
bonic acid  produced  by  the  burning  of  carbon  in  the  blood,  it 
would  equally  cause  suffocation  and  death.  Hence  a  chimney 
for  its  egress,  and  a  current  of  inflowing  air,  are  necessary  to 
carry  off  this  deadly  ingredient  from  our  rooms  ;  and  many 
persons  are  aware  of  this  fact,  who  seem  to  be  either  ignorant 
or  heedless  that  a  similar  current  of  pure  air  is  equally  neces- 
sary to  remove  this  fatal  poison  from  their  lungs. 

From  the  above,  it  will  be  perceived  that  every  breathing 
thing  is  a  laboratory  where  the  work  of  destroying  the  vital 
property  of  the  air,  and  of  producing  poison  in  its  stead,  is 
constantly  going  on.  And  although  the  quantity  of  the  air  is 
exceedingly  great,  —  being  said  to  cover  the  whole  globe  to  the 
height  of  fifty  miles,  and  doubtless  existing,  though  in  an  ex- 
tremely rarefied  state,  to  the  height  of  a  hundred  miles  or 
more,  —  yet,  in  process  of  time,  with  all  the  myriads  of  lungs 
which  belong  to  all  the  orders  of  animated  nature  unceasingly 
at  work,  why  should  not  its  whole  mass  be  gradually  changed 
from  wholesomeness  to  poison,  from  life  to  death?  At  any 
rate,  as  carbonic  acid  is  much  heavier  than  oxygen  or  nitrogen, 
why  should  it  not  accumulate  upon  the  surface  of  the  earth, 
filling  all  its  valleys,  overflowing  its  plains,  and  rising,  like  a 
deluge,  along  its  hill-sides,  until,  at  length,  the  last  island  peak 
of  the  highest  mountain  should  be  submerged,  and  universal 
silence  and  death  reign  over  animated  nature,  —  self-destroyed 
by  converting  into  poison  the  very  element  which  had  been 
given  for  its  existence. 

But  in  this  case,  as  in  all  others,  where  a  presumptuous 


198  ANNUAL    REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

philosophy  has  conjectured  that  Divine  Providence  was  at  fault 
in  any  of  its  arrangements,  that  philosophy  has  ouly  to  push 
its  researches  farther,  to  turn  the  very  difficulties  which  it  en- 
countered into  new  evidences  of  adorable  wisdom.  In  the 
economy  of  Nature,  ample  provision  is  made  for  the  reconver- 
sion of  the  carbonic  acid  into  carbon  and  oxygen.  This  pro- 
cess may  take  place  spontaneously  in  order  to  restore  the 
equilibrium  between  them  ;  and,  during  the  operation,  as  much 
heat  may  be  absorbed,  and  pass  into  a  latent  state,  as  had  been 
given  out  in  the  formation  of  the  acid.  The  most  obvious  and 
beautiful  provision,  however,  consists  in  the  relation  which  the 
animal  and  vegetable  worlds  hold  to  each  other.  Animal  and 
vegetable  nature  constitute  a  whole.  Each  is  the  supplement 
of  the  other.  Oxygen  is  the  life  of  the  animal  kingdom ; 
carbonic  acid  is  the  nutriment  of  the  vegetable.  All  breathing 
existences  consume  the  oxygen,  and  produce  the  acid,  while 
vegetable  existences  consume  the  acid,  and  produce  the  oxygen. 
The  countless  myriads  of  lungs,  in  their  ceaseless  heavings, 
are  constantly  absorbing  the  latter  from  the  air,  and  ejecting  a 
stream  of  the  former,  compared  with  which  the  volume  of 
the  Mississippi  or  the  Amazon  would  be  but  a  rill.  But,  on  the 
other  hand,  the  tenfold  myriads  of  the  blades  of  grass  and  the 
leaves  which  make  verdant  the  forest  and  the  field  absorb  our 
poison  as  their  nourishment  ;  and,  in  its  stead,  they  elaborate 
and  pour  forth  a  flood  of  oxygen  for  the  susteutatiou  of  the  ani- 
mated world.  Thus  decomposition  and  recomposition  are 
equal.  The  ebb  and  flow  of  the  mighty  tide  of  conscious  and 
unconscious  life  are  mutually  sustained.  As  water  is  evapo- 
rated from  the  surface  of  the  ocean  and  the  laud  into  the  sky, 
to  be  thence  precipitated  in  fertilizing  showers,  and,  after 
gladdening  the  earth  and  replenishing  the  sea,  is  again  carried 
upwards  on  its  perpetual  circuit  of  beneficence  ;  so  the  animal 
and  vegetable  worlds  prepare,  each  for  the  other,  these  ele- 
ments of  their  respective  existences,  and  pass  them  backward 
and  forward,  as  from  hand  to  hand,  in  continual  exchange ; 
the  ever-restless  winds  being  the  unchartered  medium  of  the 
beneficent  commerce. 


REPORT   FOR    1842.  199 

For  maintaining  the  wonderful  relationship  which  exists  be- 
tween the  corruptible  blood  within  us  and  the  life-preserving 
air  without,  the  lungs  are  the  appropriate  and  principal  organ. 
Doubtless,  the  air  is  brought  into  contact  with  the  blood 
through  the  skin,  especially  when  that  important  and  vital 
organ  is  kept  clean ;  but  this  can  be  effected  only  to  a  very 
limited  extent.  The  common  mart,  where  the  air  goes  to  ex- 
change its  oxygen  for  carbonic  acid,  and  where  the  blood  goes 
to  exchange  its  carbonic  acid  for  oxygen,  is  the  lungs. 

To  an  ignorant  observer,  the  lungs  are  a  large,  unshapely, 
unattractive  mass,  of  a  reddish  hue,  having  neither  beauty 
of  form,  structure,  or  coloring.  But  the  philosophic  observer 
cannot  look  upon  them  for  a  moment,  and  consider  their  curi- 
ous internal  construction  and  their  important  functions,  with- 
out an  overflow  of  that  intellectual  delight  which  springs  from 
.seeing  an  adaptation  of  the  simplest  means  to  accomplish  ends 
of  extraordinary  niceuess  and  difficulty. 

The  lungs  are  very  large,  occupying  the  whole  internal  cavity 
of  the  chest  (with  the  exception  of  the  heart,  which  is,  ordi- 
narily, only  about  the  size  of  the  owner's  clinched  hand),  and 
therefore  filling  almost  all  the  space  between  the  breast-bone  and 
the  shoulder-blades,  and  between  the  bottom  of  the  neck  and  the 
diaphragm,  or  middle  line  of  the  trunk.  It  is,  therefore,  obvious 
that,  in  a  full-sized  man,  they  are  of  sufficient  capacity  to  hold 
many  quarts  of  air  and  blood.  Their  internal  structure  is 
spongy  and  porous  in  the  highest  degree.  This  sponginess  of 
structure  results  from  the  fact,  that,  throughout  their  whole  sub- 
stance, they  are  pervaded  by  three  sets  of  vessels ;  the  first 
two  being  for  the  blood,  the  third  for  the  air.  The  blood  is 
driven  from  the  right  side  of  the  heart  into  the  lungs  through 
one  channel  only,  —  the  pulmonary  artery ;  but.  as  soon  as 
this  artery  reaches  the  lungs,  it  branches  out  into  a  countless 
number  of  tubes,  which  spread  and  divide  until  they  permeate 
every  part  of  the  whole  mass  of  the  organ.  Should  we  im- 
agine a  tree  with  its  trunk  branching  out  into  limbs,  and  its 
limbs  branching  out  into  twigs,  until  the  latter  became  so  thick 


200  ANNUAL   REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

as  almost  to  exclude  the  light  by  their  crossings  and  interfa- 
cings, such  a  tree  would  be  a  good  representation  of  the  man- 
ner in  which  the  pulmonary  artery  branches  out  into  blood- 
vessels on  reaching  the  lungs.  But,  when  the  blood  reaches 
the  extremities  of  its  thread-like  vessels,  it  does  not  stop  and 
return  back  to  the  heart  by  the  same  passages  which  conveyed 
it  out.  It  flows  onward  and  through  the  lungs ;  the  second 
set  of  vessels  being  only  a  continuation  of  the  first.  The 
tubes  which  carried  the  blood  outwards,  after  reaching  their 
extreme  point,  bend  and  turn  backwards  towards  the  heart ; 
and  as  in  going  out  they  had  become  more  and  more  numer- 
ous by  division,  so,  on  their  return,  they  become  fewer  and 
fewer  by  union  with  each  other,  until,  at  last,  they  are  all 
gathered  into  one  channel, — the  pulmonary  vein,  —  and  re- 
turned to  the  left  side  of  the  heart.  As  in  the  one  case  they 
were  divided  from  a  trunk  into  branches,  and  from  branches 
into  twigs ;  so,  in  the  other,  they  are  united  from  twigs  into 
branches,  and  from  branches  into  a  trunk.  It  is  like  one  great 
thoroughfare  leading  into  a  city,  which,  on  reaching  its  con- 
fines, begins  to  divide  and  diverge  into  numberless  streets, 
lanes,  and  alleys  ;  and  these,  after  traversing  every  part  of  the 
place,  converge  towards  a  common  outlet,  which  leads  from 
the  city  on  the  opposite  side  by  another  great  thoroughfare. 
Such  are  the  two  sets  of  blood-vessels,  —  arterial  and  venous, 
—  which  occupy  the  body  of  the  lungs  ;  and  from  whose  num- 
ber and  closeness  to  each  other,  one  might  suppose  that  no 
room  would  be  left  for  any  thing  else.  But  the  spaces  for  the 
reception  of  the  air  are  almost  as  numerous  as  those  for  the 
reception  of  the  blood. 

The  air  finds  access  to  the  lungs  through  the  mouth  and  nos- 
trils. It  descends  through  the  windpipe,  which,  at  the  bottom 
of  the  neck,  divides  into  two  branches,  one  going  to  the  right, 
the  other  to  the  left  lung.  As  soon  as  these  two  air-passages 
reach  the  body  of  the  lungs,  they  branch  out  in  the  same  man- 
ner that  the  blood-vessels  do ;  so  that,  throughout  the  whole 
substance  of  these  organs,  an  air-cell  lies  side  by  side  with  a 


REPORT   FOR   1842.  201 

blood-vessel.  The  sides  or  walls  which  separate  the  air-cells 
from  the  blood-vessels  are  exceedingly  thin,  filmy,  and  gauze- 
like.  They  are  so  strong  as  to  keep  the  air  and  the  blood  each 
in  its  own  passages,  and  yet  of  so  fine  a  texture  as  to  allow  the 
carbonic  acid  of  the  blood  to  escape  into  the  air-cells,  and  the 
oxyjreu  of  the  air  to  be  absorbed  into  the  blood-vessels.  They 
allow  each  one  to  come  to  the  other,  which  is  life  ;  they  prevent 
each  one  from  extravasating  into  the  other,  which  is  death. 
The  air  which  we  inhale  at  a  single  breath,  if  received  into  the 
circulation,  would  destroy  life  in  a  minute.  The  blood  which 
at  any  one  time  occupies  the  lungs,  could  it  burst  its  bounds, 
would  also  destroy  life  instantaneously.  Yet  in  this  receptacle 
of  the  lungs  do  these  two  necessary  yet  opposite  elements 
meet,  while  life  lasts,  to  reciprocate  benefits,  —  each  approach- 
ing the  very  limits  of  danger,  but  never  transgressing  them 
without  some  fault  or  improvidence  on  our  part. 

One  fact  must  be  noticed  in  this  connection,  the  importance 
and  bearing  of  which  will  be  seen  hereafter.  The  air  does 
not,  like  the  blood,  flow  through  the  lungs.  Its  egress  is  by 
the  same  passages  as  its  ingress. 

It  is  necessary  here  to  introduce  a  single  paragraph  in  rela- 
tion to  another  vital  organ  of  the  body.  Although  this  may 
seem  a  digression,  yet  it  will  not  be  found  so  in  the  sequel. 

The  briefest  outline  of  physiological  science  would  be  radi- 
cally defective  if  it  took  no  notice  of  the  skin.  Surprising  as  it 
may  at  first  seem,  this  simple  envelope  of  the  body  is  a  vital 
organ  ;  because,  if  any  considerable  proportion  of  it  were  to  be 
destroyed,  death  would  ensue,  as  certainly  as  though  we  were 
to  remove  the  brain,  or  take  out  the  heart.  The  skin  consists 
of  three  layers,  or  coats.  The  exterior  coat  is  a  comparatively 
rough,  hard  substance,  and  is  insentient.  Its  object  is  the  pro- 
tection of  the  two  interior  coats,  as  the  bark  or  rind  of  a  tree 
protects  those  fibres  of  the  wood  in  which  the  processes  of 
vegetable  life  are  carried  on.  The  second  coat  contains  that 
coloring-matter  which  gives  to  different  races  or  individuals 
their  peculiar  hue  or  complexion.  It  is  often  said  that  differ- 


202  ANNUAL   REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

ences  in  regard  to  human  rights  and  privileges  are  founded 
upon  the  skin,  but  this  is  not  philosophically  correct ;  for,  as  far 
as  any  such  differences  are  founded  on  color,  —  all  the  coloring- 
matter  residing  in  one  only  of  the  three  membranes,  —  those 
differences  are  obviously  founded  only  on  a  third  part  of  the 
skin.  The  interior  coat  is  the  living  or  true  skin.  It  is  per- 
vaded by  nerves  and  blood-vessels.  In  a  healthy  person,  these 
blood-vessels,  although  invisible  to  the  eye,  are  in  a  state  of  the 
greatest  activity.  The  three  coats  —  or  the  whole  membrane  — 
are  perforated  by  an  inconceivable  number  of  apertures  called 
pores.  Through  these  pores  a  great  deal  of  the  waste  matter  of 
the  system  is  excreted  or  discharged.  While  taking  vigorous 
exercise,  perspiration  flows  out  from  the  body  through  these  ori- 
fices, and  collects  in  drops.  This  is  called  sensible  perspiration, 
because  its  quantity  is  so  great  as  to  be  perceptible  to  the  senses. 
The  phenomenon  of  sensible  perspiration  is  an  occasioual  one, 
essential  to  health,  but  more  or  less  frequent  according  to  the 
habits  of  the  individual.  But  there  is  an  insensible  perspiration, 
which  is  habitual.  Languor,  cold,  numbness,  seize  every  part 
of  the  body  if  its  insensible  perspiration  is  checked ;  and,  un- 
less it  can  be  revived,  these  sensations  of  coldness  and  torpor 
will  prove  the  harbingers  of  death.  The  watery  particles  ex- 
uded through  the  pores  are  a  combination  of  hydrogen  which 
we  take  into  our  stomach  with  our  food,  and  of  oxygen  which 
we  inhale  through  the  lungs.  But  the  perspiration  is  far  from 
being  pure,  limpid  water.  It  contains  salts,  fatty  or  uuctuous 
matter,  and  other  impurities.  It  collects  dust  also  as  its  parti- 
cles fly  through  the  air  and  come  in  contact  with  the  skin,  or  as 
they  are  commuuicated  to  our  persons  by  our  clothes.  The  heat 
of  the  body  vaporizes  the  watery  part  of  the  perspiration,  and, 
in  so  doing,  it  loaves  a  sediment  at  the  mouth  of  every  pore, 
like  a  sand-bar  at  the  mouth  of  a  river.  Unless  this  sediment 
is  removed  by  frequent  washings  and  friction  of  the  whole  per- 
son, it  will  accumulate,  harden,  and  incrust  the  entire  surface, 
and  form  a  loathsome  and  disgusting  amalgam  of  dirt  and 
grease.  But  when  exercise  is  taken  sufficient  to  throw  out  the 


REPORT   FOR    1842.  203 

waste  parts  of  the  system  through  the  pores,  and  then  these 
nauseous  obstructions  are  removed  by  daily  ablution,  the  cur- 
rents of  life  will  flow  out  to  the  surface,  and  to  all  the  extremi- 
ties, full,  deep,  and  majestically  strong.  The  jockey  under- 
stands this  perfectly  well  in  regard  to  his  horses,  though  so 
ignorant  of  it  in  regard  to  himself;  and  a  gentleman  who 
rarely  Avashes  or  brushes  his  own  person  would  discharge  a 
groom  who  should  neglect  to  wash  and  curry  his  horses.  The 
best  antidote  and  remedy  for  most  cutaneous  disorders  or  erup- 
tions is  cleanliness.  We  are  accustomed  to  call  such  maladies 
diseases  of  the  skin  ;  but  they  are  often  no  more  diseases  of  the 
skin  than  a  burn  is.  They  are  diseases  of  unclean  habits. 
For  their  removal  or  prevention,  the  practices  of  the  commu- 
nity must  be  altered ;  but  this  will  not  be  done  without  the 
diffusion  of  physiological  knowledge. 

I  hope  I  have  now  given  such  an  outline  of  the  principal 
vital  organs  and  functions  as  will  render  the  practical  remarks 
which  are  to  follow  intelligible  and  instructive. 

It  is  manifest  from  what  has  been  said,  brief  and  incomplete 
as  it  is,  that  the  health,  vigor,  and  longevity  of  the  human 
family  are  almost  entirely  dependent  upon  three  things  :  — 

1.  A  sufficient  quantity  of  wholesome  and  nutritious  food, 
well  prepared  before  it  is  sent  into  the  stomach. 

2.  The  due  vitalization  of  the  blood  in  the  lungs. 

This  vitalization  of  the  blood  is  effected  by  our  inhaling  the 
necessary  amount  of  pure  air,  which,  as  I  shall  presently  show, 
is  utterly  impossible  without  active  exercise. 

3.  Personal  cleanliness,  by  which  is  meant  cleanliness  of  the 
whole  surface  of  the  body. 

And  surely  it  is  a  truth  fitted  to  awaken  our  most  fervent 
gratitude  to  the  Author  of  our  existence,  that  he  has  placed 
these  three  great  conditions  of  pur  physical  well-being  under 
our  own  control.  Of  the  nature  or  essence  of  the  vital  princi- 
ple we  are  as  yet  ignorant.  Some  of  the  internal  ganglia  also 
are  mysteries  to  the  profoundest  science.  Of  the  more  subtile 


204  ANNUAL   REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

movements  in  the  interior  of  the  system,  we  can  take  no  availa- 
ble cognizance.  These  inward  vital  processes  are  not  subject 
to  our  volition.  The  heart  will  not  continue  to  beat,  nor  the 
blood  to  flow,  at  the  bidding  of  the  mightiest  of  the  earth. 
The  sculpture-like  outline  of  the  body ;  its  gradual  and  sym- 
metrical expansion  from  infancy  to  manhood,  every  day  another 
and  yet  the  same  ;  the  carving  and  grooving  of  all  the  bones 
and  joints  ;  the  weaving  of  the  muscles  into  a  compact  and 
elastic  fabric,  and  their  self-lubricating  power,  by  which,  though 
pressed  together  in  the  closest  order  and  crossing  each  other  in 
all  directions,  they  yet  play  their  respective  parts  without  per- 
ceptible friction;  the  winding-up  of  the  heart,  so  that  it  will 
vibrate  the  seconds  of  threescore  years  and  ten  without  repair 
or  alteration ;  the  chanuelling-out  of  the  blood-vessels,  more 
numerous  than  all  the  rivers  of  a  continent,  and  so  thoroughly 
permeating  every  part,  that  there  is  no  desert  or  waste  spot  left 
where  their  fertilizing  currents  do  not  flow  ;  the  triple  layer  of 
the  skin  with  its  infinite  reticulations  ;  the  culling  and  exact 
depositing  of  the  material  of  that  most  divinely-wrought  organ, 
the  brain,  for  whose  exquisite  workmanship  it  would  seem  as 
though  air  and  light  and  herft  and  electricity  had  all  been 
sifted  and  winnowed,  and  their  finest  particles  selected  for  its 
composition  ;  the  diffusion  of  the  nerves  over  every  part  of 
the  frame,  along  whose  darksome  and  attenuated  threads  the 
messengers  of  the  mind  pass  to  and  fro  with  the  rapidity  of 
lightning;  the  fashioning  of  the  vocal  apparatus,  so  simple  in 
its  mechanism,  and  yet  so  varied  in  its  articulation  and  its 
musical  range  and  compass ;  the  hollowing-out  of  the  ear, 
which  secures  to  us  all  the  utilities  and  blessings  of  social  inter- 
course ;  the  opening  of  the  eye,  on  whose  narrow  retina  all  the 
breadth  and  magnificence  of  the  material  universe  can  be  depic- 
tured ;  and,  finally,  the  power  of  converting  the  coarse,  crude, 
dead  materials  of  our  food  into  sentient  tissues,  and  miracu- 
lously enduing  them  with  the  properties  of  life,  —  over  all  these, 
as  well  as  over  various  other  processes  of  formation  and  growth, 
our  will  has  no  direct  control.  They  will  not  be  fashioned,  or 


REPORT   FOR    1842.  205 

cease  to  be  fashioned,  at  our  bidding.  It  was  in  this  sense  that 
the  question  was  put,  "  Which  of  yon,  by  taking  thought,  can 
add  one  cubit  unto  his  stature  ?"  It  is  not  by  "  taking  thought," 
but  by  using  the  prescribed  means,  —  by  learning  and  obeying 
the  physical  laws,  —  that  the  stature  can  be  made  loftier,  the 
muscles  more  vigorous,  the  senses  quicker,  the  life  longer,  and 
the  capacity  of  usefulness  almost  indefinitely  greater. 

It  is  diet,  oxygenation  of  the  blood,  and  personal  purity  or 
cleanliness,  which  have  the  prerogative  of  accomplishing  these 
objects ;  and  these  are  in  our  power,  within  our  legitimate 
jurisdiction  :  and,  if  we  perform  our  part  of  the  work  faithfully 
and  fully  in  regard  to  these  things,  Nature  will  perform  her 
part  of  the  work  faithfully  and  fully  in  regard  to  those  subt- 
ler and  nicer  operations  which  lie  beyond  our  immediate  con- 
trol. 

On  the  first  point,  —  that  of  diet, — I  have  already  said  as 
much  as  the  limits  of  this  Report  will  warrant. 

In  regard  to  the  second  point,  —  the  proper  oxygeuation  of 
the  blood,  — a  few  observations  will  make  it  apparent  that  this 
vital  operation  may  be  defeated  in  any  one  of  three  different 
ways,  or,  with  more  fatal  despatch,  in  all  of  them  acting  to- 
gether. 

1.  Even  when  the  lungs  are  sound  and  of  good  size,  the  blood 
may  fail  to  be  vitalized  by  our  breathing  impure  air,  —  that  is, 
air  of  which  less  than  twenty-one  hundredth  parts  are  oxygen. 
As  breathing  the  air  once  unfits  it  for  being  breathed  again 
until  it  has  come  in  contact  with  vegetation,  or  been  otherwise 
renovated  in  the  great  laboratory  of  Nature,  it  follows  that  a 
quantity  of  new  air  should  be  supplied  to  the  lungs  just  as  fast 
as  we  exhale  the  old.  This  is  most  perfectly  done  under  the 
open  sky ;  and  hence  the  universal  fact,  other  things  being 
equal,  that  those  who  live  most  out  of  doors  enjoy  the  best 
health.  In  our  apartments  and  houses,  fresh  air  should  be 
admitted  just  as  fast  as  the  oxygen  of  the  old  is  destroyed  by 
our  own  breathing,  or  by  fires  and  lights  ;  and  it  should  be 
borne  in  mind,  that,  as  the  same  process  is  going  on  in  us  and 


206  ANNUAL   REPORTS    ON   EDUCATION. 

in  a  common  fire  or  flame,  a  few  lights  in  a  room  will  consume 
as  much  oxygen  as  a  man.  Now,  the  mother  violates  this  rule 
when  she  sinks  her  babe  in  the  pillows  of  a  cradle  or  crib, 
and,  by  so  covering  it  up  as  to  impede  the  access  of  fresh  air  to 
its  lungs,  may  with  almost  literal  truth  be  said  to  bury  it  alive  ; 
because,  in  such  case,  the  infant  is  compelled  to  breathe  the 
same  air  the  second  time,  or,  perhaps,  many  limes.  Parents 
violate  this  rule  when,  for  the  sake  of  guarding  against  what 
they  call  the  inclemency  of  the  season,  they  make  their  chil- 
dren sleep,  or  sleep  themselves,  in  a  small  room,  with 
closed  doors,  and  with  windows  carefully  calked  in  order  to 
keep  out  the  cold.  A  child  who  has  been  physically  well 
trained  will  not  suffer  so  much  by  sleeping  with  the  windows 
of  its  apartment  open,  when  the  thermometer  is  at  zero,  as  by 
habitually  lying  all  night  in  a  close,  pent-up  apartment.  This 
law  is  flagrantly  violated  when  children  are  kept  in-doors  for 
days  together,  although  the  weather  be  as  cold  as  our  latitude 
will  permit,  instead  of  being  sent  out  daily,  and  several  times  a 
day,  to  take  such  vigorous  exercise  as  will  keep  them  warm,  in 
the  open  air ;  or,  at  least,  in  some  place  where  the  sun's  light 
can  come.*  This  law  is  most  absurdly  and  cruelly  violated  by 
teachers  who  supply  only  impure  air  for  their  pupils  to  breathe, 
at  the  same  time  that  they  require  them  to  study.  An  engineer 
might  as  well  require  his  locomotive  to  go  when  he  shuts  off 
the  draught  from  the  fire-chamber.  The  Pharaohs  who  demand 
intelligent  study  in  the  absence  of  pure  air  are  as  tyrannical 
as  the  Pharaoh  who  exacted  a  full  tale  of  bricks  without  straw, 
with  the  aggravating  circumstance  against  them,  that  this 
tyranny  is  exercised  upon  children  instead  of  men.  A  great 
many  of  our  private  dwellings,  especially  those  which  are  used 
as  boarding-houses,  and,  almost  universally,  our  public  edi- 
fices, are  constructed  in  open  disregard  of  the  laws  of  physi- 
ology. 

The  immediate  effects  of  breathing  impure  air  are  lassitude 

*  The  Neapolitans  have  an  excellent  proverb,  that  where  the  sun  does  not  come 
the  physician  must. 


REPORT   FOR   1842.  207 

of  the  whole  system,  incapability  of  concentrated  thought,  ob- 
tuseness  and  uncertainty  of  the  senses,  followed  by  torpor,  diz- 
ziness, faintness,  and,  if  long  continued,  by  death.  When 
great  mental  efforts  are  put  forth  simultaneously  with  the  in- 
halation of  impure  air,  so  much  black  blood  is  forced  into  the 
brain  iu  order  to  sustain  its  energies,  that  a  fit  of  apoplexy  at 
once  closes  the  scene.  Instances  of  this  will  occur  to  every 
observant  mind.  That  of  the  late  Chief  Justice  Parker  of 
Massachusetts,  of  Mr.  Emmet  of  New  York,  and  Mr.  Pinck- 
ney  of  Charleston,  were  obviously  cases  of  this  kind.  Had 
their  court-rooms  been  well  ventilated,  it  may  be  considered  as 
almost  certain  that  neither  of  these  melancholy  events  would 
have  happened.  Those  great  men  were  sacrifices  to  the  bar- 
barous manner  in  which  the  court-rooms  of  a  community  call- 
ing itself  civilized  had  been  constructed.  They  were  pro- 
foundly learned  in  the  laws  of  the  land,  but  as  profoundly 
ignorant  or  disregardful  of  the  laws  of  Nature.  The  eminent 
and  excellent  Chief  Justice  of  Massachusetts  was  just  as  much 
the  victim  of  a  violated  law  as  the  malefactors  whom  he  was 
trying  when  he  died.* 

Different  races  of  animals  exhibit  to  our  daily  observation 
the  consequences  of  a  more  or  less  perfect  oxygeuation  of  the 
blood.  Frogs,  toads,  lizards,  and  reptiles  generally,  are  so 
constituted  or  organized,  that  only  a  part  of  their  blood  flows 
through  their  lungs  at  each  circulation.  The  residue  of  it, 
therefore,  goes  round  twice,  thrice,  or  even  more  times,  with- 
out imbibing  oxygen  or  throwing  off  carbonic  acid.  Hence 
their  general  character  of  inactivity,  dulness,  and  stupidity. 
They  remain  iu  one  position  and  almost  motionless  during  the 
greater  part  of  their  lives,  and  exhibit  a  very  low  form  of  ani- 
mated existence.  The  standing  temperature  of  their  blood  is 

*  In  the  British  House  of  Commons,  during  the  memorable  session  of  1835, 
when  the  importance  of  the  interests  at  stake,  and  the  equal  balancing  of  parties, 
occasioned  an  unusually  close  attendance  and  very  lengthened  sittings,  the  lives 
of  several  of  the  members  were  sacrificed  in  consequence  of  the  bad  condition  of 
the  air ;  and  the  health  of  many  more,  even  the  most  robust  among  them,  was  very 
seriously  impaired.  —  Dr.  A.  Combe. 


208  ANNUAL    REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

several  degrees  lower  than  that  of  most  other  animals,  —  the 
natural  consequence  of  its  imperfect  oxygenation.  But,  on  the 
other  hand,  the  organization  and  structure  of  most  birds  are 
such,  that  (hey  breathe,  iu  proportion  to  their  bulk,  a  far  greater 
quantity  of  air  than  man.  Their  standard  of  temperature  is 
several  degrees  higher  than  that  of  the  human  species.  Hence 
their  vivacity  and  celerity  of  motion,  or,  rather,  their  incapa- 
bility of  rest.  They  are  much  upon  the  wing,  or  flitting  from 
spray  t;>  spray,  overflowing  with  music  which  seems  to  pour 
out  of  itself;  and  they  evince  an  existence  crowded  with  glad- 
some emotions.  Just  so  far  as  we,  by  our  architectural  ar- 
rangements, or  by  our  confinement  of  children  within  doors, 
administer  impure  air  for  their  breathing ;  just  so  far  do  we 
take  from  them  the  warmth,  vivacity,  and  joyousness  of  birds, 
and  inflict  upon  them,  in  its  stead,  the  coldness,  torpor,  and 
stupidity  of  frogs,  toads,  and  lizards. 

2.  The  second  cause  which  prevents  that  due  oxygenation 
of  the  blood  which  is  so  essential  to  health,  vigor,  and  length  of 
days,  is  a  deficiency  in  the  size  of  the  lungs  themselves.  Men 
of  a  lively  expression,  florid  countenance,  and  such  great  mus- 
cular activity  as  makes  motion  a  pleasure,  and  inaction  a  pain, 
and  who  are  so  ardent  that  their  common  feelings  are  almost 
passions,  —  that  is,  men  of  a  high  sanguineous  temperament,  — 
always  have  a  large  chest.  A  large  chest  is  synonymous  with 
large  lungs;  for,  if  not  interfered  with,  the  lungs  determine 
the  size  of  the  chest,  as  the  brain  determines  the  size  of  the 
cranium.  Just  in  proportion  as  the  capacity,  or  roominess,  of 
the  lungs  is  lessened,  must  the  quantity  of  the  air  which  is 
brought  into  contact  with  the  blood  be  diminished.  And,  as 
the  quantity  of  the  air  admitted  to  contact  with  the  blood  is 
diminished,  in  the  same  ratio  must  the  oxygeuation  of  that 
fluid  be  reduced.  To  have  small  lungs,  therefore,  or,  what  is 
the  same  thing,  a  small  chest,  is  a  calamity  to  the  health,  as 
well  as  a  deformity  to  the  person.  All  animals,  in  their  highest 
state  of  physical  development,  have  a  full,  capacious  chest. 
Indeed,  the  greatest  energy  of  the  digestive  organs,  the  richest 


REPORT   FOR    1842.  209 

nutrition  carried  by  the  blood  to  the  various  parts  of  the  sys- 
tem, and  especially  the  greatest  quickness  and  power  of  ten- 
sion in  the  muscles,  cannot  exist  without  large  lungs,  —  that 
is,  without  a  large  chest.  As  well  might  vegetation  flourish 
without  heat  or  moisture.  What  a  deep  and  capacious  chest 
have  the  highest  specimens  of  that  noble  animal,  the  horse ! 
It  is  in  that  spacious  laboratory  that  his  fleetness  and  endurance 
are  generated  ;  and  generated  so  rapidly,  that  he  champs  the  bit 
and  becomes  impatient  of  the  reins  that  debar  him  from  giving 
loose  to  his  pent-up  energies.  So  of  the  ox,  whether  the  wild 
buffalo  of  the  prairies,  or  the  domesticated  animal  which  is  so 
serviceable  to  man.  In  those  emblems  of  beauty,  which,  in  all 
ages,  have  delighted  the  sculptor,  the  painter,  and  the  poet ; 
in  the  lion,  the  swan,  the  dove,  or  the  wild  pigeon  which  cuts 
the  air  with  such  amazing  speed,  and  sustains  itself  so  long 
upon  the  wing,  —  in  all  these,  the  first  feature  which  catches 
the  artist's  eye  is  the  broad,  expanded,  full-rounded  chest. 
This  part  of  the  body,  then,  is  not  only  the  seat  of  the  highest 
energy,  but  the  type  of  the  most  perfect  elegance.  Such  was 
the  universal  sentiment  amongst  those  worshippers  of  beauty, 
the  Greeks.  Had  Phidias  or  Praxiteles  sculptured  a  Jupiter 
with  a  narrow  and  sunken  chest,  or  a  Venus  whom  a  con- 
tracted zone  would  clasp,  not  all  the  renown  of  their  previous 
works,  nor  their  countrymen's  idolatry  of  genius,  could  have 
saved  them  from  public  insult  or  judicial  ostracism. 

Persons  suffer  under  the  misfortune  and  ugliness  of  small 
lungs  from  different  causes.  They  come  by  hereditary  trans- 
mission. If  both  the  parents  have  small  lungs,  it  is  almost 
certain  that  their  offspring  will  be  afflicted  with  the  same  de- 
formity. In  such  cases,  however,  the  infirmity  of  the  children 
may,  to  a  great  extent,  be  remedied  by  inducing  them  to  take 
much  exercise,  especially  of  the  chest  and  upper  extremities, 
in  the  open  air.  This,  if  continued  through  childhood  and 
youth,  will  result  in  a  great  expansion  of  these  organs  ;  for, 
under  favorable  circumstances,  Nature  always  seems  anxious 
to  retrieve  her  losses. 
14 


210  ANNUAL   REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

There  are  also  certain  mechanical  trades  in  which  the  body 
is  continually  bent  forward,  or  confined  in  a  sitting  posture, 
the  hands  being  fixed  at  one  point,  and  the  shoulders  forced 
round  towards  that  point,  as  though  they  were  striving  to  look 
at  each  other ;  all  of  which  tends  to  cramp  the  chest,  and  to 
make  its  interior  and  fore  part  convex  instead  of  concave,  and, 
of  course,  to  dwarf  the  size  and  impede  the  play  of  the  lungs. 
In  such  cases,  the  workman  should  stand  as  much  as  possible, 
instead  of  sitting ;  and,  when  not  engaged  in  his  employment, 
should  practise  counteracting  exercises. 

The  growth  of  the  lungs  may  also  be  impeded  by  artifi- 
cial or  mechanical  compression,  in  perverse  imitation  of  the 
Chinese,  who  swathe  the  foot  from  birth,  and  confine  it  through 
life  in  a  small,  inelastic  shoe  ;  or  of  the  tribe  of  Flathead  Indians, 
who  deform  the  head  by  fastening  a  hard  board  upon  the  fron- 
tal portion  of  the  cranium.  And  the  victim  of  Chinese  fashion 
may  as  well  expect  to  walk  or  dance  with  the  grace  and  light- 
ness of  a  Camilla,  or  the  tribe  of  Flathcads  to  attain  the  intel- 
lectual stature  of  Lord  Bacon  or  Dr.  Franklin,  as  any  one  can 
expect  to  enjoy  vigor  of  body,  buoyancy  of  spirits,  or  energy 
of  intellect,  who  is  doomed  by  any  tyrant,  whether  of  law  or 
of  custom,  to  interdict  the  free  motion  and  enlargement  of 
this  vital  organ,  the  lungs.  It  is  matter  for  rejoicing  that  those 
monsters  of  cruelty  who  invented  the  iron  boot  and  the  thumb- 
screw for  the  torture  of  their  victims  did  not  understand 
enough  of  physiological  laws  to  know  that  they  could  inflict 
far  more  various  and  enduring  tortures  by  enclosing  the  whole 
body  in  one  thick-ribbed  incasement,  and  thus,  at  once,  coun- 
terwork all  vital  processes.  Such  a  contrivance,  too,  Avould 
have  caused  not  merely  pain  to  the  individual,  but  deteriora- 
tion of  the  progeny ;  and,  for  all  those  who  had  any  pride  of 
family,  would  have  been  far  more  effectual  in  entailing  bodily 
and  mental  imbecility,  and  consequent  obscurity  and  disgrace, 
upon  their  descendants,  than  any  attainder  of  blood,  or  act  of 
outlawry. 

To    obviate  the  dwindling   and   debilitating  effects   of  this 


REPORT   FOR   1842.  211 

practice  upon  the  race,  the  community  must  allow  its  children 
to  grow  up  without  any  obstruction  to  the  development  of  this 
vital  part  of  their  frame.  The  main  hope  of  remedy  lies  in  a 
better  training  of  the  young,  in  keeping  the  yoke  from  the 
necks  of  those  \vlio  have  never  been  degraded  and  enfeebled 
by  it  ;  for  so  enervating  .to  the  whole  system  is  this  practice, 
so  deeply  injurious  to  intellectual  and  moral  manifestations  is 
it  to  send  continually,  and  for  years,  a  current  of  uuosyge- 
nated,  black  blood  to  the  brain,  that  the  victims  of  the  custom 
become  almost  unable  to  appreciate  any  argument  or  persua- 
sion addressed  to  their  reason  or  religion.  The  minds  of  such 
persons  run  to  fancies  and  vagaries,  while  common  sense 
seems  obliterated.  This,  indeed,  might  be  predicted  from  a 
knowledge  of  physiological  laws.  Sapping,  as  the  habit  does, 
the  vital  force  alike  of  body,  intellect,  and  moral  sentiments,  it 
belongs  to  that  class  of  offences  which  seem,  in  the  very  act 
of  commission,  to  take  away  from  the  offender  both  the  de- 
sire and  the  ability  to  reform,  and  which  inflict  the  last  act  of 
degradation,  —  a  willing  bondage. 

Let  any  one  who  has  not  robbed  himself  of  the  power  of 
reflection  consider,  for  a  moment,  the  collocation  or  juxtaposi- 
tion of  four  of  the  great  vital  organs, — the  lungs,  heart, 
stomach,  and  liver,  —  upon  which  a  compression  around  the 
upper  and  central  part  of  the  body  directly  acts.  On  the  right 
and  left  sides  of  the  chest,  from  the  neck  to  the  diaphragm,  or 
midway  line  of  the  trunk,  are  situated  the  lungs.  Between 
their  right  and  left  lobes,  and  a  little  backward  towards  the 
spine,  is  suspended  the  heart,  which,  in  its  ceaseless  and  unin- 
terrupted play,  provides  for  itself  just  as  much  space  as  it 
needs.  Immediately  below  is  the  stomach,  which,  when  dis- 
tended witli  food,  is  only  separated  from  the  heart  and  the 
lungs  by  that  thin  membrane  the  diaphragm.  On  the  right 
of  the  stomach,  and  backwards  to  the  spine,  is  the  liver,  whose 
secretions  are  so  essential  to  the  formation  of  healthy  chyle, 
and  to  the  action  of  the  abdominal  viscera.  The  healthy 
stomach,  after  a  meal,  is  in  continual  motion,  contracting  and 


212  ANNUAL    REPORTS    ON   EDUCATION. 

expanding,  rolling,  lifting  itself  up,  first  at  one  end  and  then  at 
the  other,  until  the  work  of  digestion  is  completed,  and  the 
organ  has  disburdened  itself  of  its  contents.  The  heaving 
and  subsiding  of  the  lungs  at  every  breath,  and  the  systole 
and  diastole  of  the  heart,  as  it  alternately  receives  and  ejects 
the  vital  stream,  have,  as  every  one  knows,  neither  intermis- 
sion nor  pause  from  birth  till  death.  Indeed,  any  intermission 
or  pause  in  the  action  of  these  organs  is  death.  If  permitted 
to  fulfil  the  wise  ordinations  of  Nature,  each  one  provides  for 
itself  ample  space  for  all  its  movements.  Neither  interferes 
with  or  molests  its  fellow.  They  rather  assist  each  other. 
The  full  distention  of  the  lungs  in  breathing  helps  the  con- 
tractile muscles  of  the  stomach ;  and  the  pressure  of  the 
chyme,  as  it  passes  along  the  duodenum,  forwards  the  biliary 
secretions. 

No  mechanism  ever  invented  by  the  art  of  man  runs  so 
quietly,  so  forcibly,  or  so  long.  There  is  no  clogging,  no 
stifling,  no  friction.  The  ribs  are  hung  on  hinges,  which,  at 
every  act  of  inhalation,  open  like  the  bows  of  a  bellows,  to 
enlarge  the  apartment  where  these  vital  organs  are  plying  their 
work,  and  preparing  the  precious  pabulum  of  life.  But  sup- 
pose the  Avails  which  enclose  these  busy  operators  to  be  so  con- 
tracted, that  all,  in  their  desire  for  the  necessary  space,  begin 
to  encroach  upon  each  other's  limits.  Suppose,  by  further 
compression,  each  one  to  become  like  a  man  in  a  crowd,  un- 
able to  move  hands  or  feet.  Encumbered,  choked,  tliAvarted  in 
its  exertions,  each  organ  will  strive  to  thrust  the  others  from  a 
space  which  is  too  straitened  for  all ;  and  thus  the  force  which 
every  one  needs  for  completing  and  perfecting  its  own  work  is 
expended  in  hostile  though  useless  aggressions  upon  its  allies. 
The  stomach  cannot  stir  up  the  food,  move  it  from  side  to  side, 
and  mingle  it  with  the  gastric  solvent.  The  lungs  from  above 
press  upon  it  with  a  dead  weight.  The  heart  can  but  half 
open  for  the  admission,  and  therefore  cannot  contract  vigor- 
ously for  the  swift  propulsion,  of  the  blood ;  and  thus  the 
momentum  of  its  current  is  lost  before  it  reaches  the  extremi- 


REPORT   FOR    1842.  213 

tics.  The  liver  cannot  concoct  its  secretions,  and  such  as  it 
prepares  are  driven  from  it  at  unseasonable  times.  The  fine 
lacteal  ducts  find  only  coarse  and  half-prepared  material  for 
nourishment,  and  this  chokes  and  inflames  their  minute  chan- 
nels as  they  bear  it  onward  laboriously  to  the  blood.  As  an 
inevitable  consequence,  innutritions  blood  is  poured  into  the 
right  side  of  the  heart.  But,  rich  and  strong  blood  being  the 
natural  stimulus  of  that  organ,  it  now  works  languidly  in 
forcing  the  stream  forward  to  the  lungs,  both  from  want  of 
room  and  of  the  appropriate  excitement.  When  the  lazy  current 
of  blood  reaches  the  lungs  to  throw  off  its  poisonous  carbonic- 
acid  gas,  and  to  seek  that  life-giving  elixir,  the  oxygen  of  the 
air,  it  finds  all  the  air-cells  crowded  together  and  almost 
closed,  or  occupied  only  by  corrupted  air  ;  and  hence  it  is 
obliged  to  return  to  the  left  side  of  the  heart  almost  as 
black  and  lifeless  as  when  it  emerged  from  the  right :  or, 
to  illustrate  the  subject  by  a  metaphor  before  used,  the  diver, 
having  in  vain  come  to  the  surface  after  air,  is  compelled, 
though  at  the  risk  of  suffocation,  to  sink  again  to  the  bottom 
without  refreshment.  From  the  left  side  of  the  heart,  the 
blood  now  starts  upon  its  course  a  second  time,  without  vitali- 
zation ;  and  hence  it  issues  in  a  tardy,  pestiferous  stream, 
diffusing  a  painful  sense  of  languor  over  all  the  limbs,  and 
blunting  the  acuteness  of  every  sense,  until  at  last  its  muddy 
current  ascends  to  the  sacred  temple  of  the  brain,  to  spread 
clouds  and  darkness  through  all  its  mansions.  From  this 
capitol  of  the  realm  it  returns,  again  to  contend  with  the  same 
obstructions,  and,  instead  of  being  the  antagonist,  to  become 
the  ally  of  all  the  chemical  forces  in  their  attack  upon  the 
citadels  of  life. 

A  single  additional  remark  will  suffice  to  show,  that  any 
constriction  around  any  part  of  the  body  will  impede  the  cur- 
rent that  drives  the  machinery  of  life.  As  a  general  rule,  the 
arteries,  through  which  the  blood  is  propelled  outward  from 
the  heart,  lie  deep  beneath  the  surface.  This  course  serves  to 
secure  them  from  external  injuries  ;  and  as  the  blood  flows 


214  ANNUAL    REPORTS    ON   EDUCATION. 

more  freely  from  an  opened  artery  than  from  a  vein,  and  is 
with  more  difficulty  stanched,  our  exposure  to  its  loss  is  greatly 
diminished  by  such  an  arrangement.  Most  of  the  veins,  on 
the  other  baud,  lie  at  or  near  the  surface.  In  persons  of  high 
health,  the  veins  start  out,  and  exhibit  themselves  above  the 
common  surface  ;  and  this  seems  to  have  been  carefully  re- 
garded by  the  ancient  sculptors  in  their  representations  of 
physical  strength.  From  the  fact  that  so  much  of  the  blood 
flows  near  the  surface,  on  its  return  to  the  heart  and  lungs,  it 
is  easy  to  see  that  any  ligature  around  trunk  or  limb  must 
impede  the  current  as  it  hastens  onAvard  to  renew  the  life 
which  it  has  lost.  Suppose  the  engine-men  of  the  fire-depart- 
ment, when  called  out  to  extinguish  a  conflagration,  should  lay 
heavy  weights  all  along  upon  the  hose  through  which  the 
water  ought  freely  to  flow  :  could  they  reasonably  expect  to 
subdue  the  flames,  and  save  property  and  life  from  destruc- 
tion? Certainly  with  as  much  reason  as  any  person  who  ob- 
structs the  free  flow  of  the  blood  by  bands  or  ligatures  over 
any  part  of  the  body  can  expect  to  enjoy  a  full  measure  of 
health; 

The  injury,  however,  of  constricting  the  blood-vessels  by 
pressure  upon  the  surface,  is  different  in  different  parts.  A 
tight  cord  around  the  neck  is  fatal.  Hence  this  mode  has  been 
adopted  by  several  nations  for  executing  the  punishment  of 
death  upon  criminals.  If  the  structure  of  the  human  system 
were  understood,  a  severe  mechanical  compression  around  the 
body  would  be  considered  a  misfortune  and  a  disgrace  next  in 
order  to  a  noose  about  the  neck.  It  is  a  less  speedy  process, 
indeed,  for  extinguishing  life,  than  strangulation  ;  but,  in  its 
effects  upon  the  criminal  and  upon  offspring,  it  inflicts  the  pain 
of  a  hundred  deaths. 

But  any  tight  band  or  ligature  —  a  hat,  neck-cloth,  glove, 
boot,  shoe  —  fastened  around  any  part  of  the  body  is  propor- 
tionally injurious.  That  painful  and  disabling  malady  — 
swelled  limbs  —  is  oftentimes  occasioned  by  the  ignorant  prac- 
tice of  binding  something  so  tight  upon  or  around  the  limb  as 


REPORT   FOR    1842.  215 

to  prevent  the  free  flow  of  the  blood  back  to  the  heart.  A  rule, 
as  universal  as  it  is  intelligible,  in  regard  to  the  closeness  of 
our  garments,  is,  that  they  should  always  allow  a  free  motion 
of  the  parts  beneath  them.  If,  for  instance,  the  sleeve  of  a 
coat  fits  so  tightly  to  the  arm  that  the  arm  cannot  turn  within 
the  sleeve  without  turning  the  sleeve  also,  then  it  is  so  tight  as 
to  check  the  circulation  and  to  injure  health.  And  so  of  any 
other  part  of  the  dress.  But,  when  the  body  and  the  limbs 
move  freely  within  the  dress,  a  friction  on  the  skin  is  caused 
which  is  highly  salutary. 

3.  The  third  cause  of  an  imperfect  oxygenation  of  the  blood 
is  the  ivant  of  exercise. 

A  person  may  have  well-developed  lungs,  and  live  constant- 
ly in  pure  air ;  and  yet,  without  exercise,  his  blood  will  be  but 
half  oxygenated,  and  he  will  suffer  consequent  debility  of  body 
and  mind. 

A  few  simple  propositions  will  place  the  relation  in  which  we 
stand  to  active  exercise  in  a  clear  light. 

1.  Every  muscular  exertion  is  necessarily  attended  by  a  com- 
pression of  the  muscle  exerted  ;  that  is,  every  muscle  in  a  state 
of  tension  is  more  compact,  and  therefore  occupies  less  space, 
than  when  it  is  relaxed.  The  muscles  are  respectively  sur- 
rounded by  or  enclosed  in  a  membranous  sheath  or  coat,  just 
as  the  arm,  finger,  or  other  part  is  surrounded  by  its  skin. 
This  sheath  is  always  so  well  lubricated,  that  although  the 
different  muscles  are  close-packed  together,  yet  they  slide 
upon  each  other  without  embarrassment.  Of  the  rapidity  with 
which  they  must  play  upon  one  another,  we  may  form  some 
conception  in  looking  at  a  juggler's  arms  or  a  musician's  fin- 
gers. Within  these  sheaths  (or  fascia,  as  they  are  technically 
called)  the  Avhole  body  of  the  muscle,  when  we  exercise,  is 
compressed ;  or,  to  use  a  familiar  but  more  expressive  phrase, 
it  is  squeezed.  This  compression  of  the  muscle  sends  out  its 
blood,  just  as  the  compression  of  any  flexible  tube  or  cylinder 
would  send  out  its  contents.  The  blood,  for  a  reason  hereafter 
to  be  stated,  can  move  only  in  one  direction.  In  the  general 


216  ANNUAL    REPORTS    ON   EDUCATION. 

circulation  (as  distinguished  from  the  pulmonary),  the  arterial 
blood  moves  outward  towards  the  extremities.  When  it  reaches 
the  extremities,  it  passes  from  the  arteries,  through  capillary 
tubes  of  almost  inconceivable  fineness,  into  the  veins,  where, 
losing  its  arterial  character,  it  becomes  venous  blood,  and  flows 
backwards  to  the  heart.  Hence  the  obvious  effect  of  every 
muscular  effort  is  to  quicken  the  circulation  of  the  blood. 

2.  The  blood  being  the  natural  stimulus  to  the  action  of  the 
heart,  if  more  blood  is  received,  the  stimulus  is  increased,  and, 
of  course,  the  pulsations  of  that  organ  are  increased  also,  both 
in  frequency  and  force.     The  heart  must  throw  out  as  much 
blood  as  it  receives  ;  and,  when  an  increased  volume  is  thrown 
into  it  by  the  compression  of  the  muscles,  its  beat  must  be  more 
rapid,  and,  as  the  organ  is  more  distended  also,  it  must  throw 
out  more  at  each  beat. 

3.  As  the  blood  thrown  from  the  right  side  of  the  heart 
has  no  place  of  escape  except  into  the  lungs,  and  as  this  fluid 
is  also  the  natural  stimulus  of  the  lungs,  it  follows,  that,  as  the 
quantity  of  blood  injected  into  these  organs  is  increased,  their 
motions  also  must  be  accelerated. 

This  statement  has  been  or  may  be  tested  by  every  one  for 
himself.  Let  a  man,  while  sitting  in  a  state  of  perfect  repose 
at  the  bottom  of  Banker-hill  Monument,  count  the  number  of 
his  pulsations  per  minute,  and  take  note,  as  well  as  he  can, 
of  their  force.  Let  him  also  note  the  number  of  his  respira- 
tions per  minute,  and  their  depth,  that  is,  the  quantity  of  air 
which  he  inhales  at  each  breath  ;  and  then  let  him  ascend  the 
staircase,  though  at  a  moderate  step,  to  its  summit,  and  there 
compare  the  frequency  and  strength  of  his  pulsations,  and  the 
number  and  fulness  of  his  respirations,  with  what  they  were 
before  he  started,  and  he  will  find  how  vastly  the  latter  ex- 
ceed the  former  !  And  so  of  any  vigorous  exercise.  The  whole 
philosophy  of  this  is,  that  muscular  exertion  —  or,  which  is 
the  same  thing,  muscular  compression  —  sends  more  blood  to 
the  heart ;  whereupon  that  engine  increases  the  rapidity  and 
length  of  its  strokes,  to  propel  the  current  forward  towards  the 


REPORT   FOR   1842.  217 

lungs ;  and  then  the  lungs  are  inflated  to  their  lowest  depths  to 
meet  the  increased  demand  of  the  blood  for  oxygen.  And 
what  is  remarkable  is,  that  we  cannot  by  any  act  of  the  will 
force  ourselves  to  deep  and  rapid  breathing  for  any  consider- 
able length  of  time,  without  exercise  ;  nor  can  we  prevent 
deep  and  rapid  breathing  while  engaged  in  strong  muscular 
efforts.  This  is  a  natural  operation,  and  can  be  effected  only 
by  using  the  appointed  natural  means. 

Observe  the  breathing  of  a  person  long  unused  to  exercise. 
If  the  capacity  of  the  lungs  is  such  that  they  would  require  one, 
two,  or  more  quarts  of  air  for  their  full  inflation,  such  a  person, 
while  in  a  state  of  repose,  will  inhale  scarcely  half  a  pint,  and 
hence  will  defraud  himself  of  at  least  three-fourths  of  the  vital 
element  which  his  system  requires.  An  indolent  person  could 
enjoy  a  full  measure  of  health  and  vigor,  only  on  condition 
that  the  whole  arrangement  of  his  physical  structure,  and  all 
the  laws  of  Nature  which  pertain  to  it,  should  be  reversed  for 
his  accommodation. 

It  was  stated  above,  that,  while  the  lungs  contain  two  sets  of 
vessels  for  the  blood,  —  one  for  its  ingress,  the  other  for  its 
egress,  —  they  contain  but  one  set  for  the  air.  Hence  the  air 
returns  outward  through  the  same  passages  by  which  it  entered 
the  lungs  ;  or,  to  sacrifice  dignity  to  expressiveness  of  phrase, 
it  goes  out  backwards.  The  consequence  of  this  is,  that  feeble 
and  shallow  breathing  ventilates  only  the  upper  part  of  the 
lungs.  But  the  principal  bulk  of  these  organs  lies  lower  down 
in  the  chest.  Hence  the  small  quantity  of  air  taken  into  the 
lungs  by  an  indolent  person  at  each  successive  breath  reaches 
but  a  part  of  the  blood  which  is  flowing  through  them.  The 
rest  of  the  stream  passes  on,  lifeless  and  corrupting.  And 
hence,  too,  that  general  paleness  of  hue,  that  insecurity  of  step, 
that  threatening  to  sink  or  drop  down  while  attempting  to  stand 
or  sit  upright,  that  feeling  of  necessity  for  some  mechanical  sup- 
port around  the  body  in  order  to  maintain  it  in  an  erect  pos- 
ture, and  that  universal  heaviness  of  motion,  as  though  all  the 
muscular  bands  were  stretching,  instead  of  tightening,  on  the 


218  ANNUAL   REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

application  of  force,  which  characterize  those  who  disdain 
manual  labor,  and  look  upon  active  exercise  as  derogating 
from  personal  dignity.  To  the  eye  of  the  physiologist  or  lover 
of  Nature,  these  signs  of  feebleness  are  more  revolting  than  the 
deformity  of  a  hump-back  or  a  club-foot. 

The  reason  why  the  blood,  on  a  compression  of  the  muscles, 
must  be  driven  forward,  and  not  backward,  is,  that  the  veins  are 
provided,  at  brief  intervals  along  their  whole  length,  with  valves, 
which  allow  this  fluid  to  pass  only  in  one  direction.  It  flows 
forward  freely  through  these  valves ;  but  they  shut  to  prevent 
its  retrogression.  How,  except  by  some  such  mechanical  con- 
trivance, could  the  blood  of  a  full-grown  man,  while  he  is  in  a 
standing  posture,  ascend  for  a  distance  of  fifty  inches  from  his 
feet  to  his  heart?  Without  these  valves,  the  weight  of  the 
whole  column  of  blood  would  press  upon  its  base  ;  and  when 
we  consider  the  meandering  of  its  streams,  and  the  fineness  of 
the  capillary  tubes  through  which  it  must  pass,  a  force  suffi- 
cient to  drive  it  upwards  to  the  heart,  unsupported  by  these 
valves,  would  be  almost  inconceivable. 

So  far  as  the  circulation  of  the  blood  is  concerned,  these 
facts  show  the  difference  between  passive  exercise,  such  as 
riding  in  a  carriage  or  sailing  in  a  boat,  and  the  athletic  exer- 
tions of  manual  labor  or  of  gymnastic  sports.  Every  jolt  of  a 
vehicle,  of  course,  will  drive  the  blood  forward  a  little, — just 
as  any  fluid  is  agitated  by  the  motion  of  the  vessel  containing 
it,  — and  the  valves  in  the  veins  will  prevent  its  falling  back  ; 
but  how  miserable  a  substitute  is  this  for  that  alternate  com- 
pression and  relaxation  of  the  muscles,  which  sends  the  blood 
forward  in  successive  and  beautiful  jets,  which  also  sends  for- 
ward the  whole  mass  of  the  blood,  not  allowing,  as  is  the  case 
with  all  slothful,  inactive  persons,  auy  stagnant,  noisome  pool, 
or  even  particle,  to  remain  behind  to  breed  corruption  and 
offence ;  and  which  rewards  with  the  priceless  boon  of  health 
the  labors  of  the  husbandman,  the  artisan,  or  the  sailor  ! 

On  the  due  oxygeuation  of  the  blood,  and  on  its  lively  circu- 
lation through  the  system,  depends  another  result,  and  one,  too, 


REPORT   FOR   1842.  219 

of  the  most  remarkable  character  in  the  whole  animal  organism. 
I  refer  to  the  growth  of  the  body,  and  the  constant  reproduction 
of  its  tissues. 

A  vulgar  opinion  prevails,  that  every  part  of  the  body  of  a 
man  is  changed  once  in  seven  years  ;  so  that,  speaking  of  the 
corporeal  substance,  it  might  be  said  that  no  part  of  our  frame, 
however  gray  or  decrepit  with  age  we  may  appear,  is  more  than 
seven  years  old.  Whether  this  opinion  may  or  may  not  be 
erroneous  in  one  sense  —  that  is,  whether  a  man  who  dies  at  a 
hundred  may  not  carry  some  atom,  molecule,  or  monad,  to  the 
grave,  which  he  brought  into  life  —  is  what  we  have  no  certain 
means  of  determining,  though  it  is  highly  probable  that  he 
does  not ;  but  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  saying  is  grossly 
incorrect,  in  making  a  general  allowance  of  seven  years  for  the 
renewal  of  the  system.  How  many  times  must  the  skin  of 
an  infant  who  weighs  but  six  or  eight  pounds  at  birth  be 
changed,  in  order  to  accommodate  itself  to  the  gradual  en- 
largement of  its  owner,  until  he  weighs  a  hundred  and  sixty  or 
eighty  pounds  !  it  being  kept  in  mind  that  the  skin  has  made 
a  good  "fit"  during  all  the  time.  This  adaptation  of  the  en- 
velope to  the  daily  growth  of  the  owner  is  not  effected  by 
stretching,  for  whatever  is  stretched  in  one  direction  must  be 
diminished  in  some  other ;  but  a  square  inch  or  square  foot  of 
the  skin  of  an  adult  is  heavier  and  thicker  than  that  of  a  child. 
During  the  whole  period  of  a  child's  growth,  therefore,  how 
many  times  must  this  entire  integument  change  in  every 
seven  years,  and  even  in  a  single  year  !  The  man  most  ex- 
travagant in  his  wardrobe  prepares  far  fewer  garments  for  his 
body  than  Nature  prepares  skins.  And  if  the  skin  must  be  cast 
off  and  reproduced  so  many  times  in  order  to  adapt  itself  to 
the  growth  of  the  parts  it  contaius,  then  these  parts  must 
change  nearly  or  quite  as  many  times  in  order  to  suit  the 
capacity  of  their  covering.  Look  at  the  hands  and  feet  of  the 
infant  and  of  the  full-grown  man,  and  consider  with  how  many 
new  pairs  of  each  he  must  have  been  furnished  for  all  the 
intermediate  sizes. 


220  ANNUAL   REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

But  this  is  not  all.  It  is  supposed  that  every  exertion  of  a 
muscle  is  attended  by  an  actual  loss  of  a  portion  of  its  sub- 
stance. In  the  adult  state,  when  we  retain  substantially  the 
same  weight  from  year  to  year,  the  old  material  which  is  lost 
is  replaced  only  by  an  equal  quantity  of  new.  But,  during  the 
season  of  growth,  not  only  the  material  which  is  lost  must  be 
replaced,  but  such  an  additional  quantity  must  be  added  as 
will  increase  the  mass  or  weight  of  the  individual  from  day  to 
day.  Perhaps  this  presents  to  us  a  better  idea  than  any  thing 
else  can  of  the  changes  from  old  to  new  which  are  constantly 
going  on  in  a  healthy  body.  We  see  it  with  our  eyes  in  regard 
to  the  nails  and  hair.  The  whole  of  the  finger-nails  are  changed 
several  times  a  year,  at  least ;  and  the  hair  grows  far  more 
rapidly  than  the  nails.  The  particles  incorporated  into  our 
system  are  not  designed  to  last  long ;  but  the  beauty  of  the 
operation  is,  that  the  used-up  portions  are  skilfully  taken  out, 
one  after  another,  and  new  ones,  larger,  stronger,  and  better, 
substituted  for  them.  No  healthy  person  consists  of  precisely 
the  same  particles  for  any  two  successive  days. 

How  infinitely  superior  is  this  to  any  specimen  of  human 
workmanship  !  If  we  cause  friction  in  any  part  of  a  machine, 
as  in  the  iron  band  or  tire  of  a  wheel,  for  instance,  it  wears 
away  and  is  gone.  Not  so  with  the  hand  or  the  foot,  or  any 
part  of  the  body :  there  is  a  repairing  energy,  a  constructive 
faculty,  in  these,  which  has  the  power,  not  only  of  replacing 
what  is  lost  by  friction,  but  of  thickening  and  hardening  the 
exposed  parts.  "Were  there  any  such  self-protecting  ability  in 
a  wooden  wheel,  then,  when  its  circumference  should  begin  to 
wear  away,  it  would,  of  its  own  vital  efficiency,  prepare  and 
deposit  a  rim  of  iron  to  protect  the  wood ;  and  if  this,  too, 
were  in  danger  of  being  ground  off,  it  would  then  defend  itself 
by  one  of  steel  or  platinum. 

What  a  wonderful  invention  should  we  deem  it  to  be,  if  a 
shipwright  could  discover  some  mode  by  which,  whenever  de- 
cay or  dry-rot  should  attack  the  innermost  timber  of  his  vessel, 


REPORT   FOR    1842.  221 

that  vessel  should  be  endued  with  the  power  of  seizing  the 
unsound  atom,  and  of  hurrying  it  along  from  point  to  point, 
until  at  last  it  should  be  thrown  out  into  the  sea ;  and,  in  the 
mean  time,  a  sound  particle  should  be  seen  winding  its  way 
among  thick  layers  of  iron  and  wood,  changing  its  course,  if 
need  were,  to  avoid  obstacles,  though  always  holding  on  stead- 
fast in  the  same  general  direction,  until  at  last  it  should  settle 
down  in  the  precise  place  from  which  its  predecessor  had  been 
ejected,  whether  that  place  were  at  the  bottom  of  the  keel  or 
at  the  top  of  the  mast !  And  the  wonder  would  be  immeasura- 
bly increased,  if  the  new  particles,  while  they  imitated  the 
shape,  should  exceed  the  size,  of  their  predecessors,  and  the 
process  should  be  repeated  again  and  again,  until  a  pleasure- 
boat  became  a  steamship  or  a  man-of-war.  Yet  a  process  ex- 
actly like  this  is  going  on,  every  moment,  in  the  body  of  every 
healthy  child,  and  with  greater  rapidity  and  frequency  in  pro- 
portion to  the  degree  of  health  enjoyed. 

This  is  not  mere  curious  speculation.  These  facts  have  the 
greatest  practical  significancy.  The  change  of  material  in  the 
body  is  almost  exactly  proportioned  to  the  quantity  of  pure  air 
breathed,  and  to  the  amount  of  healthy  exercise  taken  ;  because 
on  these  mainly  depends  the  assimilation  of  the  food.  With- 
out such  change  of  matter,  there  cannot  be  any  healthy  growth  ; 
and  hence  the  small  bones  and  loose  flesh  —  as  soft  and  puffy 
as  though  it  were  wind-swollen  —  of  those  children  who  are 
delicately  reared.  Such  children  cannot  have  elastic,  bounding 
muscles  ;  for  theirs  are  the  old,  flaccid  muscles  whose  material 
ought  to  have  been  renewed  mouths  ago.  They  cannot  have 
bright  eyes  and  roseate  cheeks  ;  for  the  old,  defaced  lenses  of 
the  eye  are  still  in  use,  and  strong  exercise  in  the  open  air 
has  never  projected  the  blood  outward  to  fill  the  vessels  of  the 
true  skin  with  the  hues  of  beauty  and  the  glow  of  health.  In 
regard  to  those  young  men  who  have  suffered  the  misfortune 
of  a  luxurious  domestic  training,  who  have  been  taught  to  dis- 
dain labor,  and  have  hardly  been  allowed  to  wash  their  own 
faces  or  tie  their  own  shoes,  it  is  often  alleged,  as  an  excuse  for 


222  ANNUAL   REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

their  inaptitude,  their  want  of  dexterity  and  resource,  in  the 
emergencies  of  life,  that  they  have  never  been  accustomed  or 
disciplined  to  contrive  and  to  think  in  the  adaptation  of  means 
to  ends,  or  in  tracing  relations  between  causes  and  effects. 
But  this  is  far  from  being  all.  Their  imbecility  does  not  come 
merely  from  a  want  of  practice,  but  from  their  being  obliged  to 
use  an  old  brain,  the  substance  of  which  ought  to  have  been 
renovated  —  all  its  fibres  taken  up  and  relaid  —  many  times 
by  vigorous  exercises,  and  by  a  responsible  application  to  some 
department  of  business.  In  such  persons  the  half-decayed 
nerves  have  become  almost  non-conductors  of  volition  ;  and  the 
brain,  through  the  want  of  a  renewal  of  its  substance,  is  too 
loose  and  spongy  for  the  manifestation  of  thought.  This  organ, 
too,  like  all  other  parts  of  the  body,  being  dependent  upon 
these  changes  for  its  growth,  must  be  small  as  well  as  lifeless 
without  them,  or  its  growth  will  be  only  in  the  animal,  instead 
of  the  intellectual  and  moral  regions. 

On  this  view  of  the  subject  may  be  founded  the  true  philo- 
sophical definition  of  Youth  and  Old  Age.  Those  who,  by  an 
intelligent  attention  to  diet,  pure  air,  exercise,  and  cleanliness, 
cause  frequent  changes  in  the  particles  of  which  the  body  is 
composed,  may  be  said  to  be  young  at  any  age  ;  while  those 
who,  by  over-eating,  uncleauliuess  of  person,  and  a  deficient 
oxygenation  of  the  blood,  whether  by  breathing  impure  air,  by 
a  compression  of  the  chest,  or  by  inactive  habits  of  life,  effect 
no  such  change  in  the  constituent  particles  of  which  their 
bodies  are  composed,  may,  with  equal  truth,  be  called  old  at 
any  age  after  the  days  of  infancy  have  passed.  In  this  sense 
it  is  often  literally  true  that  one  individual  at  seventeen  may 
be  older  than  another  at  seventy ;  and  some  children  of  seven 
years  of  age  are  already  superannuated. 

In  the  account  of  the  miraculous  feeding  of  the  children  of 
Israel  with  manna  in  the  wilderness,  it  is  related  that  no  skill 
could  preserve  the  heaven-descended  bread  in  a  state  of  purity 
(with  the  exception  of  the  Sabbath)  but  for  a  single  day  ;  and 
the  sacred  historian  uses  very  pungent  and  unsavory  words  in 


REPORT  FOR   1842.  223 

describing  the  odious  qualities  of  that  which  was  kept  for  a 
longer  period ;  but  the  manna  of  the  second  or  of  the  third 
day's  keeping  must  have  had  ambrosial  sweetness,  as  compared 
with  the  whole  substance  and  animal  economy  of  those  who,  by 
contemning  useful  labor,  or  thinking  it  ungenteel  to  practise 
vigorous  exercises,  fail  to  renew,  frequently,  the  whole  substance 
of  the  body. 

Labor  was  appointed  at  the  creation.  At  the  same  time  that 
God  made  man,  He  made  a  garden,  and  ordered  him  to  "  dress 
it  and  keep  it ; "  that  is,  to  work  in  it,  and,  of  course,  to  pre- 
pare the  necessary  utensils  to  aid  him  in  its  cultivation.  Hence 
agriculture  and  the  mechanic  arts  are  coeval  with  the  race,  and 
are  of  divine  institution.  All  mankind  have  been,  now  are,  and 
we  may  suppose  always  will  be,  created  with  the  same  neces- 
sity for  bodily  exertion  as  Adam  was.  If  labor  were  not  neces- 
sary for  the  fruits  it  produces,  it  would  be  so  for  ourselves. 
Nor  can  I  concede  that  those  who  would  rear  their  children 
without  some  industrial  occupation,  or  without  systematic  mus- 
cular exercise  of  some  kind,  are  wiser  than  the  Maker  of  the 
race  ;  or  that  they  love  their  offspring  better  than  He  loved  our 
first  parents  before  they  had  committed  any  transgression. 
Although,  in  a  certain  narrow  sense,  it  is  sometimes  said  that 
labor  is  a  curse,  yet,  as  it  is  the  inevitable  condition  of  our 
well-being  in  this  life,  those  who  strive  to  avoid  this  curse 
always  incur  a  greater  one. 

Among  the  most  pernicious  consequences  resulting  from  a 
general  ignorance  of  Physiology  is  the  prevalent  opinion  that 
a  weakly  child  must  be  prepared  for  a  profession,  or  appren- 
ticed to  some  in-door  occupation.  The  plain  statement  of  this 
reasoning  is,  that,  because  a  child  is  weak  and  puny  at  the 
beginning,  he  must  be  subjected  by  his  training  to  further  ener- 
vating processes.  Instead  of  selecting  an  employment  by  which 
the  feeble  would  be  fortified,  they  are  subjected  to  new  debili- 
tations. If  deficiency  of  constitutional  vigor  is  a  plausible 
argument  in  favor  of  discarding  healthful  occupations  in  regard 
to  one  generation,  it  must  be  decisive  for  the  next,  and  must 


224  ANNUAL    REPORTS    ON   EDUCATION. 

continue  to  gather  force  as  the  family  deteriorates.  Hence,  to 
a  great  extent,  that  abandonment  by  our  young  men  of  the 
invigorating  employments  of  agriculture  and  the  handicrafts, 
the  consequent  crowding  of  the  professions,  and  the  eager  com- 
petition for  inactive  occupations, —  an  evil  self-aggravating, 
and  reproductive  of  its  own  kind.  If  the  weakly  and  igno- 
rant father  cannot  work  out  of  doors,  he  will  be  likely  so 
to  rear  his  children  that  they  cannot  work  even  in  the  house ; 
and  the  grandchildren  may  be  able  to  work  nowhere.  Each 
generation  of  such  a  lineage  adds  something  to  the  stock  of 
debility  and  disease  which  it  inherits,  and  entails  the  whole 
upon  its  posterity. 

The  slightest  acquaintance  with  the  laws  of  health  will  teach 
us  another  most  important  fact.  Every  day  we  hear  people, 
who  are  suffering  under  some  form  of  indisposition,  wondering 
what  could  have  occasioned  it,  and  protesting  that  they  had 
subjected  themselves  to  no  more  than  ordinary  exertions  or 
exposures.  This  may  be  very  true,  and  yet  a  fatal  disease  be 
contracted.  Life  is  an  active  power  ;  but  it  is  constantly  sur- 
rounded and  assailed  by  the  ever-active  agencies  of  Nature, 
which,  in  a  certain  sense,  are  hostile  to  it.  Hence,  as  soon  as 
the  body  ceases  to  be  animated,  it  is  speedily  decomposed  by 
these  natural  agencies,  and  reduced  to  its  original  elements. 
Now,  the  vital  force  is  subject  to  great  changes.  After  severe 
bodily  effort,  after  great  mental  anxiety  and  exhaustion,  or 
after  a  change  from  active  to  inactive  habits,  from  breathing 
pure  air  to  breathing  that  which  is  impure,  and  from  various 
other  debilitating  causes,  the  energy  of  the  vital  force  is  re- 
duced ;  and  it  is  then  in  danger  of  being  overborne  by  exterior 
forces  which  before  were  harmless.  Suppose  the  ordinary 
vital  force  to  be  represented  by  one  hundred,  and  the  usual 
assailing  forces  to  be  equal  to  fifty.  It  is  obvious  that,  in  such 
a  case,  the  latter  will  be  subordinated  to  the  former,  and  be- 
come ministers  to  its  welfare.  But  suppose,  from  any  debili- 
tating cause  whatever,  the  efficiency  of  the  vital  force  is  reduced 
to  twenty-five ;  then  it  is  equally  obvious  that  it  must  succumb 


REPORT   FOR    1842.  '2-5 

to  the  antagonist  forces  of  Nature,  —  now  twice  as  strong  as 
itself,  —  and  the  individual  who  before  had  put  forth  exertions 
or  confronted  exposures  with  impunity  is  now  instantaneously 
overborne  in  the  encounter.  A  clear  perception  of  this  truth 
would  shield  our  health  from  many  dangers. 

A  man  in  perfect  health  may  be  said  to  be  lord  over  the  cli- 
mate in  which  he  lives  ;  but,  if  health  be  broken  down,  the 
climate  is  lord  over  him.  All  Nature  seems  to  wage  war  upon 
him,  treating  him  as  some  tribes  of  wild  animals  are  said 
to  treat  any  one  of  their  number  which  has  broken  a  limb  or 
become  decrepit  with  age  ;  all  falling  upon  him  to  kill  him. 
The  food  which  before  nourished  now  distresses  him ;  the 
cold  winds  which  once  braced  his  frame,  and  exhilarated  his 
spirits,  now  inflict  consumption  and  asthma  upon  him ;  heat 
fevers  his  blood  ;  and  every  pore  becomes  an  inlet  through 
which  disease  enters.  Health  alone  can  place  us  in  harmony 
with  external  Nature. 

Another  prolific  source  of  evil  would  be  removed  by  a 
knowledge  of  Physiology.  All  ignorant  people  regard  disease 
as  some  foreign  substance  or  body  which  has  effected  a  lodge- 
ment in  one  or  another  part  of  the  frame,  and  whose  removal 
is  necessary  to  the  restoration  of  health.  They  make  no  dis- 
tinction between  an  organ  and  its  function,  between  the  agent 
and  the  office  it  performs.  Hence  their  remedial  measures 
are  all  designed  to  expel  some  intruder,  instead  of  substi- 
tuting a  healthy  for  a  diseased  action  in  any  vital  organ. 
Their  imaginations  personify  disease  as  an  impurity  in  the 
blood  or  a  foul  accumulation  in  the  stomach  ;  and  the  impos- 
tors who  prey  upon  their  ignorance  and  credulity  have  no  diffi- 
culty in  creating  evidence  to  confirm  their  belief  by  giving 
such  medicines  as  make  the  dupes  declare  they  do  not  wonder 
they  were  sick.  If  the  simple  difference  between  an  organ  and 
its  functions  were  understood,  it  would  put  an  end  to  an  other- 
wise endless  amount  of  quackery. 

Suppose  the   intimacy  of  the   relation  which  exists  between 

the  brain  and  the  stomach  to  be  generally  known,  and  the  very 

15 


226  ANNUAL   REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

selfishness  as  Avell  as  the  reason  and  conscience  of  men  would 
remonstrate  against  all  intemperance,  whether  of  appetite  or 
of  passion.  The  pneumo-gastric  nerve  connects  the  brain 
directly  with  the  stomach,  and  establishes  such  a  sympathy 
between  them,  that  each  becomes  a  sufferer  from  any  abuse  or 
misfortune  of  the  other.  Let  a  man  in  high  health,  with  the 
keenest  appetite,  when  sitting  down  to  enjoy  the  most  attrac- 
tive meal,  be  suddenly  informed  of  some  great  calamity  which 
has  befallen  his  reputation  or  his  fortunes,  and  not  only  does 
his  appetite  vanish,  but  he  is  seized  with  intolerable  loathing 
and  nausea  at  the  mere  thought  of  the  food  which  had  before 
diffused  so  agreeable  a  stimulus  over  his  system.  This  is  the 
effect  of  the  brain  on  the  stomach,  through  the  medium  of  the 
pneumo-gastric  nerve.  So,  if  any  thing  highly  acrid  or  noxious 
is  taken  into  the  stomach  of  the  greatest  philosopher  or  states- 
man, his  luminous  and  mighty  mind  is  plunged  into  darkuess : 
it  reels,  or  is  stricken  with  temporary  madness  or  paralysis, 
beneath  the  injury.  If  these  facts  were  really  understood  and 
believed  as  clearly  as  we  understand  and  believe  that  fire  will 
burn,  what  an  argument  would  they  furnish  against  malevo- 
lence or  misanthropy  !  and  what  a  dissuasive  against  bringing 
into  contact  with  the  delicate  coats  of  the  stomach  —  as  the 
ignorant  so  often  do  —  those  fiery  compounds  of  food  or  bever- 
age, those  hot  and  acrid  condiments,  which,  if  applied  to  the 
palms  of  the  hands  or  the  soles  of  the  feet,  would  actually 
blister  and  excoriate  them  !  Never  did  the  crew  of  a  founder- 
ing vessel  shriek  louder  for  help  than  the  brain  cries  out  for 
relief  under  such  inflictions.  Knowledge  alone  can  interpret 
its  powerful  remonstrances. 

Again :  if  the  principles  of  Physiology  were  understood, 
every  discreet  man  could  modify  their  application  to  suit  his 
varying  circumstances  of  health  or  condition.  No  two  indi- 
viduals have  identically  the  same  constitution,  or  powers  of 
action  or  of  resistance.  But  a  book  cannot  be  written  for 
every  man.  So  no  one  individual  remains  always  in  the  same 
condition  of  strength  or  health.  But  no  man  can  always  have 


REPORT   FOR    1842.  227 

a  medical  adviser  at  his  side.  Each  one,  therefore,  should  be 
master  of  general  principles,  to  be  modified  by  himself  accord- 
ing to  ever-changing  circumstances.  Each  man  should  know, 
too,  that  no  great  enlargement  of  his  powers,  either  of  body  or 
mind,  can  be  effected  at  once  ;  but  that  almost  any  enlarge- 
ment, however  great,  may  be  eifected  by  degrees. 

I  have  thus,  although  in  a  manner  necessarily  cursory  and 
imperfect,  glanced  at  certain  leading  principles  and  observ- 
ances, the  knowledge  and  practice  of  which  are  essential  to 
the  promotion  of  human  health,  the  prolongation  of  human 
life,  the  extension  of  human  usefulness,  and  the  rearing  of  a 
nobler  race  of  men.  Restricted,  however,  within  narrow  limits, 
as  compared  with  the  extent  of  the  subject,  I  have  felt  con- 
strained to  omit  many  considerations  of  an  interesting  and 
useful  character.  My  only  hope  and  object  have  been,  so  to 
exhibit  the  practical  and  immediate  utility  of  understanding 
this  subject,  that  every  reader,  even  of  this  brief  outline, 
would  be  stimulated  to  seek  for  more  extensive  and  exact 
information. 

As  my  whole  life  and  studies  have  been  devoted  to  pursuits 
foreign  to  that  of  the  healing  art,  and  as  I  have  never  enjoyed 
any  greater  opportunity  to  become  acquainted  with  the  laws 
of  health  and  life  than  are  possessed  by  almost  any  member 
of  the  community,  I  can  hardly  hope  to  have  escaped  all  errors 
and  mistakes  in  the  views  above  presented.  Still  less  can  I 
suppose  that  I  have  unfolded  the  manifold  merits  of  the  sub- 
ject, or  given  such  attractiveness  to  its  charms,  or  prominence 
to  its  importance,  as  any  gentleman  of  the  medical  profession 
would  have  done.  But,  deeply  commiserating  those  sufferings 
and  calamities  of  my  fellow-beings  which  seem  to  me  to  be 
uo  part  of  the  ordination  of  a  merciful  Providence,  but  to  be 
directly  chargeable  to  human  ignorance  and  error,  I  have  felt 
an  irresistible  impulse  to  point  out  the  way  for  their  relief,  or, 
at  least,  for  their  mitigation.  Any  degree  of  knowledge  which 
shall  begin  the  great  work  of  enlightening  the  public  mind  on 
this  theme  must  be  accounted  valuable.  On  this,  as  on  all 


228  ANNUAL    REPORTS    ON   EDUCATION. 

other  topics,  limited  acquisitions  must  precede  higher  attain- 
ments, as  certainly  as  the  twilight  must  come  before  the  morning. 
It  is  no  argument  against  attempting  to  diffuse  knowledge,  that 
it  cannot  be  made  perfect  and  universal  at  once.  Three-quar- 
ters of  a  century  ago,  the  fact  of  the  identity  of  electricity  and 
lightning  was  known  to  scarcely  a  dozen  men  in  the  world. 
Now,  it  is  not  only  a  matter  of  universal  knowledge  among 
the  educated,  but  even  children  are  familiar  with  it ;  and  every 
individual  in  the  community  participates  in  the  practical  bene- 
fits of  the  discovery  of  Franklin.  In  the  same  way,  an 
acquaintance  with  the  fundamental  laws  of  health  and  life 
may  be  and  must  be  popularized.  The  reasons  are  far  stronger 
in  the  latter  case  than  in  the  former  ;  for  where  lightning  has 
ever  destroyed  one  victim,  or  one  dollar's  worth  of  property, 
the  infraction  of  the  physical  laws  has  destroyed  its  thousands 
of  lives  and  its  millions  of  wealth.  It  may  be  alleged,  in- 
deed, that,  if  a  knowledge  of  Physiology  should  become  the 
common  possession  of  mankind,  it  would  produce  only  partial 
benefits,  because  men  will  not  act  as  well  as  they  know  how 
to  act.  But  with  equal  truth  it  may  be  said  that  all  men  do 
not  use  those  means  of  protection  which  are  founded  on  the 
science  of  electricity.  Yet  it  cannot  be  denied,  on  the  other 
hand,  that  multitudes  do  avail  themselves  of  that  pi-otection, 
and  that  an  immense  amount  of  life  and  property  is  thus  annu- 
ally saved,  which  would  otherwise  be  lost.  But  let  the  truth 
of  the  allegation  be  admitted  in  its  fullest  extent :  the  answer 
is,  that  men  will  never  act  b&tter  than  they  know ;  and  hence, 
though  reform  and  amelioration  may  not,  in  all  cases,  follow 
knowledge,  yet  they  will  follow  it  in  many,  while  they  will 
precede  it  in  none. 

It  may  be  said  further,  that  the  great  body  of  our  teachers 
are  incompetent  to  give  instruction  in  this  science.  The  an- 
swer to  this  is,  that,  if  not  competent,  they  should  become  so ; 
for  no  person  is  qualified  to  have  the  care  of  children,  for  a 
single  day,  who  is  ignorant  of  the  leading  principles  of  Physi- 
ology. 


REPORT   FOR    1842.  229 

All  writers  on  education  maintain  that  tlie  course  of  a  pu- 
pil's instruction  should  be  modified,  to  some  extent,  according 
to  his  future  calling  or  destination  in  life  ;  and  the  common 
sense  of  the  community  ratifies  their  opinion.  All  admit  that 
the  future  mechanic  should  study  the  principles  of  natural 
philosophy ;  the  future  merchant,  book-keeping ;  the  sailor, 
navigation ;  and  so  forth.  If  all,  then,  ought  to  aim  at  the 
enjoyment  of  good  health  and  long  life,  all  ought  to  become 
acquainted  with  the  principles  of  Physiology. 

In  bringing  this  Report  to  a  close,  I  would  add,  that  what 
I  have  said  of  the  comparative  merits  of  this  study  is  not 
intended  as  the  slightest  disparagement  of  any  other  which  is 
pursued  in  our  schools.  For  all  of  them,  in  their  appropriate 
places,  I  have  a  due  appreciation.  Nor  would  I  have  any  of 
the  common  or  elementary  branches  displaced  for  the  introduc- 
tion of  this.  But,  when  considered  as  a  competitor  for  adop- 
tion among  the  more  advanced  studies  now  pursued,  I  believe 
that  its  intrinsic  merits  entitle  it  to  an  unquestionable  priority. 
The  greatest  happiness  and  the  greatest  usefulness  can  never 
be  attained,  without  that  soundness  of  physical  organization 
which  confers  the  power  of  endurance,  and  that  uninterrupted 
enjoyment  of  health  which  ransoms  the  whole  of  our  time  and 
means  from  sickness  and  its  expenditures.  In  the  great  work 
of  education,  then,  our  physical  condition,  if  not  the  first  step 
in  point  of  importance,  is  the  first  in  the  order  of  time.  On 
the  broad  and  firm  foundation  of  health  alone  can  the  loftiest 
and  most  enduring  structures  of  the  intellect  be  reared  ;  and  if, 
on  the  sublime  heights  of  intellectual  eminence,  the  light  of 
duty  and  of  benevolence  —  of  love  to  God  and  love  to  man  — 
can  be  kindled,  it  will  send  forth  a  radiance  to  illumine  and 
bless  mankind. 


REPORT   FOR   1843. 


GENTLEMEN,  — 

THE  following  is  my  Seventh  Annual  Report :  — 
During  the  past  year  I  have   collected  some  interesting  sta- 
tistics respecting  the  schoolhouses  in  the  Commonwealth. 
The  number  of  schoolhouses  owned  by  the  towns  and 

districts  in  the  State  is  .....        2,710 

The  number  rented  is  .192 


Total 2,902 

From  fifteen  to  twenty  towns  made  no  return  on  this  subject. 
Their  houses,  owned  and  rented,  would  increase  the  number 
of  such  as  are  occupied  for  the  public  schools  of  the  Common- 
wealth to  at  least  3,000. 

During  the  five  years  immediately  following  the  communi- 
cation, by  the  Board  to  the  Legislature,  of  the  Report  on 
Schoolhouses,  the  amount  of  money  expended  by  about  two 
hundred  and  ninety  of  the  three  hundred  and  eight  towns  in 
the  State,  for  the  erection  and  permanent  repairs  of  school- 
liouses,  was  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  $634,326.80 

Under  the  two  heads,  the  items  are  as  follows  : 
For  erecting  new  houses,  including  the  price  of 

land,  fixtures,  and  appurtenances  .  .  .  $516,122.74 
For  making  permanent  and  substantial  repairs 

on  old  ones  118,204.06 


Total  expended  for  schoolhouses  in  five  years    .      $634,326.80 

230 


REPORT    FOR    1843.  231 

The  expenditure  for  this  object  in  towns  not  heard  from 
would  swell  this  amount  to  more  than  six  hundred  and  fifty 
thousand  dollars.  If  we  leave  out  the  single  city  of  Boston, 
the  above  expenditure  is  doubtless  greater  than  the  value  of 
all  the  schoolhouses  in  the  State  at  the  time  of  the  organiza- 
tion of  the  Board.  The  number  of  new  houses  erected  in  the 
towns  heard  from  is  four  hundred  and  five.  The  number  of 
old  ones  on  which  substantial  and  permanent  repairs  have  been 
made  is  four  hundred  and  twenty-nine. 

SCHOOL-RETURNS 

The  number  of  towns  which  failed  to  make  Returns  the  past 
year  was  eleven.  This  is  a  larger  number  than  for  several 
previous  years.  Hence  all  the  aggregates  are  less  than  they 
should  be,  although  the  relative  proportion  among  them  is  not 
materially  affected. 

Every  town  which  fails  to  make  its  annual  Return,  as  pre- 
scribed by  law,  forfeits  its  distributive  share  of  the  income  of 
the  school-fund.  The  number  of  delinquent  towns  shows  the 
expediency  of  the  law.  If  so  many  are  remiss,  notwithstand- 
ing the  forfeiture,  we  might  reasonably  apprehend  that  the 
object  of  the  law  would  be  frustrated  were  the  penalty  for- 
borne. 

The  Returns  for  the  last  school-year  (1842  —  3)  show  a 
gratifying  advancement  in  most  of  the  elements  that  make  up 
the  general  prosperity  of  common  schools. 

ATTENDANCE    OF    CHILDREN    UPON    SCHOOL. 

In  the  school-year  1841—2,  the  number  of  children 
returned,  as  between  the  ages  of  four  and  sixteen, 
was  .  . 185,058 

In  1842-3,  the  number  between  the  same  ages  was     184,896 

Less  .  .162 


232  ANNUAL   REPORTS    ON   EDUCATION. 

In  1841—2,  the  number  of  children  of  all  ages  in 

all  the  schools  in  summer  was       ....     133,448 
Do.  in  1842-3 138,169 


Increase  in  the  numbers  attending  school  in  summer,  4,721 
In  1841-2,  the  number  of  children  of  all  ages  in  all 

the  schools  in  winter  was     .....  159,056 

Do.  in  1842-3        .  161,020 


Increase  in  the  numbers  attending  school  in  winter  .  1,964 
In  1841-2,  the  average  attendance  in  all  the  schools 

in  summer  was    .......  96,525 

Do.  in  1842-3 .  98,316 

Increase  in  the  average  attendance  upon  school  in 

summer  ........  1,791 

In  1841-2,  the  average  attendance  in  all  the  schools 

in  winter  was  .......  117.542 

Do.  in  1842-3 119,989 


Increase  in  the  average  attendance  upon  school  in 

winter         ........         2,447 

From  these  facts  it  appears  that  the  evils  of  absence  from 

school  have  been  slightly  mitigated  within  the  last  year. 

How  great  they  still  continue  to  be  will  appear  from  the 

following  comparison  :  — 

The  whole  number  of  children  returned  as 

between  the  ages  of  4  and  16  is    .         .     184,896 

Deduct  twelve  thousand  as  the  number 
supposed  to  be  in  attendance  upon  acad- 
emies and  private  schools,  and  not  de- 
pending upon  the  public  schools  for  an 
education 12,000 


Number     dependent     upon     the     public 

schools 172,896 


REPORT   FOR    1843.  233 

Number  brought  forward  ....    172,896 
Average  attendance   in   summer  of   those 
between  4  and  16  (deducting  those  un- 
der four  years  of  age,  thus)  .         .         .       98,316 
Number  under  four  years  of  age     .         .         7,337 

90,979 


81,917 

Which  gives  90,979  as  the  average  attendance,  in 
summer,  of  those  between  four  and  sixteen  years 
of  age,  who  are  supposed  to  be  wholly  dependent 
for  an  education  upon  public  schools ;  while  the 
average  absence  of  the  same  class  was  81,917,  or 
almost  one-half. 

Again,  as  before  :  — 

Whole  number  of  children  in  the  State,  between  four 
and  sixteen  years  of  age  .  .  .  184,896 

Deduct  12,000,  as  above,  for  those  sup- 
posed to  be  in  attendance  upon  academies 
and  private  schools,  and  not  depending 
upon  the  public  schools  for  an  education,  12,000 


Number    dependent   upon    public   schools 

for  an  education  ......    172,896 

Average  attendance  in  winter  of  those  between  four 
and  sixteen  (deducting  those  over  sixteen  years 
of  age,  thus) 119,989 

Number  over  sixteen  years  of  age    .         .       12,526 


Average  attendance  in  ivinter,  of  those  between  four 
and  sixteen,  who  are  supposed  to  be  wholly  de- 
pendent for  an  education  upon  the  public  schools, 
107,463  out  of  172,896,  or  a  little  less  than  eleven- 
seventeenths  .......  107,463 

What  ought  the  mechanic,  the  manufacturer,  or  the  farmer, 
on  a  large  scale,  to  expect,  if,  from  any  cause,  he  should  lose 


234  ANNUAL   REPORTS   ON  EDUCATION. 

the  services  of  his  operatives  or  laborers  for  almost  one-half, 
or  even  for  one-third,  of  the  time,  year  after  year?  Could  he 
expect  or  deserve  any  thing  but  ruin  ?  And  can  all  our  valued 
institutions  be  upheld  on  cheaper  conditions  than  belong  to  the 
common  and  material  interests  of  life? 


APPROPRIATIONS. 

In  1841—2,  the  amount  of  money  raised  by  taxes  for  the 
support  of  schools,  that  is,  for  paying  the  wages  of  teachers, 
and  for  board  and  fuel,  was  ....  $516,051.89 

Do.  in  1842-3      .         .  510,592.02 


Difference $5,459.87 

This  shows  an  apparent  falling-off;  but  the  towns  not  heard 
from  would  increase  the  amount  to  a  considerably  larger  sum 
than  that  for  the  year  1841-2.  Besides,  there  was,  in  fact,  a 
generous  increase  in  the  appropriations  generally,  throughout 
the  State ;  the  great  deficit  being  in  the  city  of  Boston, 
which  expended  on  this  item  $16,618.28  less  for  the  last  than 
for  the  preceding  year. 

The  above-mentioned  appropriations  include  only  a  part  of 
our  annual  expenditures  for  public  schools.  If  the  cost  of 
schoolhouses,  of  school-libraries,  apparatus,  &c.,  should  be 
added,  it  would  appear  that  Massachusetts  now  supports  her 
public  schools  at  an  annual  expense  varying  but  little  from 
one  dollar  a  head  for  every  man,  woman,  and  child  belonging 
to  the  State.  This  outlay  being  made,  however,  every  child 
in  the  Commonwealth  has  a  right  to  attend  school  without 
fee,  or  any  further  contribution  whatever. 

That  this  expenditure  is  not  burdensome  is  manifest  from 
two  considerations :  first,  because  it  is  voluntarily  assessed 
by  the  inhabitants  of  the  respective  towns  upon  themselves ; 
and,  secondly,  because  a  sum  nearly  equal  to  half  as  much 
more  is  annually  paid  by  individuals  to  academies  and  private 


REPORT   FOR    1843.  235 

schools,  where,  to  a  great  extent,  the  same  branches  are  taught 
as  in  the  public  schools. 

Ill  regard  to  the  other  items  shown  by  the  returns,  there 
appears  to  be  no  material  change  from  the  last  year. 

The  town  of  Brighton,  in  the  county  of  Middlesex,  stands 
this  year,  as  it  did  the  last,  at  the  head  of  all  the  towns  in  the 
Commonwealth  in  regard  to  the  liberality  of  its  appropria- 
tions for  the  support  of  schools  ;  having  raised  five  dollars 
and  ninety-nine  cents  for  each  child  in  the  town  between  the 
ages  of  four  and  sixteen  years. 

Last  year,  the  town  of  Dana,  in  the  county  of  Worcester, 
stood  at  the  foot  of  the  list ;  but  this  year  it  has  so  increased 
its  appropriation  as  to  take  an  elevated  and  respectable  stand 
among  the  towns  in  the  State,  having  resigned  its  place  at 
the  bottom  of  the  catalogue  to  the  town  of  Pawtucket  in  the 
county  of  Bristol.  The  latter  town  raised  but  one  dollar  and 
eighteen  cents  for  the  education  of  each  child  belonging  to  it 
between  the  ages  of  four  and  sixteen. 

SCHOOL-LIBRARIES . 

From  Jan.  1  to  Dec.  31  (inclusive),  1843,  the  sum  of 
money  drawn  by  towns  and  school-districts  from  the  school- 
fund,  in  behalf  of  school-libraries,  in  accordance  with  the  re- 
solves of  March  3,  1842,  and  March  7,  1843,  was  $11,295.00 
During  the  same  time,  there  has  been  received 
into  the  State  Treasury,  in  behalf  of  said  fund, 

the  sum  of 12,400.24 

So  that,  in  addition  to  the  inestimable  benefits 
secured  to  the  districts  by  a  possession  of 
the  libraries,  the  capital  of  the  school-fund 
has  increased  during  the  last  year  the  sum 
of 1,105.24 

A  resolve  of  the  legislature,  of  the  7th  March,  1843,  pro- 
vided that  a  resolve  of  March  3,  1842,  concerning  school- 


236  ANNUAL   EEPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

district  libraries,  should  be  "  extended  to  every  city  and 
town  in  the  Commonwealth,  not  heretofore  divided  into  school- 
districts,  in  such  manner  as  to  give  as  many  times  fifteen 
dollars  to  any  such  city  or  town  as  the  number  sixty  is  con- 
tained, exclusive  of  fractions,  in  the  number  of  children  be- 
tween the  ages  of  four  and  sixteen  years  in  said  city  or  town  ; 
provided  evidence  be  produced  to  the  treasurer,  in  behalf  of 
said  city  or  town,  of  its  having  raised  and  appropriated  for 
the  establishment  of  libraries  a  sum  equal  to  that  which,  by 
the  provision  of  this  resolve,  it  is  entitled  to  receive  from  the 
school-fund."  In  regard  to  this  resolve,  my  opinion  has  been 
asked,  whether  a  town  "  not  divided  into  school-districts " 
could  make  any  such  provision  for  a  part  of  its  children  as 
would  entitle  it  to  receive  the  bounty  of  the  State :  that  is, 
to  make  the  case  as  simple  as  possible,  suppose  a  town  has 
one  hundred  and  twenty  children  between  four  and  sixteen ; 
can  it,  by  appropriating  fifteen  dollars  in  behalf  of  sixty  of 
those  children,  make  a  valid  demand  for  fifteen  dollars  upon 
the  school-fund?  or  must  it  appropriate  thirty  dollars  in  be- 
half of  the  one  hundred  and  twenty  children  before  it  can 
receive  any  thing  from  that  fund  ?  To  this  inquiry  I  have  not 
hesitated  to  reply,  that  I  believe  a  sound  construction  of  the 
resolve,  as  well  as  sound  policy,  requires  that  a  town  not 
districted  should  appropriate  a  sum  sufficient  for  all  its  chil- 
dren as  a  condition  precedent  to  receiving  any  thing.  Should 
a  different  construction  prevail,  the  very  object  of  the  re- 
solve might  be  defeated  in  regard  to  the  most  necessitous 
portion  of  our  children.  A  few  men,  connected  with  wealthy 
and  large  schools  in  central  and  populous  places,  might  raise 
the  requisite  sum  for  their  own  schools  by  voluntary  contribu- 
tion, and  then  vote  against  the  granting  of  a  town-tax  for 
supplying  libraries  to  the  poor  and  sparsely-populated  por- 
tions of  the  town  ;  while  such  portions,  having  no  corporate 
powers  as  districts,  and  feeling  unable  to  raise  the  requisite 
amount  by  contribution,  might  for  a  long  time,  if  not  always, 
be  deprived  of  the  benefits  of  a  library.  "When  a  town  ad- 


REPORT   FOR    1843.  237 

ministers  its  schools  in  its  corporate  capacity,  it  must  legislate 
uniformly  for  all  parts  of  its  territory  and  for  all  its  children. 

ToAvards  the  close  of  the  last  year,  but  too  late  for  an 
insertion  of  the  fact  in  my  last  Annual  Report,  I  was  author- 
ized and  requested  by  the  Honorable  Martin  Brimmer,  the 
present  mayor  of  the  city  of  Boston,  to  cause  to  be  printed, 
at  his  expense,  such  a  number  of  copies  of  an  excellent  work 
on  education,  entitled  "  The  School  and  the  Schoolmaster," 
as  would  supply  one  copy  each  to  all  the  school-districts,  and 
one  copy  each  to  all  the  boards  of  school-committee-men,  in 
the  Commonwealth.  This  commission  was  most  joyfully 
executed  on  my  part ;  and,  during  the  months  of  February  and 
March  last,  the  volumes  were  all  prepared  and  ready  for  dis- 
tribution. I  authorized  the  school-committee-men  of  the  re- 
spective towns  to  receive  the  donation  in  behalf  of  themselves 
and  of  the  several  districts  within  their  jurisdiction  ;  and  by 
circulars,  and  in  various  other  ways,  the  most  extensive 
publicity  to  the  fact  was  given.  The  work  was  of  great 
value,  having  been  prepared  by  the  joint  labors  of  the  Rev. 
Dr.  A.  Potter,  of  Union  College,  Schenectady,  N.Y.,  and 
of  George  B.  Emerson,  Esq.,  of  Boston,  Mass., — both  dis- 
tinguished writers  and  educators.  The  great  body  of  the 
volumes  was  soon  called  for.  They  have  been  read  extensive- 
ly, and  with  great  satisfaction  and  profit ;  and  the  gratitude 
of  the  community  has  been  expressed,  as  with  one  voice,  to- 
wards the  donor,  both  for  the  generosity  that  prompted  the  gift, 
and  the  judgment  that  dictated  the  selection. 

This  brings  to  a  close  what  I  have  to  say  in  reference  to  the 
condition  and  progress  of  education  in  Massachusetts  during 
the  last  year. 

For  the  six  years  during  which  I  have  been  honored  with 
an  appointment  to  the  office  of  Secretary  of  the  Board  of 
Education,  I  have  spared  neither  labor  nor  expense  in  fulfilling 
not  only  that  provision  of  the  law  which  requires  that  "  the 
Secretary  shall  collect  information,"  but  also  that  injunction, 
not  less  important,  that  he  shall  "  diffuse  as  widely  as  possible, 


238  ANNUAL   REPORTS    OX   EDUCATION. 

throughout  every  part  of  the  Commonwealth,  information  of 
the  most  approved  and  successful  methods  of  arranging  the 
studies  and  conducting  the  education  of  the  young."  For  this 
purpose,  I  have  visited  schools  in  most  of  the  free  States  and 
in  several  of  the  slave  States  of  the  Union ;  have  made  my- 
self acquainted  with  the  different  laws  relative  to  public  in- 
struction which  have  been  enacted  by  the  different  legislatures 
of  our  country ;  have  attended  great  numbers  of  educational 
meetings,  and,  as  far  as  possible,  have  read  whatever  has  been 
written,  whether  at  home  or  abroad,  by  persons  qualified  to 
instruct  mankind  on  this  momentous  subject.  Still  I  have 
been  oppressed  with  a  painful  consciousness  of  my  inability  to 
expound  the  merits  of  this  great  theme  in  all  their  magnitude 
and  variety,  and  have  turned  my  eyes  again  and  again  to  some 
new  quarter  of  the  horizon,  in  the  hope  that  they  would  be 
greeted  by  a  brighter  beam  of  light.  Under  these  circum- 
stances, it  was  natural  that  the  celebrity  of  institutions  in 
foreign  countries  should  attract  my  attention,  and  that  I  should 
feel  an  intense  desire  of  knowing  whether,  in  any  respect, 
those  institutions  were  superior  to  our  own ;  and,  if  any  thing 
were  found  in  them  worthy  of  adoption,  of  transferring  it  for 
our  improvement. 

Accordingly,  early  last  spring,  I  applied  to  the  Board  for 
permission  to  visit  Europe,  at  my  own  expense,  during  the  then 
ensuing  season,  that  I  might  make  myself  personally  acquainted 
with  the  nature  and  workings  of  their  .<ystt-ms  of  public  in- 
struction,—  especially  in  those  countries  which  had  long  en- 
joyed the  reputation  of  standing  at  the  head  of  the  cause. 

In  addition  to  this,  the  severe  and  unmitigated  labor  which  I 
had  been  called  to  perform  during  the  last  six  years,  in  dis- 
charging the  duties  of  my  office,  had  exhausted  my  whole  capi- 
tal of  health  ;  and  I  felt,  that,  without  some  change  or  relief, 
my  labors  in  the  cause  would  soon  be  brought  to  an  inevitable 
close. 

I  am  happy  to  add  that  Gov.  Morton,  as  Chairman  of  the 
Board,  and  all  the  other  members  of  that  body,  signified  their 


REPORT   FOR    1843.  239 

cordial  approval  of  tny  plan,  and  gave  me  their  full  con- 
sent. 

Accordingly,  on  the  1st  of  May  last,  I  embarked  for  Europe  ; 
and,  before  the  end  of  thirteen  days,  I  was  visiting  schools  on 
the  other  side  of  the  Atlantic. 

In  my  travels,  I  visited  England,  Ireland,  and  Scotland ; 
crossed  the  German  Ocean  to  Hamburg  ;  thence  went  to  Magde- 
burg, Berlin,  Potsdam,  Halle,  and  Weissenfels,  in  the  kingdom 
of  Prussia ;  to  Leipsic  and  Dresden,  the  two  great  cities  in  the 
kingdom  of  Saxony  ;  thence  to  Erfurt,  Weimar,  Eisenach,  &c., 
on  the  great  route  from  the  middle  of  Germany  to  Frankfort  on 
the  Maine  ;  thence  to  the  Grand  Duchy  of  Nassau,  of  Hesse 
Darmstadt,  and  of  Baden  ;  and,  after  visiting  all  the  principal 
cities  in  the  Rhenish  Provinces  of  Prussia,  passed  through 
Holland  and  Belgium  to  Paris. 

In  the  course  of  this  tour,  I  have  seen  many  things  to  deplore 
and  many  to  admire.  I  have  visited  countries  where  there  is 
no  national  system  of  education  at  all,  and  countries  where 
the  minutest  details  of  the  schools  are  regulated  by  law.  I 
have  seen  schools  in  which  each  word  and  process,  in  many 
lessons,  was  almost  overloaded  with  explanations  and  commen- 
tary ;  and  many  schools  in  which  four  or  five  hundred  children 
were  obliged  to  commit  to  memory,  in  the  Latin  language,  the 
entire  book  of  Psalms  and  other  parts  of  the  Bible,  neither 
teachers  nor  children  understanding  a  word  of  the  language 
which  they  were  prating.  I  have  seen  countries  in  whose 
schools  all  forms  of  corporal  punishment  were  used  without 
stint  or  measure  ;  and  I  have  visited  one  nation  in  whose  ex- 
cellent and  well-ordered  schools  scarcely  a  blow  has  been 
struck  for  more  than  a  quarter  of  a  century.  On  reflection,  it 
seems  to  me  that  it  would  be  most  strange,  if,  from  all  this 
variety  of  system  and  of  no  system,  of  sound  instruction  and 
of  babbling,  of  the  discipline  of  violence  and  of  moral  means, 
many  beneficial  hints  for  our  warning  or  our  imitation  could 
not  be  derived ;  and  as  the  subject  comes  clearly  within  the 
purview  of  my  duty,  "  to  collect  and  diffuse  information  re- 


240  ANNUAL    REPORTS    ON   EDUCATION. 

specting  schools,"  I  venture  to  submit  to  the  Board  some  of  the 
results  of  my  observations. 

On  the  one  hand,  I  am  certain  that  the  evils  to  which  our 
own  system  is  exposed,  or  under  which  it  now  labors,  exist  in 
some  foreign  countries  in  a  far  more  aggravated  degree  than 
among  ourselves  ;  and  if  \ve  are  wise  enough  to  learn  from  the 
experience  of  others,  rather  than  await  the  infliction  consequent 
upon  our  own  errors,  we  may  yet  escape  the  magnitude  and 
formidableness  of  those  calamities  under  which  some  other 
communities  are  now  suffering. 

On  the  other  hand,  I  do  not  hesitate  to  say,  that  there  are 
many  things  abroad  which  we,  at  home,  should  do  well  to  imi- 
tate ;  things,  some  of  which  are  here,  as  yet,  mere  matters  of 
speculation  and  theory,  but  which,  there,  have  long  been  in 
operation,  and  are  now  producing  a  harvest  of  rich  and  abun- 
dant blessings. 

Among  the  nations  of  Europe,  Prussia  has  long  enjoyed  the 
most  distinguished  reputation  for  the  excellence  of  its  schools. 
In  reviews,  in  speeches,  in  tracts,  and  even  in  graver  works 
devoted  to  the  cause  of  education,  its  schools  have  been  ex- 
hibited as  models  for  the  imitation  of  the  rest  of  Christendom. 
For  many  years,  scarce  a  suspicion  was  breathed  that  the  gen- 
eral plan  of  education  in  that  kingdom  was  not  sound  in  theory 
and  most  beneficial  in  practice.  Recently,  however,  grave 
charges  have  been  preferred  aginst  it  by  high  authority.  The 
popular  traveller,  Laing,  has  devoted  several  chapters  of  his 
large  work  on  Prussia  to  the  disparagement  of  its  school-sys- 
tem. An  octavo  volume,  entitled  "  The  Age  of  Great  Cities," 
lias  recently  appeared  in  England,  in  which  that  system  is 
strongly  condemned  ;  and  during  the  pendency  of  the  famous 
••Factories'  Bill"  before  the  British  House  of  Commons,  in 
1843,  numerous  tracts  were  issued  from  the  English  press,  not 
merely  calling  in  question,  but  strongly  denouncing,  the  whole 
plan  of  education  in  Prussia,  as  being  not  only  designed  to  pro- 
duce, but  as  actually  producing,  a  spirit  of  blind  acquiescence 
to  arbitrary  power,  in  things  spiritual  as  well  as  temporal,  —  as 


REPORT   FOR   1843.  241 

being,  in  fine,  a  system  of  education  adapted  to  enslave,  and 
not  to  enfranchise,  the  human  mind.  And  even  in  some  parts 
of  the  United  States,  the  very  nature  and  essence  of  whose  in- 
stitutions consist  in  the  idea  that  the  people  are  wise  enough  to 
distinguish  between  what  is  right  and  what  is  wrong,  —  even 
here  some  have  been  illiberal  enough  to  condemn,  in  advance, 
every  thing  that  savors  of  the  Prussian  system,  because  that 
system  is  sustained  by  arbitrary  power. 

My  opinion  of  these  strictures  will  appear  in  the  sequel.  But 
I  may  here  remark,  that  I  do  not  believe  either  of  the  first  two 
authors  above  referred  to  had  ever  visited  the  schools  they  pre- 
sumed to  condemn.  The  English  tract-writers,  too,  were  in- 
duced to  disparage  the  Prussian  system  from  a  motive  foreign 
to  its  merits.  The  "  Factories'  Bill,"  which  they  so  vehemently 
assailed,  proposed  the  establishment  of  schools  to  be  placed 
under  the  control  of  the  church.  Against  this  measure,  the  dis- 
senters wished  to  array  the  greatest  possible  opposition.  As 
there  was  a  large  party  in  the  kingdom  who  doubted  the  ex- 
pediency of  any  interference  on  the  part  of  government  in  re- 
spect to  public  education,  it  was  seen  that  an  argument  derived 
from  the  alleged  abuses  of  the  Prussian  system  could  be  made 
available  to  turn  this  class  into  opponents  of  the  measure  then 
pending  in  Parliament.  Thus  the  errors  of  that  system,  unfor- 
tunately, were  brought  to  bear,  not  merely  against  proselytizing 
education,  but  against  education  itself. 

But,  allowing  all  these  charges  against  the  Prussian  system 
to  be  true,  there  were  still  two  reasons  why  I  was  not  deterred 
from  examining  it. 

In  the  first  place,  the  evils  imputed  to  it  were  easily  and  nat- 
urally separable  from  the  good  which  it  was  not  denied  to  pos- 
sess. If  the  Prussian  schoolmaster  has  better  methods  of  teach- 
ing reading,  writing,  grammar,  geography,  arithmetic,  &c.,  so 
that,  in  half  the  time,  he  produces  greater  and  better  results, 
surely  we  may  copy  his  modes  of  teaching  these  elements, 
without  adopting  his  notions  of  passive  obedience  to  govern- 
ment, or  of  blind  adherence  to  the  articles  of  a  church.  By 

16 


242  ANNUAL    REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

the  ordinance  of  Nature,  the  human  faculties  are  substantially 
the  same  all  over  the  world  ;  and  hence  the  best  means  for  their 
development  arid  growth  in  one  place  must  be  substantially  the 
best  for  their  development  and  growth  everywhere.  The  spirit 
which  shall  control  the  action  of  these  faculties  when  matured, 
which  shall  train  them  to  self-reliance  or  to  abject  submis- 
sion, which  shall  lead  them  to  refer  all  questions  to  the  stand- 
ard of  reason  or  to  that  of  authority,  —  this  spirit  is  wholly 
distinct  and  distinguishable  from  the  manner  in  which  the  fac- 
ulties themselves  should  be  trained ;  and  we  may  avail  our- 
selves of  all  improved  methods  in  the  earlier  processes,  without 
being  contaminated  by  the  abuses  which  may  be  made  to  follow 
them.  The  best  style  of  teaching  arithmetic  or  spelling  has 
no  necessary  or  natural  connection  with  the  doctrine  of  heredi- 
tary right ;  and  an  accomplished  lesson  in  geography  or  gram- 
mar commits  the  human  intellect  to  no  particular  dogma  in 
religion. 

In  the  second  place,  if  Prussia  can  pervert  the  benign  influ- 
ences of  education  to  the  support  of  arbitrary  power,  we  surely 
can  employ  them  for  the  support  and  perpetuation  of  republican 
institutions.  A  national  spirit  of  liberty  can  be  cultivated  more 
easily  than  a  national  spirit  of  bondage  ;  and,  if  it  may  be  made 
one  of  the  great  prerogatives  of  education  to  perform  the  un- 
natural and  unholy  work  of  making  slaves,  then  surely  it  must 
be  one  of  the  noblest  instrumentalities  for  rearing  a  nation  of 
freemen.  If  a  moral  power  over  the  understandings  and  affec- 
tions of  the  people  may  be  turned  to  evil,  may  it  not  also  be 
employed  for  good? 

Besides,  a  generous  and  impartial  mind  does  not  ask  whence 
a  thing  comes,  but  what  it  is.  Those  who,  at  the  present  day, 
would  reject  an  improvement  because  of  the  place  of  its  origin, 
belong  to  the  same  school  of  bigotry  with  those  who  inquired 
if  any  good  could  come  out  of  Nazareth ;  and  what  infinite 
blessings  would  the  world  have  lost  had  that  party  been  pun- 
ished by  success  !  Throughout  my  whole  tour,  no  one  princi- 
ple has  been  more  frequently  exemplified  than  this,  —  that 


REPORT   FOR    1843.  243 

wherever  I  have  found  the  best  institutions,  —  educational, 
reformatory,  charitable,  penal,  or  otherwise,  —  there  I  have  al- 
ways found  the  greatest  desire  to  know  how  similar  institutions 
were  administered  among  ourselves ;  and,  where  I  have  found 
the  worst,  there  I  have  found  most  of  the  spirit  of  self-compla- 
cency, and  even  an  offensive  disinclination  to  hear  of  better 
methods. 

The  examination  of  schools,  schoolhouses,  school-systems, 
apparatus,  and  modes  of  teaching,  has  been  my  first  object,  at 
all  times  and  places.  Under  the  term  "  schools,"  I.  here  in- 
clude all  elementary  schools,  whether  public  or  private  ;  all 
normal  schools  ;  schools  for  teaching  the  blind  and  the  deaf 
and  dumb  ;  schools  for  the  reformation  of  juvenile  offenders  ; 
all  charity  foundations  for  educating  the  children  of  the  poor, 
or  of  criminals  ;  and  all  orphan  establishments,  of  which  last 
class  there  are  such  great  numbers  on  the  Continent.  When 
practicable  and  useful,  I  have  visited  gymnasia,  colleges,  and 
universities  ;  but,  as  it  is  not  customary  in  these  classes  of  insti- 
tutions to  allow  strangers  to  be  present  at  recitations,  I  have 
had  less  inducement  to  see  them.* 

*  When  not  engaged  in  visiting  schools,  I  have  visited  great  numbers  of  hos- 
pitals for  the  insane  and  for  the  sick,  and  also  of  prisons.  This  I  have  done  not 
only  from  a  rational  curiosity  to  know  in  what  manner  these  classes  of  our  fellow- 
beings  are  treated  abroad,  but  in  the  hope  of  finding  something  by  which  we 
might  be  enlightened  and  improved  in  the  management  of  the  same  classes  at 
home. 

In  regard  to  lunatic  asylums,  I  have  seen  none  superior,  nor  any  in  all  re- 
spects equal,  to  our  State  institution  at  Worcester. 

In  regard  to  prisons,  I  have  found  them,  almost  uniformly,  and  especially  on  the 
Continent,  in  a  most  deplorable  condition,  —  often  worse  than  any  of  ours  were 
twenty-five  years  ago,  before  the  commencement  amongst  us  of  that  great  reform 
in  prison  discipline  which  has  already  produced  sucli  beneficent  results.  Great 
Britain,  however,  now  furnishes  some  admirable  models  for  the  imitation  of  the 
world.  In  the  city  of  Dublin,  I  visited  a  prison  containing  about  three  hundred 
female  convicts.  It  was  superintended  by  a  female.  The  whole  was  a  perfect  pat- 
tern of  neatness,  order,  and  decorum ;  and  the  moral  government  was  as  admirable 
as  the  material  administration.  As  the  lady-principal  conducted  me  to  the  different 
parts  of  the  establishment,  speaking  to  me  with  sucli  sorrow  and  such  hope  of  the 
different  subjects  of  her  charge,  and  addressing  them  as  one  who  came  to  console 
and  to  save,  and  not  to  punish  or  avenge,  —  always  in  tones  of  the  sweetest  affec- 
tion, yet  modified  to  suit  the  circumstances  of  each  offender,  —  I  felt,  more  vividly 
than  I  had  ever  done  before,  to  what  a  sublime  height  of  excellence  the  female 


244     .  ANNUAL   REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

I  have  seen  no  institution  for  the  blind  equal  to  that  under 
the  care  of  Dr.  Howe,  at  South  Boston ;  nor  but  one,  indeed 
(at  Amsterdam),  worthy  to  be  compared  with  it.  In  many 
of  them,  the  blind  are  never  taught  to  read  ;  and  in  others  they 
learn  only  a  handicraft,  or  some  mere  mechanical  employment. 
Generally  speaking,  however,  music  is  taught ;  and  in  Germany, 
where  the  blind,  like  all  other  classes  of  society,  are  taught 
music  very  thoroughly,  I  saw  a  common  mode  of  performance 
ou  the  organ  which  is  very  unusual  in  America.  The  organs 
were  constructed  with  a  set  of  keys  for  the  feet,  so  that  the 
feet  could  always  play  an  accompaniment  to  the  hands. 

In  Paris,  the  new  edifice  for  the  blind  now  just  completed 
is,  in  its  architectural  construction  and  arrangement,  an  admi- 
rable model  for  this  class  of  institutions. 

In  regard  to  the  instruction  given  to  the  deaf  and  dumb,  I 
am  constrained  to  express  a  very  different  opinion.  The 
schools  for  this  class,  in  Prussia,  Saxony,  and  Holland,  seem 
to  me  decidedly  superior  to  any  in  this  country.  The  point  of 
difference  is  fundamental.  With  us,  the  deaf  and  dumb  are 
taught  to  converse  by  signs  made  with  the  fingers.  There, 
incredible  as  it  may  seem,  they  are  taught  to  speak  with  the 
lips  and  tongue.  That  a  person  utterly  deprived  of  the  organs 
of  hearing  —  who,  indeed,  never  knew  of  the  existence  of  voice 
or  sound  —  should  be  able  to  talk,  seerns  almost  to  transcend 
the  limits  of  possibility ;  and  surely  that  teacher  is  entitled  to 
the  character  of  a  great  genius  as  well  as  benefactor,  who  con- 
ceived, and  successfully  executed,  a  plan,  which,  even  after  it 
is  accomplished,  the  world  will  scarcely  credit.  In  the  coun- 
tries last  named,  it  seems  almost  absurd  to  speak  of  the  dumb. 
There  are  hardly  any  dumb  there  ;  and  the  sense  of  hearing, 
when  lost,  is  almost  supplied  by  that  of  sight. 

character  can  reach,  when  it  consecrates  its  energies  to  the  work  of  benevolence. 
Amid  these  outcasts  from  society,  she  spends  her  days  and  her  nights ;  but,  with  her 
convictions  and  sentiments  of  duty  and  of  charity  towards  the  lost,  they  must  be 
days  and  nights  which  afford  her  more  substantial  and  enduring  happiness  than 
queens,  or  those  who  by  their  fascinations  govern  the  governors  of  man,  can  ever 
enjoy. 


REPORT   FOR   1843.  245 

It  is  a  great  blessing  to  a  deaf  mute  to  be  able  to  converse  in 
the  language  of  signs.  But  it  is  obvious,  that,  as  soon  as  he 
passes  out  of  the  circle  of  those  who  understand  that  language, 
he  is  as  helpless  and  hopeless  as  ever.  The  power  of 
uttering  articulate  sounds  —  of  speaking  as  others  speak  — 
alone  restores  him  to  society.  That  this  can  be  done,  and 
substantially  in  all  cases,  I  have  had  abundant  proof;  nay, 
though  an  entire  stranger,  and  speaking  a  foreign  language,  I 
have  been  able  to  hold  some  slight  conversation  with  deaf  and 
dumb  pupils  who  had  not  completed  half  their  term  of  study. 

With  us,  this  power  of  conferring  the  gift  of  speech  upon 
the  deaf  and  dumb  is  so  novel  a  fact,  and,  as  it  seems  to  me, 
one  of  such  intrinsic  importance,  that  I  feel  authorized,  if  not 
required,  to  give  a  brief  description  of  the  mode  in  which  it  is 
effected. 

It  is  a  common  opinion,  in  regard  to  deaf  and  dumb  persons, 
that  the  organs  of  speaking,  as  well  as  the  organs  of  hearing, 
are  defective  ;  but  this  is  an  error,  the  incapacity  to  speak 
resulting  only  from  the  incapacity  to  hear. 

MODE  OF  TEACHING  THE  DEAF  AND  DUMB  TO  SPEAK  BY  THE 
UTTERANCE  OF  ARTICULATE  SOUNDS. 

An  uninstructed  deaf  and  dumb  child  must  arrive  at  a  con- 
siderable age  before  he  would  be  conscious  of  the  fact  of 
breathing ;  that  is,  before  his  mind  would  propose  to  itself, 
as  a  distinct  idea,  that  he  actually  inhales  and  exhales  air. 
Having  no  ear,  it  would  be  still  later  before  he  would  recognize 
any  distinction  between  such  inhalations  and  expulsions  of  the 
air  as  would  be  accompanied  by  sound,  and  such  as  would  not. 
The  first  step,  therefore,  in  the  instruction  of  a  deaf  and  dumb 
child,  is  to  make  him  conscious  of  these  facts.  To  give  him 
a  knowledge  of  the  fact  that  he  breathes,  the  teacher,  seating 
himself  exactly  opposite  to  the  light,  takes  the  pupil  upon  his 
lap  or  between  his  knees,  so  that  the  pupil's  eye  shall  be  on  a 
level  with  his  own,  and  so  that  they  can  look  each  other  directly 


246  ANNUAL    REPORTS    ON   EDUCATION. 

in  the  face.  The  teacher  now  takes  the  pupil's  right  hand 
in  his  left,  and  the  pupil's  left  hand  in  his  right.  He  places 
one  of  the  pupil's  hands  immediately  before  his  own  lips,  and 
breathes  upon  it.  He  then  brings  the  pupil's  other  hand  into 
the  same  position  before  his  (the  pupil's)  lips,  and,  through  the 
faculty  of  imitation,  leads  him  to  breathe  upon  that,  just  as  his 
first  hand  had  been  breathed  upon  by  the  teacher.  This  exer- 
cise is  varied  indefinitely  as  to  stress  or  intensity  of  breathing ; 
and  the  lessons  are  ..repeated  again  and  again,  if  necessary,  un- 
til, in  each  case,  the  feeling  caused  by  the  expulsion  of  air 
from  the  pupil's  mouth  on  the  back  of  one  hand  becomes 
identical  with  the  feeling  on  the  back  of  the  other  hand  caused 
by  the  expulsion  of  air  from  the  teacher's  mouth.  Sometimes 
a  little  play  mingles  with  the  instruction  ;  and  a  light  object, 
as  a  feather  or  a  bit  of  paper,  is  blown  by  the  breath. 

Another  accompaniment  of  simple  breathing  is  the  expansion 
and  subsidence  of  the  chest,  as  the  air  is  alternately  drawn 
into  it  and  expelled  from  it.  To  make  the  pupil  acquainted 
with  this  fact,  one  of  his  hands  is  held  before  the  teacher's 
mouth,  as  above  described,  while  the  other  is  laid  closely 
upon  his  breast.  The  pupil  readily  perceives  the  falling  motion 
of  the  chest  when  the  air  is  emitted  from  the  lungs,  and  the 
rising  motion  when  it  is  inhaled.  His  hands  are  then  trans- 
ferred to  his  own  mouth  and  chest,  where  the  same  acts,  per- 
formed by  himself,  produce  corresponding  motions  and  sensa- 
tions. These  processes  must,  of  course,  be  continued  for 
a  greater  or  less  length  of  time,  according  to  the  aptitude 
of  the  scholar. 

The  next  step  is  to  teach  the  fact  of  sounds,  and  their  effect 
or  value.  For  this  purpose,  a  third  person  should  be  present, 
standing  with  the  back  towards  the  teacher  and  pupil.  The 
teacher  and  pupil  being  placed  as  before,  and  the  teacher  hold- 
ing the  back  of  one  of  the  pupil's  hands  before  his  (the  teach- 
er's) mouth,  and  placing  the  other  upon  his  breast,  breathes 
as  before.  The  only  effect  of  this  is  the  mere  physical  sensa- 
tions produced  upon  the  pupil's  hands.  But  now  the  teacher 


REPORT    FOR    1843.  247 

speaks  with  a  loud  voice,  and  the  person  present  turns  round 
to  answer.  The  same  effect  would  be  produced  by  calling  upon 
a  dog  or  other  domestic  animal.  Here  the  pupil  perceives  an 
entire  new  state  of  facts.  The  speaking  is  accompanied  by 
a  new  position  of  the  organs  of  speech,  and  by  a  greatly  in- 
creased action  of  the  chest ;  and  it  is  immediately  followed 
by  a  movement  or  recognition  on  the  part  of  the  third  person. 
The  pupil's  hands  are  then  transferred  to  his  own  mouth  and 
chest,  and  he  is  led  to  shape  his  organs  of  speech  in  imitation 
of  the  teacher's,  and  to  make  those  strong  emissions  of  breath 
which  produce  sound.  When  this  sound  has  been  produced 
by  the  pupil,  both  the  teacher  and  the  third  person  intimate, 
by  their  attention  and  their  approval,  that  a  new  thing  has  been 
done  ;  and,  from  that  moment,  the  peculiar  effort  and  the  vi- 
brations necessary  to  the  utterance  of  sounds  are  new  facts 
added  to  the  pupil's  store  of  knowledge. 

These  exercises  having  been  pursued  for  a  sufficient  length 
of  time,  the  teacher  begins  to  instruct  in  the  elementary  sounds. 
The  letter  h  is  the  first  taught,  being  only  a  hard  breathing, 
and  therefore  forming  the  connecting  link  between  simple 
breathing  and  the  utterance  of  the  vowel-sounds. 

Here  it  is  obvious  that  the  teacher  must  be  a  perfect  master 
of  the  various  sounds  of  the  language,  and  of  the  positions  into 
which  all  the  vocal  organs  must  be  brought  in  order  to  enun- 
ciate them.  All  the  combined  and  diversified  motions  and 
positions  of  lips,  teeth,  tongue,  uvula,  glottis,  windpipe,  and  so 
forth,  must  be  as  familiar  to  him  as  the  position  of  keys  or 
chords  to  the  performer  on  the  most  complicated  musical  in- 
strument. For  this  purpose,  all  the  sounds  of  the  language  — 
and  of  coui'se  all  the  motions  and  positions  of  the  organs 
necessary  to  produce  them — are  reduced  to  a  regular  series 
or  gradation.  The  variations  requisite  for  the  vowel-sounds 
are  formed  into  a  regular  sequence  ;  and  a  large  table  is  pre- 
pared in  which  the  consonant-sounds  are  arranged  in  a  scien- 
tific order.  To  indicate  the  difference  between  a  long  aud 
a  short  sound,  a  long  sound  is  uttered  accompanied  by  a  slow 


248  ANNUAL    REPORTS    ON   EDUCATION. 

motion  of  the  hand,  and  then  a  short  sound  of  the  same  vowel 
accompanied  by  a  quick  motion. 

As  the  pupil  has  no  ear,  he  cannot,  strictly  speaking,  be  said 
to  learn  sounds :  he  only  learns  motions  and  vibrations,  the 
former  by  the  eye,  the  latter  by  the  touch.  The  parties  being 
seated  as  I  have  before  described,  so  that  the  light  shines  full 
upon  the  teacher's  face,  one  of  the  pupil's  hands  is  placed  upon 
the  teacher's  throat,  while  he  is  required  at  the  same  time 
to  look  steadfastly  at  the  teacher's  mouth.  The  simplest  sound 
of  the  vowel  a  is  now  uttered  and  repeated  by  the  teacher. 
He  then  applies  the  pupil's  other  hand  to  his  (the  pupil's) 
throat,  and  leads  him  to  enunciate  sounds  until  the  vibrations 
produced  in  his  own  throat  resemble  those  which  had  been 
produced  by  the  utterance  of  the  teacher.  At  this  stage  of  the 
instruction,  the  pupil  understands  perfectly  what  is  desired  ;  and, 
therefore,  he  perseveres  with  effort  after  effort,  until  at  last, 
perhaps  after  a  hundred  or  five  hundred  trials,  he  hits  the  exact 
sound,  when,  conscious  of  the  same  vibration  in  his  own  organs 
which  he  had  before  felt  in  those  of  the  teacher,  at  the  same 
moment  that  the  teacher  recognizes  the  utterance  of  the  true 
sound,  their  countenances  glow  into  each  other  with  the  origi- 
nal light  of  joy,  and  not  only  is  a  point  gained  in  the  instruction 
which  will  never  be  lost,  but  the  pupil  is  animated  to  renewed 
exertions. 

The  sound  of  the  German  vowels  being  so  different  from 
our  own,  it  is  difficult  to  elucidate  this  subject  to  one  not  ac- 
quainted with  the  German  language.  But  let  any  one  lay  his 
finger  upon  the  middle  of  the  upper  side  of  the  pomum  adamij 
and  press  it  against  the  wind-pipe,  and  then  enunciate  succes- 
sively the  sounds  of  the  "letters  a  and  e,  and  he  will  instanta- 
neously perceive  how  much  higher  that  part  of  the  throat  is 
raised,  and  how  much  more  it  is  brought  forward,  in  the  latter 
case  than  in  the  farmer.  And  not  only  is  there  a  striking  dif- 
ference in  the  motions  of  the  wind-pipe  when  these  two  vowels 
are  sounded,  but,  in  sounding  the  letter  e,  almost  all  the  vocal 
organs  are  changed  from  the  position  which  is  necessary  for 


REPORT   FOR    1843.  249 

enunciating  the  letter  a.  The  tongue  is  brought  much  nearer 
to  the  roof  of  the  mouth,  the  lips  are  partially  drawn  together, 
and  the  whole  under  jaw  is  raised  nearer  to  the  upper.  Thus 
every  different  sound  in  the  language  requires  a  different  posi- 
tion and  different  motions  of  the  vocal  organs.  Hence  the 
work  of  teaching  the  deaf  and  dumb  to  speak  consists  in  train- 
ing them  to  arrange  the  organs  of  speech  into  all  these  posi- 
tions, and  to  practise  at  will  all  this  variety  of  motions.  When 
the  pupil  looks  at  the  organs  of  the  teacher,  and  feels  of  them, 
then  their  positions  and  motions  become  to  him  a  visible  and 
tangible  alphabet,  just  as  our  spoken  alphabet  is  an  audible  one. 
For  the  guttural  sounds,  the  hand  must  be  placed  upon  the 
throat.  For  the  nasal,  the  teacher  holds  one  of  the  pupil's 
fingers  lightly  against  one  side  of  the  lower  or  membranous 
part  of  the  nose,  and,  after  the  vibration  there  has  been  felt, 
places  another  of  his  fingers  against  the  same  part  of  his 
own  nose. 

During  all  these  processes,  the  eye  is  most  actively  employed. 
The  teacher  arranges  his  own  organs  in  the  manner  necessary 
for  the  production  of  a  given  sound,  and  holds  them  in  that 
position  until  the  pupil  can  arrange  his  own  in  the  same  way. 
Sometimes  the  pupil  is  furnished  with  a  mirror,  that  he  may 
see  that  his  own  organs  are  conformed  to  those  of  the  teacher. 
If  any  part  of  the  pupil's  tongue  is  unmanageable,  the  teacher 
takes  his  spatula  (an  instrument  of  ivory  or  horn  in  the  shape 
of  a  spoon-handle) ,  and  raises  or  depresses  it,  as  the  case  may 
require. 

But  some  of  the  elementary  sounds  are  begun  or  completed 
with  closed  lips ;  and  in  such  case,  the  cheeks  not  being 
made  of  glass,  the  pupil  cannot  see  the  position  or  motions 
of  the  tongue.  To  obviate  this  difficulty,  Mr.  Reich  of  Leip- 
sic  uses  a  tongue  made  of  Indian  rubber,  which  he  can  bend  or 
twist  at  pleasure,  till  it  becomes  a  type  or  model  of  the  form 
he  wishes  the  pupil's  tongue  to  assume. 

Later  in  the  course  of  instruction,  the  pupils  are  taught  the 
meaning  of  Italic  letters  and  emphasis.  If  a  child  asks  for  a 


250  ANNUAL   REPORTS    ON   EDUCATION. 

piece  of  white  paper  for  instance,  a  piece  of  gray  is  given  him  ; 
and,  when  he  intimates  that  he  asked  for  white,  the  question  is 
written  down  with  the  word  "  white  "  underscored,  and  then  a 
piece  of  white  paper  is  given.  Another  exercise  teaches  him  a 
corresponding  stress  of  the  voice  in  speaking. 

An  extraordinary  fact,  and  one  which  throws  great  light 
upon  the  constitution  of  the  mind,  is,  that  the  deaf  and  dumb, 
aiter  learning  to  read,  take  great  delight  in  poetry.  The 
measure  of  the  verse  wakes  up  a  dormant  faculty  within  them, 
giving  them  the  pleasure  of  what  we  call  time,  although  they 
have  no  ear  to  perceive  it. 

Such  is  a  very  brief  outline  of  the  laborious  processes  by 
which  the  wonderful  work  of  teaching  the  dumb  to  speak  is 
accomplished  ;  and  so  extraordinary  are  the  results,  that  I  have 
often  heard  pupils  in  the  deaf  and  dumb  schools  of  Prussia 
and  Saxony  read  with  more  distinctness  of  articulation  and 
appropriateness  of  expression  than  is  done  by  some  of  the  chil- 
dren in  our  own  schools  who  possess  perfect  organs  of  speech, 
and  a  complement  of  the  senses.  Nay,  so  successful  are  the 
teachers,  that  in  some  instances  they  overcome,  in  a  good 
degree,  difficulties  arising  from  a  deficiency  or  malformation 
of  the  organs  themselves,  such  as  the  loss  of  front  teeth,  the 
tied  tongue,  and  so  forth.  In  some  of  the  cities  which  I  visited, 
the  pupils  who  had  gone  through  with  a  course  of  instruction 
at  the  deaf  and  dumb  school  were  employed  as  artisans  or  me- 
chanics, earning  a  competent  livlihood,  mingling  with  other 
men,  and  speaking  and  conversing  like  them.  In  the  city  of 
Berlin,  there  was  a  deaf  and  dumb  man  named  Habermaass, 
who  was  so  famed  for  his  correct  speaking  that  strangers  used 
to  call  to  see  him.  These  he  would  meet  at  the  door,  conduct 
into  the  house,  and  enjoy  their  surprise  when  he  told  them  that 
he  was  Habermaass.  A  clergyman  of  high  standing  and  char- 
acter, whose  acquaintance  I  formed  in  Holland,  told  me,  that, 
when  he  was  one  of  the  religious  instructors  of  the  deaf  and 
dumb  school  at  Groningen,  he  took  a  foreign  friend  one  day  to 
visit  it ;  and,  when  they  had  gone  through  the  school,  his  friend 


REPORT   FOR    1843.  251 

observed,  that  that  school  was  very  well,  but  that  it  was  the 
deaf  and  dumb  school  which  he  had  wished  to  see.  Were  it 
not  for  the  extraordinary  case  of  Laura  Bridgman,  —  which 
has  compelled  assent  to  what  would  formerly  have  been  regard- 
ed as  a  fiction  or  a  miracle,  — I  should  hardly  venture  to  copy 
au  account  of  the  two  following  cases  from  the  work  of  Mr. 
Moritz  Hill,  the  accomplished  instructor  of  the  deaf  and  dumb 
school  at  Weissenfels.  They  refer  to  the  susceptibility  of  cul- 
tivation of  the  sense  of  touch,  which  he  asserts  to  be  generally 
very  acute  in  the  deaf  and  dumb.  The  importance  of  this  will 
be  readily  appreciated  when  we  consider  how  essential  light  is 
to  the  power  of  reading  language  upon  the  lips  and  the  muscles 
of  the  face.  In  darkness,  the  deaf  and  dumb  are  again  cut  off 
from  that  intercourse  with  humanity  which  has  been  given  to 
them  by  this  benevolent  instruction.  Mr.  Hill  gives  an  account 
of  a  girl  whose  facility  in  reading  from  the  lips  was  so  remarka- 
ble, that  she  could  read  at  a  great  distance  by  an  artificial 
light,  and  even  with  very  little  light.  She  was  found  to  be  in 
the  habit  of  conversing  in  the  night  with  a  maid-servant  after 
the  light  was  extinguished.  And  this  was  done  only  by  placing 
her  hand  upon  the  naked  breast  of  her  companion.  The  other 
case  was  that  of  a  boy  who  could  read  the  lips  by  placing  his 
hand  upon  them  in  the  dark,  in  the  same  way  that  Laura  reads 
the  motions  of  another's  fingers  in  the  hollow  of  her  own  hand. 

Mr.  Hill  also  mentions  instances  in  which  the  facility  ac- 
quired is  so  great,  that  the  motions  of  the  face  can  be  read  by 
the  deaf  and  dumb  when  only  a  side  view  of  the  countenance 
can  bo  obtained,  and  consequently  only  a  partial  play  of  the 
muscles  seen. 

The  following  are  among  the  reasons  which  the  German 
teachers  of  the  deaf  and  dumb  give  for  preferring  the  method 
of  speaking  by  the  voice  to  that  of  speaking  by  signs  on  the 
fingers  and  by  pantomime  :  — 

1.  Loud  speaking  is  the  most  convenient  mode  of  intercourse, 
and  the  one  most  in  accordance  with  human  nature. 

2.  The  deaf  and  dumb,  as  well  as  the  man  possessed  of  all 


252  ANNUAL    REPORTS    ON   EDUCATION. 

his   senses,   has   a   natural   impulse   to   express  his   feelings, 
thoughts,  &c.,  by  sounds. 

In  confirmation  of  this  reason,  I  may  say,  that  it  is  remark- 
ably confirmed  by  the  case  of  Laura  Bridgman,  Avho,  though 
deaf,  dumb,  and  blind,  makes  a  different  sound  —  though  an 
inarticulate  one,  a  mere  noise  —  for  each  of  her  acquaintances. 

3.  Experience  has  long  shown,  that  even  those  who  are  born 
deaf  and  dumb,  and  still  more  those  who  have  become  so  later 
in  life,  can  attain  fluency  in  oral  expression. 

4.  Experience  has  also  shown,  that,  with  the  deaf  and  dumb 
who  have  acquired  a  facility  in  speaking,  all  subsequent  instruc- 
tion is  more  successful  than  with  those  who  have  been  taught 
merely  the  language  of  signs  and  writing. 

5.  Loud  speaking  is  of  great  use  to  the  deaf  and  dumb,  not 
only  as  a  means  of  learning,  but  of  imparting  their  knowledge. 
They  learn  by  imparting,  and  thus  obtain  more  definite  ideas 
of  what  they  already  know.     It  is  a  means  of  further  cultiva- 
tion, also,  even  when  it  is  wearisome,  monotonous,  inexpres- 
sive, or  absolutely  disagreeable  ;  for  people  soon  become  accus- 
tomed even  to  such  imperfect  speech,  as  to  the  imperfect  speech 
of  a  little  child.     The  peculiar  advantages  even  of  a  low  degree 
of  acquisition  are,   1.  The  exercise  and  strengthening  of  the 
lungs.     2.  The  aid  it  gives  to  the  comprehension  and  retaining 
of  words,  as  well  as  to  the  power  of  recalling  them  to  memory. 
3.    It  has   an   extraordinary  humanizing  power ;    the  remark 
having  been  often  made,  and  with  truth,  that  all  the  deaf  and 
dumb  who  have  learned  to  speak  have  a  far  more  human  ex- 
pression of  the  eye  and  countenance  than  those  who  have  only 
been  taught  to  write. 

6.  Important  as  speaking  is  for  easy  intercourse  with  others, 
it  is  quite  as  important,  indeed  more  so,  to  many  of  the  deaf 
and   dumb,  to    acquire   a   facility  in    comprehending  what   is 
spoken  to  themselves ;   because   very  few  of  those  who   have 
intercourse   with   the   deaf  and    dumb   have    time,  means,  or 
inclination  to  hold  written  communication  with  them.     But,  if 
the  deaf  and  dumb  have  acquired  the  art  of  reading  language 


REPORT   FOR    1843.  253 

from  the  mouth  of  the  speaker,  people  will  converse  with  them 
willingly,  and  they  will  then  have  a  wide  school  in  which  to 
carry  forward  their  acquisitions.  For  these  reasons,  it  is 
desirable  for  the  deaf  and  dumb  to  cultivate,  with  all  assiduity, 
the  observation  of  the  language  of  the  lips,  even  if  they  are 
obliged  to  relinquish  speaking  on  account  of  being  unintel- 
ligible. 

As  a  consequence  of  the  above  views,  the  German  teachers 
of  the  deaf  and  dumb  prohibit,  as  far  as  possible,  all  intercourse 
by  the  artificial  language  of  signs,  in  order  to  enforce  upon  the 
pupils  the  constant  use  of  the  voice.  At  a  later  period,  how- 
ever, all  are  taught  to  write. 

I  found  a  class  in  the  school  for  the  deaf  and  dumb  in  Paris, 
which  the  instructor  was  endeavoring  to  teach  to  speak  orally ; 
but  it  is  not  certain  that  the  experiment  will  succeed  in  the 
French  language,  —  that  language  having  so  many  similar 
sounds  for  different  ideas.  With  the  English  language,  how- 
ever, a  triumph  over  this  great  natural  imperfection  might  un- 
doubtedly be  won  ;  and  it  was  an  object  —  certainly  with  some 
of  the  Trustees  of  the  Perkins  Institution  for  the  Blind,  when 
they  petitioned  tile  legislature  last  winter  for  power  to  incor- 
porate upon  that  institution  a  department  for  the  deaf  and 
dumb  —  to  exchange  the  limited  language  of  signs  for  the  uni- 
versal language  of  words,  in  the  instruction  of  this  class  of 
children  in  our  State.  Had  the  members  of  the  legislature 
seen  and  heard  what  I  have  now  often  seen  and  heard,  but 
which  I  then  knew  of  only  by  report,  I  cannot  but  believe  that 
that  application  would  have  found  a  different  fate. 

The  success  in  teaching  the  deaf  and  dumb  in  Germany, 
and  the  means  by  which  it  is  accomplished,  furnish  some  inval- 
uable hints  in  regard  to  the  teaching  of  other  children. 

1.  In  teaching  these  children  to  speak,  if  difficult  and  com- 
plicated sounds  are  given  before  easy  and  simple  ones,  some  of 
the  vocal  organs  will  be  at  fault,  in  regard  either  to  position  or 
motion  ;  and,  if  the  error  is  continued  but  for  a  short  period, 
false  habits  will  be  acquired,  which  it  will  be  almost  impossible 


254  ANNUAL   REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

for  any  subsequent  skill  or  attention  to  eradicate.  No  uniu- 
structed  person,  therefore,  should  tamper  with  this  subject. 
No  one  should  attempt  to  teach  the  deaf  and  dumb  to  speak 
who  has  not  carefully  read  the  best  treatises  upon  the  art,  or 
witnessed  the  practice  of  a  skilful  master.  The  effect  of  false 
instruction  in  regard  to  the  voice-producing  muscles  furnishes 
a  striking  analogy  to  that  false  mental  instruction  given  by 
incompetent  parents  and  teachers,  by  which  all  the  intellectual 
and  moral  fibres  of  a  child's  nature  are  coiled  and  knotted  into 
a  tangle  of  errors,  from  which  they  can  never  be  wholly  extri- 
cated even  by  a  life  of  exertion. 

2.  After  a  few  of  the  first  lessons,  it  is  ordinarily  found  that 
the  keenest  relish  for  knowledge  is  awakened  in  the  minds  of 
the  pupils.     They  evince  the  greatest  desire  for  new  lessons, 
and  a  pleasure  that  seems  almost  ludicrously  disproportionate 
in  the  acquisition  of  the  most  trivial  things.     This  arises,  in 
the  first  place,  from  that  appetite  for  knowledge  which  Nature 
gives  to  all  her  children ;  and,  in  the  second  place,  from  the 
teacher's  arranging  all  subjects  of  instruction  in   a  scientific 
order,  and  giving  to  his  pupils,  from  the  beginning,  distinct  and 
luminous  ideas  of  all  he  teaches.     Were  instruction  so  arranged 
and  administered  in  regard  to  other  children,  we  might,  as  a 
general  rule,  expect  similar  results. 

So  ardent,  indeed,  is  the  thirst  of  the  deaf  and  dumb  chil- 
dren for  knowledge,  that  one  of  the  most  frequent  cautions 
given  to  teachers  by  the  masters  of  the  art  is,  not  to  indulge 
them  in  the  gratification  of  their  desires  to  such  a  degree  as  to 
impair  health  or  produce  injurious  mental  excitement. 

3.  Perhaps  no  relation  in  life  illustrates  the  necessity  or  the 
value  of  love  aud  confidence  between  teacher  and  pupil  more 
strikingly  than   this.     Conceive  of   a  child  placed  before  his 
teacher,   watching  every  shade  of  muscular   motion   with   his 
eye,  catching  the  subtlest  vibrations  with   his   hand,  and   ex- 
pending his  whole  soul  in  striving  to  conjecture  what  muscles 
are  to  be  moved  ;  and  then  suppose  the  feeling  of  shame  or 
mortification,  of  fear  or  fright,  to  be  superinduced,  withdrawing 


REPORT   FOR    1843.  255 

all  attention  from  eye  and  hand,  choking  the  utterance  and 
paralyzing  all  the  faculties  ;  and,  were  the  pupil  to  remain  in 
this  state  till  he  became  as  old  as  Methuselah,  he  would  never 
succeed  in  uttering  even  an  elementary  sound,  unless  it  might 
be  that  of  the  interjection  O  !  Such,  though  to  a  less  extent, 
is  the  obstruction  which  fear,  or  contemptuous  manners  in  a 
teacher,  oppose  to  the  progress  of  all  children. 

In  comparing  the  present  condition  of  the  deaf  and  dumb 
and  the  blind  with  what  it  was  only  a  few  years  ago,  there  is 
one  fact  too  significant  to  be  omitted.  Judge  Blackstone  pub- 
lished his  celebrated  Commentaries  on  the  English  law  in 
1765.  In  vol.  i.,  book  1,  chap.  8,  there  occurs  the  following 
sentence,  which  was  then  the  acknowledged  law  in  Westminster 
Hall,  and  for  which  he  quotes  Lord  Coke,  Fitzherbert,  and 
others :  — 

"A  man  who  is  born  deaf,  dumb,  and  blind,  is  looked  upon  by  the  law  as 
in  the  same  state  with  an  idiot ;  he  being  supposed  incapable  of  any  under- 
standing, as  wanting  all  those  senses  which  furnish  the  human  mind  with 
ideas." 

Surely  it  cannot  be  denied  that  education  has  done  something 
for  mankind  since  this  doctrine  was  sent  forth  as  a  great  prin- 
ciple of  law. 

One  of  the  points  of  greatest  importance  which  an  educational 
survey  of  Europe  suggests  is  this  :  — 


WHAT    ARE    THE    CONSEQUENCES    TO   A    PEOPLE    OF    HAVING   A 
UNIVERSAL    OR    ONLY   A   PARTIAL    SYSTEM    OF    EDUCATION? 

All  institutions  in  the  old  countries  (a?  they  are  sometimes 
called)  have  arrived  at  a  greater  degree  of  maturity  than  with 
us.  What  is  good  has  had  time  and  opportunity  to  work  out 
a  more  full  development  of  its  benign  effects  ;  and  what  is  evil, 
to  inflict  upon  mankind  a  fuller  measure  of  calamity.  It  is  so, 
emphatically,  in  regard  to  education.  We  have  the  seeds  of 


256  ANNUAL   REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

the  same  evils  and  of  the  same  benefits  which  there  have  ger- 
minated and  been  matured,  and  are  now  bearing  luxuriant 
harvests  of  misery  or  of  blessings.  We  shall  do  well,  then,  to 
look  to  their  course,  both  for  things  to  copy  and  things  to  avoid  ; 
because  reason  cannot  predict  any  thing  so  certainly  from  its 
apparent  natural  tendencies  as  experience  demonstrates  it  in 
its  practical  results. 

Where  government  has  not  established  any  system  of  educa- 
tion, the  whole  subject,  of  course,  is  left  to  individual  enter- 
prise. In  such  cases,  a  few  men,  —  always  a  small  minority,  — 
who  appreciate  the  value  of  knowledge,  will  establish  schools 
suited  to  their  own  wants.  The  majority  will  be  left  without 
any  adequate  means  of  instruction,  and  hence  the  mass  will 
grow  up  in  ignorance.  Here  the  foundation  of  the  greatest 
social  inequalities  is  laid.  Wherever  this  social  inequality 
is  once  established,  its  tendency  is  to  go  on  increasing  and  re- 
doubling from  generation  to  generation.  And  this  is  but  a  part 
of  the  evil.  Suppose  after  the  existence,  though  only  for  a  short 
period,  of  such  a  state  of  things,  some  more  philanthropic  or 
more  statesman-like  class  of  the  community  attempts  to  substi- 
tute a  universal  for  the  partial  system.  Their  wise  and  benev- 
olent project  immediately  encounters  the  opposition  of  those 
who  are  already  provided  for.  Why  should  we,  say  the  latter, 
after  having  incurred  trouble  and  expense  in  erecting  schools 
suited  to  our  wants,  not  only  abandon  them,  but  incur  new 
trouble  and  expense  in  erecting  schools  for  you.  Your  plan  is 
untried,  and  we  may  well  entertain  doubts  of  its  success.  Be- 
sides, our  children  have  already  derived  from  our  schools  some 
cultivation  of  mind  and  some  refinement  of  manners  ;  and, 
even  if  you  were  to  have  schools,  we  could  not  allow  our  chil- 
dren to  associate  with  yours.  Our  teachers,  too,  have  been  se- 
lected in  reference  to  our  own  views  in  government  and  religion  ; 
and,  before  we  unite  with  you  in  regard  to  literary  and  moral 
education,  we  must  know  whether  you  will  unite  with  us  in  re- 
gard to  political  and  religious.  Thus  the  better  educated  classes 
of  the  community,  who  ought  to  be  the  promoters  of  knowledge 


REPORT   FOR    1843.  257 

and  refinement  among  their  inferiors,  stand  as  a  barrier  against 
improvements. 

The  private  teachers  form  another  obstacle.  In  such  a  state 
of  things  as  I  have  supposed,  they  stand  towards  each  other  in 
the  relation  of  competitors  ;  but  their  interest  prompts  them  to 
unite  against  the  introduction  of  a  new  class  of  schools,  which 
would  diminish  the  patronage  bestowed  upon  their  own.  When 
the  "  Central  Society  of  Education,"  in  England,  were  lately 
prosecuting  their  inquiries  in  relation  to  the  relative  number  of 
children  in  school  and  out  of  school  in  different  towns,  they 
were  obliged  to  proceed  with  the  greatest  caution,  lest  they 
should  alarm  the  fears  of  the  private  teachers,  and  obtain  either 
no  answers  or  false  answers  to  their  questions ;  and,  in  some 
instances,  the  teachers  combined,  and  sent  on  forged  lists  of 
schools  and  scholars,  in  order  to  diminish  the  force  of  the  argu- 
ment for  a  national  system,  by  showing  that  schools  enough 
already  existed.  This  fact  was  communicated  to  me  by  a  gen- 
tleman engaged  in  the  inquiry. 

Another  evil  is  that  the  partial  system,  or  rather  the  absence 
of  system,  so  far  from  being  attended  with  less  expense  than 
the  universal,  is  always  attended  with  greater.  This  is  true 
in  regard  to  the  expense  of  schoolhouses  as  well  as  of  tuition. 
In  England,  where  there  is  no  national  system,  I  saw  many 
schoolhouses,  —  in  Birmingham,  Bristol,  Liverpool,  and  else- 
where,—  not  capable  of  accommodating  more  than  from  one 
hundred  to  four  or  at  most  five  hundred  pupils,  which  cost 
from  one  hundred  thousand  to  three  or  four  hundred  thousand 
dollars  apiece.  One  edifice  for  a  private  school,  such  as  I  have 
seen  in  England,  —  not  capable  of  containing  more  than  five 
hundred  scholars,  —  cost  as  much  as  twenty  of  the  plain  and 
substantial  grammar-school  houses  in  Boston,  each  one  of 
which  will  contain  that  number.  Such  is  the  natural  differ- 
ence of  acting  from  a  set  of  ideas  or  a  frame  of  mind  which 
embraces  the  whole  people,  or  only  a  part  of  them,  in  its  plans 
for  improvement,  —  of  acting  from  aristocratical  or  from  repub- 
lican principles.  If  the  schoolhouses  which  I  saw  in  the  most 

17 


258  ANNUAL   REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

wealthy  and  populous  cities  of  Prussia  are  a  fair  specimen  of 
those  in  the  rest  of  the  kingdom,  it  would  not  take  more  than 
a  hundred  of  such  as  I  saw  in  England  to  equal  the  expense 
of  all  in  the  whole  kingdom  of  Prussia,  where  the  children 
of  fourteen  millions  of  people  are  almost  universally  in  at- 
tendance. 

Arrange  the  most  highly  civilized  and  conspicuous  nations 
of  Europe  in  their  due  order  of  precedence,  as  it  regards  the 
education  of  their  people,  and  the  kingdoms  of  Prussia  and 
Saxony,  together  with  several  of  the  western  and  south-west- 
ern states  of  the  Germanic  Confederation,  would  undoubtedly 
stand  pre-eminent,  both  in  regard  to  the  quantity  and  the  qual- 
ity of  instruction.  After  these  should  come  Holland  and  Scot- 
laud  ;  the  provision  for  education  in  the  former  being  much  the 
most  extensive,  while  in  the  latter,  perhaps,  it  is  a  little  more 
thorough.  Ireland,  too,  has  now  a  national  system  which  is 
rapidly  extending,  and  has  already  accomplished  a  vast  amount 
of  good.  The  same  may  be  said  of  France.  Its  system  for 
national  education  has  now  been  in  operation  for  about  ten 
years :  it  has  done  much,  and  promises  much  more.  During^ 
the  very  last  year,  Belgium  has  established  such  a  system  ;  and 
before  the  revolution  of  1830,  while  it  was  united  with  Hol- 
land, it  enjoyed  that  of  the  latter  country.  England  is  the  only 
one  among  the  nations  of  Europe,  conspicuous  for  its  civiliza- 
tion and  resources,  which  has  not,  and  never  has  had,  any  sys- 
tem for  the  education  of  its  people.  And  it  is  the  country 
where,  incomparably  beyond  auy  other,  the  greatest  and  most 
appalling  social  contrasts  exist ;  where,  in  comparison  with 
the  intelligence,  wealth,  and  refiuemeut  of  what  are  called  the 
higher  classes,  there  is  the  most  ignorance,  poverty,  and  crime 
among  the  lower.  And  yet  in  no  country  in  the  world  have 
there  been  men  who  have  formed  nobler  conceptions  of  the 
power  and  elevation  and  blessedness  that  come  in  the  train  of 
mental  cultivation ;  and  in  no  country  have  there  been  be- 
quests, donations,  and  funds  so  numerous  and  munificent  as  in 
England.  Still,  owing  to  the  inherent  vice  and  selfishness  of 


REPORT   FOR   1843.  259 

their  system,  or  their  no  system,  there  is  no  country  in  which 
so  little  is  effected,  compared  with  their  expenditure  of  means ; 
and  what  is  done  only  tends  to  separate  the  different  classes  of 
society  more  and  more  widely  from  each  other. 

The  statement  of  a  few  facts  will  show  the  amount  ex- 
pended, the  inequality  of  the  expenditure,  and  the  compara- 
tively little  benefit  derived  therefrom. 

A  few  years  ago,  a  parliamentary  commission  was  instituted 
to  inquire  into  the  amount  and  state  of  piiblic  charities  in  Eng- 
land and  Wales.  The  commission  sat  for  -a  long  time,  and 
made  most  voluminous  reports,  the  mere  digest  or  index  of 
which  fills  two  thousand  three  hundred  and  forty-one  printed 
folio  pages.  From  these  I  select  the  following  facts  :  — 

The  annual  income  of  the  charity  funds  for  schools  is  set 
down  in  these  reports  at  £312,545  ;  but  some  schools  very 
richly  endowed  were  not  included  in  the  investigation :  and,  in 
conversation  with  several  most  intelligent  men,  —  members  of 
parliament,  and  others,  —  I  found  their  opinions  to  be,  that,  as 
the  respective  amounts  of  the  charity  funds  were  rendered  by 
persons  who  had  an  interest  in  undervaluing  them,  the  above 
aggregate  was  doubtless  much  below  their  real  value  ;  and  that 
probably  £500,000  would  be  a  moderate  estimate  of  their  total 
annual  income.  This  is  equivalent  to  almost  two  million  five 
hundred  thousand  dollars  of  our  money.  It  is  easy  to  see,  that 
if  this  sum  were  consolidated,  and  then  distributed  on  princi- 
ples of  equality,  it  would  be  productive  of  incomputable  good. 
Yet  in  a  country  where  such  splendid  endowments  for  the 
cause  of  education  have  been  made,  and  their  income  is  now 
annually  disbursed,  there  are,  according  to  the  estimate  of  a 
late  British  writer,  more  than  a  million  and  a  half  of  children, 
of  a  suitable  age  to  attend  school,  who  "  are  left  in  a  condition 
of  complete  ignorance." 

The  following  are  instances  of  the  present  mode  of  distribut- 
ing the  income  of  the  above-mentioned  funds,  the  county  and 
the  town  being  given  where  the  school  exists  which  is  sup- 
ported by  the  fund  named  :  — 


260  ANNUAL   REPORTS    ON   EDUCATION. 

At  Dimstable,  county  of  Bedford,  £330  10s.  annual  income 
(a  pound  is  equivalent  to  almost  five  dollars  of  our  money)  sup- 
ports forty  boys. 

At  Bedford,  same  county,  a  school  with  £90  income  teaches 
four  hundred  and  twenty  children. 

County  of  Berkshire,  town  of  Reading,  £1,043  15s.  9d. 
teaches  twenty-two  boys. 

At  Tilehurst,  same  county,  £16  10s. _6d.  teaches  one  hundred 
children. 

County  of  Cambridge,  town  of  Bassingbourne,  £7  6s.  4d. 
teaches  one  hundred  and  sixty  children ;  while  in  Ely,  same 
county,  £231  Is.  teaches  twenty-four  only. 

County  of  Cornwall,  town  of  St.  Stephen's,  £192  13s.  4d. 
teaches  six  boys ;  and  in  the  town  of  St.  Bunyan,  same  coun- 
ty, £8  8s.  teaches  one  hundred  and  fifty  children. 

County  of  Devonshire,  town  of  Plymouth,  £596  12s.  3d. 
teaches  seventeen  boys ;  while  in  Brixham,  same  county,  £78 
teaches  two  hundred  children. 

County  of  Hertfordshire,  town  of  Berkharastead,  £269 
teaches  thirty  children  ;  while  in  Therfield,  same  county,  £2 
teaches  forty. 

County  of  Kent,  town  of  Greenwich,  £625  14s.  4d.  teaches 
twenty  boys  ;  while  in  Sundridge,  same  county,  £10  teaches 
seventy  children. 

County  of  Lancashire,  town  of  Manchester,  £2,608  3s.  lid. 
teaches  eighty ;  while  in  Bibchester,  same  county,  £20  teaches 
one  hundred. 

There  is  a  single  class  of  schools  in  England,  —  those 
founded  for  giving  instruction  in  the  Latin  and  Greek  lan- 
guages, —  sixty-five  of  which  have  an  income  not  exceeding 
£20,  and  fifteen  have  an  income  of  more  than  £1,000.  Several 
of  this  class  have  an  income  of  four,  five,  or  more  thousand 
pounds  per  annum. 

But  this  is  enough  to  show  how  unequally  the  means  of 
education  are  distributed  in  England,  even  where  they  are  en- 
joyed at  all,  and  how  difficult  it  must  be  to  introduce  a  general 


REPORT   FOR    1843.  261 

system  for  the  whole  people,  when  many  or  most  of  the  lead- 
ing families  already  have  schools  of  their  own.  Such,  too,  is 
the  natural  consequence  of  having  no  national  system,  —  one 
in  which  the  whole  people  can  participate.  These  facts  are 
full  of  admonition  to  us  ;  for  this  is  the  state  of  things  towards 
which,  eight  years  ago,  we  were  rapidly  tending.* 

*  A  few  extracts  from  documents  authenticated  by  the  government  itself  will 
serve  still  further  to  show  the  inequality  of  the  means  of  education  which  exists 
in  England. 

One  of  the  late  parliamentary  committees  on  education  describes  the  condition 
of  a  schoolroom  in  the  following  words  :  — 

"  In  a  garret,  up  three  pair  of  dark,  broken  stairs,  was  a  common  day-school, 
\rithforty  children,  in  a  compass  of  ten  feet  by  nine.  On  a  perch,  forming  a  tri- 
angle with  a  corner  of  the  room,  sat  a  cock  and  two  hens ;  under  a  stump  bed, 
immediately  beneath,  was  a  dog-kennel,  in  the  occupation  of  three  black  terriers, 
whose  barking,  added  to  the  noise  of  the  children  and  the  cackling  of  the  fowls 
on  the  approach  of  a  stranger,  was  almost  deafening1.  There  was  only  one  small 
window,  at  which  sat  the  master,  obstructing  three-fourths  of  the  light.  There 
are  several  schools  in  the  same  neighborhood  which  are  in  the  same  condition, 
filthy  in  the  extreme." 

In  the  same  town,  I  saw  a  schoolhouse  erected  for  the  wealthier  classes,  which 
cost  more  than  four  hundred  thousand  dollars  ! 

In  the  same  report,  it  is  said  that  "  one  master,  being  asked  if  he  taught  morals, 
answered,  "  That  question  does  not  belong  to  my  school :  it  belongs  more  to  girls' 
schools." 

Another  master,  who  stated  that  he  used  the  globes,  was  asked  if  he  had  both, 
or  one  only.  "  Both,"  was  the  reply:  "  how  could  I  teach  geography  with  one  ?  " 
It  appeared  that  he  thought  both  necessary,  because  one  represented  one  half, 
and  the  other  the  remaining  half,  of  the  world.  "  He  turned  me  out  of  school," 
says  the  agent,  "  when  I  explained  to  him  his  error." 

It  is  thought  unlucky  for  teachers  to  count  their  scholars.  "  It  would,"  said  a 
mistress,  "  be  a  flat  flying  in  the  face  of  Providence.  No,  no  :  you  sha'n't  catch 
me  counting;  see  what  a  pretty  mess  David  made  of  it  when  he  counted  the 
children  of  Israel !  " 

The  Kev.  Edward  Field,  inspector  of  national  schools,  in  his  report  (1840), 
after  speaking  in  commendation  of  certain  schools,  adds,  "  This  guarded  and 
qualified  praise  I  am  unable  to  extend  to  the  teachers  of  dame  schools.  Too 
often,  the  rule  of  such  schools,  when  any  profitable  instruction  is  given,  is  a 
harsh  one;  and,  in  others,  the  honest  declaration  of  one  dame  would  apply  to 
many,  —  '  It  is  but  little  they  pays  me,  and  it  is  but  little  I  teaches  them.' " 

Some  of  the  accounts  trace  this  ignorance,  as  a  cause,  to  its  legitimate  effects. 

"In  the  locality  where,  in  the  year  1S38,  the  fanatic  who  called  himself  Sir 
William  Courteuay  raised  a  tumult  which  ended  in  the  loss  of  his  own  life  and 
the  life  of  several  of  his  deluded  followers,  out  of  forty-five  children  above 
fourteen,  only  eleven  were,  on  investigation,  found  able  to  read  and  write;  and, 
out  of  one  hundred  and  seventeen  under  fourteen,  but  forty-two  attended 
school,  and  several  of  these  only  occasionally.  Out  of  these  forty-two,  only  six 
could  read  and  write." 


262  ANNUAL    REPORTS    ON   EDUCATION. 

A.  fact  closely  connected  with  the  preceding  is  an  enormous 
disproportion  in  the  salaries  of  teachers  ;  these  salaries  de- 

In  February,  1840,  Mr.  Seymour  Tremenheere,  assistant  poor-law  commis- 
sioner, reported  on  the  state  of  education  in  that  part  of  Wales  in  which  the 
Chartists,  under  Frost,  made  a  sudden  rising.  From  this  report,  it  appears 
that  in  five  parishes,  having  an  aggregate  population  of  85,000,  there  were  but 
80  schools,  and  only  3,308  children  in  attendance. 

The  following  are  extracts  from  a  late  report  of  the  National  (Church)  School 
Society :  — 

"  There  is  only  one  small  school  for  the  daily  education  of  the  poor  in  the 
whole  parish,  containing  about  12,000  inhabitants ;  that  school  educates  about 
100.  Aa  one  result  of  this  neglect,  the  parish  became  last  year  the  focus  of 
Chartism ;  and  the  most  bitter  spirit  of  disaffection  still  exists  among  the  lower 
classes." 

"  The  population  of  the  village  of  which  I  am  the  incumbent  is  not  less 
than  20,000;  there  is  no  free  school  in  the  whole  place;  hundreds  of  children 
receive  no  education  whatever." 

"I  am  vicar  of  a  parish  which  contains  a  population  of  10,000  souls;  and  I 
grieve  to  say  there  is  but  one  schoolroom  in  it." 

"  Our  situation  is  briefly  as  follows :  The  parish  contains  1,500  souls ;  there 
is  nothing  which  can  with  propriety  be  called  a  school.  The  demoralization 
and  extreme  ignorance  which  prevail  among  this  mass  of  human  beings  are 
truly  deplorable.  No  language  of  mine  can  convey  any  idea  of  its  extent." 

"  I  find  a  population  of  10,000  souls  committed  to  my  charge,  with  only  one 
church,  and  a  still  smaller  school  in  connection  witli  the  church." 

"  The  population  of  the  township  is  about  15,000;  we  have  no  definite  school; 
we  rent  two  small  places,  which  swallows  up  the  subscriptions." 

"  The  district  belonging  to  my  church  contains  a  population  of  5,000;  and  I 
regret  to  say  that  the  children  are  in  a  state  of  darkness  and  ignorance  beyond 
description." 

"  This  parish  is  without  a  building  of  any  kind  wherein  to  assemble  the 
children,  either  for  a  Sunday  or  a  week  school." 

"I  am  the  curate  of  a  poor  parish  with  3,000  of  population;  and  there  is  no 
schoolhouse  of  any  kind." 

"This  district  has  a  population  of  8,000.  The  only  instruction  which  the 
children  receive  is  given  to  about  100  for  an  hour  or  two  on  the  Sunday." 

Such  quotations  as  the  above  might  be  almost  indefinitely  extended. 

The  Manchester  Statistical  Society,  in  their  report  on  the  state  of  education 
in  York,  remark,  that  "however  imperfect  the  education  received  at  Sunday 
schools  may  be,  when  compared  with  a  reasonable  or  a  foreign  standard,  it 
affords,  nevertheless,  the  most  valuable  training  within  the  reach  of  the  great  mass 
of  the  industrious  population  of  England." 

Upon  tliis,  an  able  writer,  of  the  "Society  for  the  Diffusion  of  Useful 
Knowledge,"  remarks,  "  Yet  this  training  extends  only  to  a  few  hours  every 
week:  is  given  by  persons  who  are  generally  elevated  only  a  little  above  their 
scholars,  and  whose  only  valuable  recommendation  is,  that  they  are,  in  general, 
animated  by  a  benevolent  and  pious  spirit.  There  are,  however,  indirect  effects 
which  abate  the  good  of  Sunday  schools,  particularly  in  the  spirit  of  sectarian- 
ism and  bigotry,  which,  as  at  present  constituted,  they  tend  to  foster;  the 
undue  opinion  of  themselves  which  they  are  apt  to  engender  in  the  minds  of 
the  teachers;  the  rivalry  which  they  excite  and  the  jealousies  which  they  keep 


REPORT   FOR    1843.  263 

pending  rather  upon  the  endowment  of  the  school  than  upon 
the  qualifications  of  the  teacher.  I  have  seen  a  teacher  who 

up  between  different  schools;  and,  above  all,  the  pauperizing  influence,  which, 
more  than  other  charity-schools,  they  exert  on  the  scholars.  So  long,  indeed, 
as  scarcely  any  other  book  than  the  Bible  is  employed  in  Sunday  schools,; 
the  training  which  they  afford  must  be  very  defective,  unapproached  in  its  ex- 
cellence as  is  that  holy  book  when  well  understood  and  rightly  used.  But 
an  exclusive  acquaintance  with  it  is  not  sufficient  to  expand  the  mind,  and  pre- 
pare it  for  the  duties  of  life.  Without  the  aid  of  other  knowledge,  it  is  not  pos- 
fible  that  those  distinctions  and  qualifications  should  be  made  which  parts  at 
least  of  the  Sacred  Scriptures  require,  and  which  are  rendered  necessary  by  the 
lapse  of  ages  and  by  the  existence  of  a  totally  different  order  of  circumstances. 
If  these  distinctions  and  qualifications  are  not  made,  the  most  erroneous  con- 
clusions may  be  drawn  from  the  Bible,  and  the  most  unrighteous  purposes  may 
be  in  appearance  made  to  receive  a  sanction  from  it.  The  Scottish  Covenanters 
justi tied  their  murders  by  appealing  to  the  severities  practiced  by  the  Israelites. 
The  German  Anabaptists  made  use  of  the  disinterestedness  of  the  first  Chris- 
tians in  sharing  their  property  with  the  destitute  in  an  emergency,  in  order  to 
authorize  their  spoliation  of  the  goods  of  others.  The  madman  Thorn  appealed 
to  the  Bible  iu  support  of  his  delusions.  Chartism  flourished  most  vigorously, 
and  in  its  most  offensive  form,  in  cases  where  the  Scriptures  were  the  text- 
book." 

The  civil  commotion  which  has  prevailed,  during  the  greater  part  of  the  last 
year,  over  a  considerable  portion  of  Wales,  affords  a  fresh  instance  of  the  per- 
version of  the  Bible  in  the  hands  of  ignorance.  Large  bodies  of  the  farmers 
of  Wales,  feeling  themselves  aggrieved  by  the  number  of  turnpike-gates,  and 
the  high  rates  of  toll  exacted  for  passing  through  them,  combined  together, 
and  commenced  the  work  of  midnight  demolition.  In  the  prosecution  of  their 
enterprise,  several  lives  have  been  lost,  and  a  vast  amount  of  property  destroyed. 
A  military  force  has  been  marched  into  the  country  to  put  down  the  disturbances ; 
and  a  judicial  commission,  raised  to  try  the  offenders,  is  now  sitting.  These 
violators  of  the  law,  and  depredators  upon  private  property,  profess  to  be  very 
religious.  They  derive  their  name,  and  justify  their  outrages,  from  Scripture. 
They  call  themselves  "  Rebeccaites,"  or  "  Rebecca  and  her  Daughters;  "  and  they 
quote  the  following  text  as  a  sanction  of  their  proceedings :  "  And  they  blessed 
Uebecca,  and  said  unto  her,  Thou  art  our  sister :  be  thou  the  mother  of  thousands 
of  millions,  and  let  thy  seed  possess  the  gate  of  tho.-e  which  hate  them."  — 
Gen.  xxiv.  61.  According  to  their  interpretation  of  this  passage,  they  are  the 
seed  of  llebeeca,  and  the  owners  of  turnpike  stock  are  "  those  which  hate  them;" 
whose  "  GATES,"  therefore,  they  are  commanded  to  "possess," — that  is,  to  de- 
stroy. 

The  following  extract  is  from  "  The  Thirty-fifth  Report  of  the  British  and 
Foreign  School  Society  :  "  — 

•'  In  the  house  of  correction  at  Lewes,  of  846  prisoners,  48  only  could  read 
and  write  well :  -252  couid  read  and  write  a  little ;  only  6  had  any  idea  of  Chris- 
tian doctrine;  294  knew  nothing  of  our  Saviour;  4SK)  had  heard  of  him,  but  knew 
little  more  than  his  name;  54  knew  something  of  his  history." 

Such,  in  the  end,  are  the  inevitable  consequences  when  the  rich  neglect  the 
poor;  the  educated,  the  ignorant. 

The  history  of  the  world  is  rife  with  proofs  of  the  evils  of  ignorance;  but  the 
present  condition  of  England  demonstrates  that  ignorance  becomes  more  and 


264  ANNUAL   REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

received  from  eight  to  ten  thousand  dollars  a  year,  by  the 
side  of  one,  apparently  his  equal,  who  had  not  half  as  many 
hundreds. 

There  is  another  and  a  most  formidable  evil  resulting  from 
the  absence  of  a  national  system,  and  of  that  supervision  of 
the  schools  which  a  national  system  imports.  I  refer  to  the 
character  of  the  text-books  for  schools,  which  infamous  com- 
pilers and  infamous  teachers  conspire  to  introduce  into  them 
as  one  of  the  attractions  for  degraded  children.  Bad  men,  in 
any  walk  of  life,  always  look  to  the  market  which  they  can 
supply,  and  not  to  the  quality  of  the  productions  they  offer 
for  sale.  When  the  education  of  a  portion  of  the  people  is 
very  high,  while  that  of  another  portion  is  very  low,  some  of 
the  books  prepared  for  the  schools  will  be  very  good,  while  it 
is  quite  as  certain  that  others  will  be  as  bad  as  human  iniquity 
can  make  them.  In  some  of  the  book-shops  in  England,  I 
saw  text-books  for  schools,  on  no  single  page  of  which  should 
a  child  ever  be  allowed  to  look,  —  books  for  the  young,  filled 
with  vile  caricatures  and  low  ribaldry,  at  once  degrading  to 
the  taste,  and  fatal  to  the  moral  sensibilities. 

Before  the  establishment  of  the  present  National  Board  of 
Education  for  Ireland,  the  same  evils  existed  there.  In  one 
of  the  reports  of  the  commissioners  for  inquiring  into  the  state 
of  the  Irish  schools,  they  say,  "  We  have  already  adverted  to 
the  deplorable  want  of  such  qualification  in  a  great  majority 
of  those  who  now  teach  in  the  common  schools,  and  to  the 
pernicious  consequences  arising  from  it.  Their  ignorance,  we 
have  reason  to  believe,  is  not  seldom  their  least  disqualification  ; 
and  the  want  of  proper  books  often  combines  with  their  own 
opinions  and  propensities  in  introducing  into  their  schools  such 
as  are  of  the  worst  tendency."  Again  :  speaking  of  the  advan- 
tages to  be  derived  from  the  establishment  of  a  Board  of  Educa- 
tion who  should  exercise  a  supervisory  power  over  the  books 

more  dangerous  just  in  proportion  to  the  freedom  of  the  institutions  amongst 
which  it  is  allowed  to  exist.  Shall  we  take  warning  from  these  examples,  or 
are  we  of  those  "  who  will  not  be  persuaded  though  one  should  rise  from  the 
dead"? 


REPORT   FOR    1843.  265 

to  be  used,  they  say,  "  From  the  execution  of  this  part  of  the 
plan,  we  anticipate  advantages  of  the  utmost  importance  to  the 
whole  country,  inasmuch  as  we  cannot  doubt  that  the  books 
thus  prepared  will,  by  degrees,  be  universally  adopted  in  every 
school,  whether  public  or  private  ;  and,  while  education  is  thus 
facilitated  by  a  uniform  system  of  instruction,  the  evils  arising 
from  the  want  of  proper  books  adapted  to  the  inferior  schools 
will  be  removed,  and  the  children  be  no  longer  exposed  to  the 
corruption  of  morals  and  perversion  of  principles  too  often  arising 
from  the  books  actually  in  use." 

Such  are  some  of  the  mature,  full-grown  calamities  which 
result  from  the  neglect  of  a  state  or  nation  to  establish  a  gen- 
eral system  of  education  for  its  people,  and  from  leaving  this 
most  important  of  all  the  functions  of  a  government  to  chance 
and  to  the  speculations  of  irresponsible  men. 

We  can  never  fully  estimate  the  debt  of  gratitude  we  owe  to 
our  ancestors  for  establishing  our  system  of  common  schools. 
In  consequence  of  their  wisdom  and  foresight,  we  have  all 
grown  up  in  the  midst  of  these  institutions  ;  and  we  have  been 
conformed  to  them  in  all  our  habits  and  associations  from  our 
earliest  childhood.  A  feeling  of  strangeness,  of  the  loss  of 
something  customary  and  valuable,  would  come  over  us,  were 
they  to  be  taken  away  or  abolished.  How  different  it  would 
be  if  these  institutions  were  strangers  to  us !  if,  every  time  we 
were  called  to  do  any  thing  in  their  behalf,  we  should  violate 
a  habit  of  thought  and  action  instead  of  fulfilling  one  !  how 
different,  if  every  appropriation  for  their  support  were  a  new 
burden  !  if  every  meeting  for  their  administration  were  an 
unaccustomed  tax  upon  our  time,  and  we  were  obliged  to  await 
the  slow  progress  of  an  idea  in  the  common  mind  for  the  adop- 
tion of  any  improvement !  Emphatically  how  different,  if  the 
wealthy  and  leading  men  of  the  community  had  gathered  them- 
selves into  sects  and  cabals,  each  one  with  his  hand  against  all 
the  rest,  unless  when  they  should  temporarily  unite  to  resist 
the  establishment  of  a  system  for  the  equal  benefit  of  all !  It 
is  in  consequence  of  what  was  done  for  us  two  hundred  years 


266  ANNUAL   REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

ago  that  we  are  now  carrying  on  a  work  with  comparative 
ease,  which  in  many  of  our  sister  States,  as  well  as  in  some 
foreign  countries,  must  be  accomplished,  if  accomplished  at  all, 
with  great  labor  and  difficulty.  Can  there  be  a  man  amongst 
us  so  recreant  to  duty,  that  he  does  not  think  it  incumbent 
upon  him  to  transmit  that  system,  in  an  improved  condition,  to 
posterity,  which  his  ancestors  originated  for  him? 

Let  any  one  examine  those  voluminous  reports  of  the  evi- 
dence, taken  before  parliamentary  commissioners  in  England, 
on  the  subject  of  education,  and  he  will  be  astonished  to  find 
men  of  the  highest  capacities,  and  of  the  most  extensive  attain- 
ments on  other  subjects,  faltering  and  doubting  on  the  easiest 
points  of  this,  and  groping  their  way  after  plans  and  arrange- 
ments, which  here  have  not  only  been  long  reduced  to  practice, 
but  are  familiar  to  the  whole  body  of  the  people. 

SCHOOLHOUSES. 

With  the  exception  of  the  magnificent  private  establishments 
in  England  and  France,  I  have  seen  scarcely  a  schoolhouse  in 
Europe  worthy  to  be  compared  even  with  the  second-rate  class 
of  our  own.  And  even  those  princely  edifices  were  far  inferior 
to  ours  in  their  fittings-up  and  their  internal  arrangements. 
In  Scolland,  and  in  some  parts  of  England,  the  schools  for  the 
poorer  classes  were  crowded  to  a  degree  of  which  we  have 
never  seen  an  example,  and  of  which  we  can  hardly  form  a 
conception.  I  have  seen  more  than  four  hundred  children  in 
two  rooms,  only  thirty  feet  by  twenty  each  ;  and  in  Lancasterian 
schools,  a  thousand  children  in  a  single  room.  In  Prussia, 
and  in  the  other  states  of  Germany  which  I  visited,  the  school- 
houses  were  of  a  very  humble  character.  I  should  here  make 
one  exception  in  favor  of  Leipsic,  in  the  kingdom  of  Saxony, 
which,  in  addition  to  having  one  of  the  best  systems  of  educa- 
tion, if  not  the  very  best,  to  be  found  in  any  city  of  Germany, 
has  also  excellent  schoolhouses  ;  and  the  one  last  erected  as  a 
charity-school  for  poor  children  is  the  best  of  these. 


REPORT   FOR    1843.  267 

One  most  valuable  feature,  however,  belongs  to  all  school- 
houses  of  the  larger  kind.  They  are  uniformly  divided  into 
class-rooms,  and  an  entire  room  is  appropriated  to  each  class  ; 
so  that  there  is  no  interruption  of  one  class  by  another.  But 
the  rooms  themselves  are  small  in  every  dimension,  excepting 
the  distance  between  the  scholars'  seats  and  the  floor.  In  this 
respect,  they  resemble  those  formerly  built  among  ourselves.  I 
saw  scarcely  one  where  the  children,  while  seated  at  their 
desks,  could  touch  the  floor  with  their  feet.  In  regard  to  their 
present  and  our  old  ones,  it  may  be  said,  that  if  one  of  these 
low-studded  rooms,  with  its  enormously  high  seats,  should  by 
any  chance  be  preserved  for  a  thousand  years,  and  should  then 
be  revealed  to  posterity  as  the  ruins  of  Pompeii  and  Hercula- 
neum  have  been  to  us,  the  antiquarians  of  that  remote  day 
would  be  likely  to  infer,  from  an  inspection  of  the  low  ceiling 
and  the  great  distance  between  the  seats  and  the  floor,  that  the 
children  of  their  ancestors  were  a  race  of  monsters,  —  giants  at 
one  end,  and  pygmies  at  the  other. 

Nor  did  I  see  a  single  public  school  in  all  Germany,  in  which 
each  scholar,  or  each  two  scholars,  had  a  desk  to  themselves. 
A  few  private  schools  only  had  adopted  this  great  improve- 
ment. Backs  to  the  seats,  too,  were  almost  as  rare  as  single 
desks.  The  universal  plan,  whether  for  schools,  gymnasia,  or 
colleges,  is  to  have  one  long  bench,  or  form,  on  which  ten  or  a 
dozen  pupils  can  sit,  with  a  table  or  desk  before  it  of  equal 
length,  to  be  used  in  common  by  the  occupiers  of  the  seats. 
Each  room  has  an  aisle,  or  vacant  space,  along  the  wall  on  one 
side,  and  sometimes  on  both. 

One  striking  peculiarity  of  almost  all  Prussian  and  Saxon 
schoolhouses  is,  that  they  contain  apartments  for  the  residence 
of  the  teacher  and  his  family. 

In  many  places  in  Holland,  I  found  that  arrangements  had 
been  made,  on  scientific  principles,  for  warming  and  ventilating 
the  schoolrooms ;  but  in  Germany  never.  In  the  schools  of 
the  latter  country,  whether  high  or  low,  there  was  an  astonish- 
ing degree  of  ignorance  or  inattention  to  the  laws  of  health 


263  ANNUAL    REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

and  life,  so  far  as  they  depend  upon  breathing  pure  air.  The 
atmosphere  of  the  rooms  was  often  intolerable.  In  the  hottest 
summer-days,  ouly  one  window  of  a  room  full  of  children 
would  be  open  ;  and,  when  the  door  was  opened  for  their  egress 
or  ingress,  the  window  was  closed.  The  stoves  by  which  the 
rooms  are  warmed  in  winter  resemble  very  much,  in  the  prin- 
ciples of  their  construction,  those  which  we  call  "  air-tight ;  " 
and  they  are  often  so  placed  as  to  be  fed  at  a  door  outside  of 
the  room,  so  as  to  prevent  even  that  slight  change  of  air  which 
is  caused  when  that  in  the  room  is  used  to  sustain  the  combus- 
tion of  the  fuel.  To  my  very  frequent  question,  in  what  man- 
ner the  rooms  were  ventilated,  the  universal  reply  was,  "  By 
opening  a  door  or  window,"  —  a  very  insufficient  theory,  and 
one  which,  I  fear,  poor  as  it  is,  is  seldom  reduced  to  practice. 
When  I  surveyed  the  condition  of  things  in  Massachusetts,  pre- 
paratory to  making  that  part  of  my  last  report  which  relates  to 
human  physiology,  I  almost  came  to  the  conclusion  that  there 
could  be  no  part  of  the  civilized  world  where  less  atteution  was 
paid  to  the  laws  of  health  and  life  than  among  ourselves.  My 
present  opinion  is,  that,  ignorant  and  inattentive  as  we  are, 
there  is  no  part  of  the  world  that  is  not  as  much  or  even  more 
so.  What  benefits,  then,  must  flow  to  mankind  from  a  universal 
knowledge  and  practice  of  the  principles  of  the  beautiful  and 
noble  science  of  physiology  ! 

Were  one  to  attempt  a  philosophical  explanation  of  that  leth- 
argy of  character,  that  want  of  activity  and  enterprise,  Tor 
which  the  Germans  are  so  proverbial,  I  think  he  would  fail  of 
a  just  solution  of  the  problem  if  he  left  out  of  the  account 
the  errors  of  their  physical  training.  I  visited  a  very  great 
number  of  hospitals  for  poor  children,  orphans,  &c.,  some  of 
which  were  very  extensive,  containing  a  thousand  children. 
The  dormitories  of  all  were  large,  common,  generally  unventi- 
lated  rooms,  with  beds  placed  side  by  side,  and  as  near  each 
other  as  they  could  be  conveniently  arranged.  I  have  often 
seen  from  a  hundred  to  a  hundred  and  fifty  beds  in  the  same 
apartment.  But  the  bedding  was  the  most  extraordinary. 


REPORT   FOR    1843.  269 

Though  in  the  middle  of  summer,  each  child  was  supplied  with 
two  feather-beds  ;  one  for  himself  to  lie  on,  the  other  to  lie  on 
him.  The  usual  outfit  which  I  saw  in  the  hospitals  and  other 
places  for  children  was  one  sheet  and  two  feather-beds  for  each 
child  ;  and  these  feather-beds  would  weigh  from  ten  to  twenty 
pounds  each.  Where  the  principal  or  assistant  teacher  of  the 
school  slept  in  the  same  room,  the  bed  allotted  to  him  had  an 
increased  weight  of  feathers,  corresponding  to  the  received 
ideas  of  his  rank  and  dignity.  In  some  instances,  the  enor- 
mous feather-beds  under  which  the  inhabitants  sleep  Aveigh 
forty  or  more  pounds.  In  many  of  the  best  hotels  in  the  first 
cities  of  Germany,  such  a  thing  as  a  woollen  blanket  is  not  to 
be  found.  Occasionally  I  found  these  in  prisons  ;  for  it  seems 
to  be  considered  as  a  part  of  the  punishment  of  a  malefactor 
to  be  debarred  from  sleeping  under  a  feather-bed.  Such  is  the 
universal  custom  of  the  country.  Every  respectable  man  and 
child  sleeps  between  two  feather-beds,  summer  and  winter. 
The  debilitating  effect  of  such  a  practice  both  upon  body  and 
mind  must  be  incalculable.  If  the  leading  members  of  the 
Holy  Alliance  wish  to  abase  their  subjects  into  a  voluntary 
submission  to  arbitrary  power,  if  they  design  so  to  enervate 
their  spirits  that  they  will  never  pant  for  the  joys  and  the  im- 
munities of  liberty,  and  so  to  impair  their  vigor  of  body  that 
they  will  have  no  energy  to  achieve  it,  they  can  do  no  one 
thing  more  conducive  to  these  ends  than  to  perpetuate  this  na- 
tional custom  of  low  ventilation  and  sleeping  between  feather- 
beds.* 

*  The  only  public  edifice  I  saw  in  Europe  which  enjoys  a  perfect  luxury  of 
ventilation  was  the  British  House  of  Parliament.  The  arrangements  for  this 
object  were  conceived  by  that  celebrated  chemist,  Dr.  Reid,  and  executed  under 
his  superintendence.  The  plan  is  scientific,  and  the  apparatus  for  executing  it 
complete. 

In  the  external  wall  of  the  House  of  Commons,  a  great  number  of  orifices  open 
into  the  out-door  air;  every  alternate  brick  for  a  space  of  perhaps  twenty  feet 
square  being  removed  from  the  wall.  Through  these  orifices,  the  crude  air  or 
unmanufactured  -irti  \V  is  admitted.  Stretched  from  above  the  upper  Hue  of  these 
orifices,  that  is,  from  the  ceiling  of  the  room,  into  which  they  open  inwardly,  and 
reaching  to  the  floor  at  an  angle  of  45",  is  a  sheet  or  screen  of  coarse  cloth,  through 
which  all  the  air  received  is  strained  or  sifted.  By  this  means,  all  particles  of  coal- 


270  ANNUAL   REPORTS   ON  EDUCATION. 


READING-BOOKS. 

I  have  made  it  a  poiut  to  look  particularly  into  the  reading- 
books  used  in  schools.  Wherever  I  have  been,  I  have  observed 

smoke,  soot,  or  other  impurity,  held  in  mechanical  solution  with  the  atmosphere, 
are  intercepted,  and  only  pure  external  air  is  allowed  to  enter.  Havin.'  passed 
through  this  sieve,  or  strainer,  the  air  may  now  be  conducted  from  tins  apartment 
in  either  one  of  two  directions,  as  it  requires  or  does  not  require  to  be  wanned. 
If  it  requires  to  be  warmed,  it  passes  through  a  room  filled  with  a  great  number 
of  heated  iron  pipes,  which  raise  it  to  the  desired  temperature.  Another  iia-.-agt- 
way  is  provided  when  it  does  not  require  to  be  warmed;  and,  by  opening  cliiieieut 
doors,  it  is  directed  into  one  or  the  other  of  these  at  pleasure.  Here,  too,  it  is  fur 
ther  purified  from  any  admixture  of  foul  gases  by  exposure  to  the  action  of  chlo- 
ride of  lime;  and,  on  great  occasions,  it  is  scented  wiih  cologne-water  or  other 
perfume.  Further  on,  it  passes  through  a  third  apartment,  which  is  the  identical 
place  where  Guy  Fawkes  was  said  to  have  hidden  his  gunpowder  to  blow  up  the 
British  I'arlUmeut  in  1605.  In  this  room  is  a  system  of  iron  conduits,  or  water- 
pipes,  lying  upon  the  floor,  and  crossing  each  other  after  the  manner  of  network, 
or  meshes.  At  brief  intervals  along  the  whole  course  of  these  pipes  are  little 
perforated  caps,  like  the  top  of  a  pepper-box.  These  pipes  are  filled  with  water, 
under  a  heavy  pressure.  On  the  turning  of  a  grand  cock,  this  water  is  driven  out 
through  the  minute  orifices  above  mentioned  in  beautiful,  line  jets,  which,  striking 
the  upper  ceiling  of  the  apartment,  rebound  and  fall  back  to  the  floor  in  the  finest 
drops.  During  hot  days,  this  apparatus  is  kept  playing  all  the  time  while  the 
Houses  are  in  session,  thereby  imparting  a  delicious  coolness  and  freshness  to  the 
air  before  it  enters  the  halls.  In  addition  to  these  jets  of  water,  designed  to  cool 
and  freshen  the  air,  bags  of  ice  are  suspended  in  this  apartment,  the  melting  of 
which,  by  absorbing  the  caloric  of  the  atmosphere,  acts  as  a  refrigerator.  The  air, 
being  now  cleansed,  purified,  warmed,  cooled,  or  scented,  is  prepared  to  enter  the 
hall  of  the  House.  For  this  purpose  it  is  carried  beneath  the  whole  extent  of  the 
floor.  This  floor  is  perforated  throughout  with  small  holes  a  little  larger  than  a 
pipe-stem  or  goose-quill;  and  through  these  the  air  is  filtrated,  so  to  speak, 
into  the  room  above.  But,  to  prevent  any  current  perceptible  to  the  feet  or  limbs, 
the  floor  of  the  House  is  covered  with  a  hair  carpet,  so  that  the  air  may  ri-e  im- 
perceptibly through  its  meshes.  Similar  provision  is  also  made  for  carrying  a  full 
supply  of  fresh  air  into  the  galleries,  so  that  they  are  not  dependent  upon  that 
which  has  ascended  from  the  breathers  below.  The  upper  or  over-lu  ad  ceiling 
of  the  House  is  not  tight,  although,  to  one  looking  at  it  from  bdow.it  exhibits  no 
opening.  Through  this  ceiling,  the  foul  air  is  carried  off  into  the  attic,  though  this 
foul  air  is  far  purer  than  that  which  common  Londoners  breathe;  for  it  is  thrown 
in  in  such  quantities  that  only  a  very  small  portion  of  it  reaches  any  human  lungs. 
Funnels  are  also  placed  over  the  great  gas-burners  by  which  the  House  is  lighted, 
and  the  current  of  air  which  rushes  up  through  these  is  very  rapid. 

The  arrangements  for  ventilating  the  House  of  Lords  are  almost  precisely  sim- 
ilar to  those  for  the  House  of  Commons,  which  I  have  described.  When  the  foul 
or  used-up  air  from  both  Houses  has  reached  the  attic,  the  currents  are  conducted 
into  a  common  passage,  or  channel.  Ti. rough  tiii;  channel  the  uir  is  now  carried 
down  to  the  level  of  the  earth.  Here  it  enters  the  lower  end  of  .1  vast  cylindrical 
brick  tower,  eighty  feet  in  height.  The  diameter  of  the  tower  is  perhaps  fifteen  or 
twenty  feet  at  the  bottom;  but  it  tapers  gradually  to  the  top,  so  that  it  exhibits  the 


REPORT   FOR   1843.  271 

a  mai'ked  distinction  between  the  foreign  and  our  own,  as  it 
regards  the  character  of  the  selections  of  which  they  are  corn- 
appearance  of  a  truncated  cone.  About  ten  feet  from  the  bottom,  a  grating  of  iron 
bars  is  laid  across  the  interior  of  the  tower,  and  on  these  a  coal-fire  is  kept  burn- 
ing. Thus  the  tower  acts  as  a  chimney.  The  air,  rarefied  by  the  fire,  rapidly 
ascends,  creating  a  vacuum  below,  which  causes  the  air  from  the  attics  of  the  two 
Houses  to  rush  in,  and  then  the  pressure  of  the  external  air  through  the  orifices 
first  described  keeps  up  the  current  through  its  whole  course. 

One  or  two  men  are  constantly  employed  in  superintending  this  apparatus, 
directing  the  currents  of  air,  so  that  they  may  be  admitted  at  the  proper  tempera- 
ture, purified,  cooled  by  the  fountains,  or  warmed  by  the  pipes,  as  the  varying 
days  or  seasons  of  the  year  may  require.  Beneath  the  Houses,  at  places  where 
the  pressure  or  crowd  on  great  state  occasions  is  likely  to  be  most  dense,  large 
fans  are  provided,  which,  being  rapidly  revolved,  force  up  through  the  orifices  in 
the  floor  a  much  greater  quantity  of  air  thau  would  ascend  from  the  natural  effect 
of  a  mere  difference  of  temperature. 

It  is  now  between  six  and  seven  years  that  an  hourly  register  has  been  kept 
of  the  state  of  the  thermometer  and  barometer,  as  they  are  affected  by  the  air 
that  enters  the  Houses.  The  velocity  and  volume  of  the  air  is  also  noted;  all  the 
great  passages  being  so  contrived,  that  they  can  be  more  or  less  opened  and  closed 
at  pleasure.  From  the  "  woolsack,"  or  speaker's  chair,  in  the  House  of  Lords,  a 
vertical  tube  descends  to  the  basement  below.  At  the  upper  end  of  this  tube,  a 
thermometer  is  suspended  for  inspection  by  the  members.  The  attendant  in  the 
basement,  by  means  of  a  cord  and  pulley,  can  let  down  this  thermometer  at  any 
moment,  mark  its  condition  in  his  register,  and  immediately  replace  it  without  its 
being  missed  in  the  hall  above. 

In  summer,  the  members  are  not  only  cooled  by  the  water  and  the  ice  in  the 
rooms  below,  but  also  by  the  velocity  of  the  current  of  air;  that  is,  a  current 
of  air,  at  the  temperature  of  05°,  may  be  so  increased  in  velocity  as  to  produce 
sensations  of  coolness  as  great  as  another  less  rapid  current  would  do  at  the 
temperature  of  00".  Sometimes  a  hundred  and  twenty  cubic  feet  a  minute  are  sup- 
plied to  each  pair  of  lungs. 

All  these  circumstances  are  noted,  from  hour  to  hour,  by  clerks  and  superin- 
tendents; but  it  is  left  for  the  profound  and  scientific  mind  of  Dr.  Reid  to  strike 
the  equations  and  evolve  the  grand  results.  That  gentleman  assured  me,  that, 
since  the  adoption  of  this  system,  hardly  a  cough  had  been  heard  in  either 
House  (excepting,  I  presume,  all  coughs  prepense,  for  the  suppression  of 
speeches). 

All  the  offices,  committee-rooms,  &c.,  belonging  to  the  Houses,  are  ventilated 
substantially  in  the  same  way. 

The  provisions  for  warming  and  ventilating  the  new  Houses  of  Parliament  are 
on  a  still  grander  scale.  The  entire  edifice,  including  the  halls  for  the  two 
Houses,  offices,  committee-rooms,  &c.,  is  900  feet  long;  and,  on  the  grand  or  prin- 
cipal floor,  there  are  between  two  and  three  hundred  rooms.  At  one  end  of  the 
building  is  to  be  the  clock  tower,  at  the  other  end  the  Victoria  tower.  From  the 
summit  of  these  towers,  as  high  above  earthly  impurities  and  miasms  as  is  prac- 
ticable, the  air  is  to  be  taken.  It  is  to  pass  down  these  towers  — more  or  less 
down  one  or  the  other  according  to  the  course  and  strength  of  the  wind  —  to  the 
basement  of  the  structure.  Here  it  is  to  be  turned  and  conducted,  in  a  horizontal 
direction,  to  a  spacious  reservoir  in  the  centre.  While  moving  towards  this  cen- 


272  ANNUAL    REPORTS    ON    EDUCATION. 

posed.  A  great  proportion  of  the  pieces  which  make  up  our 
compilations  consist  of  oratorical,  sentimental,  or  poetical 
pieces.  The  foreign  reading-books,  on  the  other  hand,  partake 
more  largely  of  the  practical  or  didactic.  Ours  savor  more  of 
literature  or  belles-lettres  ;  theirs,  of  science  and  the  useful  arts. 

Perhaps  the  best  mode  of  giving  a  definite  idea  of  the  char- 
acter of  the  foreign  reading-books  would  be  to  quote  a  specifi- 
cation of  subjects  from  the  table  of  contents  of  some  specimen- 
book. 

The  following  is  from  the  table  of  contents  of  a  German 
"  First  Reading  Book,  for  the  lowest  classes  in  elementary 
schools  :  "  — 

"1st  PART.  LESSON  1,  The  parental  home;  2,  Building  materials, 
stone,  lime,  wood ;  3,  Construction,  iron  and  glass ;  4,  The  four  elements ; 
5,  Comparison  of  building  materials;  6,  The  inner  parts  of  houses;  7, 
House  utensils  and  tools ;  8,  Clothing;  9,  Food;  10,  Inhabitants  of  houses; 
11,  Household  animals  and  their  uses;  12,  Continuation,  —  the  winged 
tribe;  13,  Injurious  animals  in  the  house  ;  14,  Conduct  towards  beasts  ;  15, 
Language,  advantage  of  man  over  beasts. 

"2d  PART.  QUALITIES  OF  THINGS.  LESSON  1,  Colors;  2,  Forms; 
3,  Qualities  which  a  house  may  have ;  4,  Qualities  of  some  building  mate- 
rials ;  5,  Qualities  which  an  apartment  may  have ;  6,  Qualities  which  tools 
may  have;  7,  Qualities  which  a  road  may  have;  8,  Qualities  which  water 
may  have;  9,  Qualities  which  food  may  have;  10,  Qualities  which  articles 
of  clothing  may  have;  11,  Qualities  which  an  animal  may  have,  —  bodily 
qualities;  12,  What  one  learns  from  the  actions  of  beasts;  13,  Qualities 
which  a  man  may  bave, —  bodily  qualities  of  a  man  ;  14,  Continuation,  — 
moral  qualities  ;  15,  Qualities  which  man  must  not  have." 

A  selection  from  the  residue  of  the  lessons  follows  :  — 

"LESSON  17,  Sounds  and  tones  of  beasts;  19,  Sounds  of  inanimate 
things;  20,  Properties  and  actions  of  plants  and  animals;  21,  Actions  in 
school;  23,  Household  arrangements;  25,  Country  occupations;  26.  Con- 
duct of  children  towards  others ;  41,  Adding  to  the  name  of  a  thing  a  word 
of  quality. 

tral  point,  it  can  be  turned  into  any  one  of  a  number  of  channels,  and  receive  such 
I'h.inge.*  —  warming,  refrigeration,  perfuming,  medication,  &c.  —  as  may  be  de- 
sired. From  this  great  heart,  it  is  to  be  driven  in  all  directions  towards  every  part 
of  the  vast  edifice;  and,  by  a  system  of  doors  and  valves,  to  be  let  into  or  shut  off 
from  auy  apartment  of  the  many-mansioned  building  at  pleasure. 


REPORT   FOR    1843.  273 

"3dPAHT.  MORAL  INSTRUCTION.  LESSON  2,  Order  in  families;  3, 
Duties  of  parents,"  &c.,  &c. 

Then  follow  "  stories  for  exciting  and  cultivating  moral  ideas 
and  sentiments  ; "  and  the  book  closes  with  songs  and  prayers 
"  for  the  awakening  and  animating  of  religious  feeling." 

The  following  titles  are  from  "  A  Course  of  Elementary 
Reading"  by  J.  M.  McCullock,  D.D.  Eleventh  edition,  Edin- 
burgh, 1842  :  — 

"1.  PHYSICAL  SCIENCE.  On  the  pleasures  of  science  ;  General  proper- 
ties of  bodies,  —  Impenetrability,  Extension,  Figure,  Divisibility,  Inertia; 
Attraction  of  Cohesion  ;  Attraction  of  Gravity  ;  First  lines  of  Mechanics  ; 
Motion;  Momentum;  Centre  of  Gravity;  The  Mechanical  Powers;  Press- 
ure of  Watery  Fluids ;  Capillary  Attraction ;  The  Winds ;  Aqueous  Va- 
por; Clouds  and  Mists,  Rain,  Dew,  Snow,  Hail;  Powers  of  Vision;  The 
Quantity  of  Matter  in  the  Universe. 

"2.  CHEMICAL  SCIENCE.  Properties  of  Free  Caloric ;  Radiation;  Con- 
ductors ;  Chemical  Attraction  ;  Simple  Bodies ;  Oxygen,  Hydrogen,  Nitro- 
gen, Carbon,  Sulphur,  Phosphorus;  The  Metals;  Compound  Bodies, — 
Atmospheric  Air ;  Water  ;  Effects  of  Caloric,  &c.,  &c. 

"3.  NATURAL  HISTORY.  The  Three  Kingdoms  of  Nature.  Minerals: 
Diamond,  Flint,  Asbestos,  Clay,  Slate,  &c.,  &c.  The  Malleable  Metals  : 
Platina,  Gold,  Mercury,  Silver,  Copper,  Iron,  &c.,  £c.  Clothing  from  Ani- 
mals :  Fur,  Wool,  Silk,  Leather.  Vegetable  Physiology :  Motion  of  the 
Sap,  Leaves,  The  Seed,  Germination,  &c.  Circulation  of  the  Blood.  Vege- 
table Clothing  :  Flax,  Hemp,  Cotton.  The  Animal  Economy,"  &c.,  &c. 

The  Fourth  Part  of  this  work  consists  of  pieces  classed  un- 
der the  head  of  "  Geography  and  Topography  ;  "  then  follow 
Religious,  Moral,  and  Miscellaneous  pieces,  in  prose  and 
poetry,  which  complete  the  book. 

There  are  hundreds,  and  perhaps  thousands,  of  reading-books 
in  the  different  languages  abroad.  I  have  selected  the  above 
as  a  fair  specimen  of  what  I  saw  ;  and  I  believe  most  educators 
will  agree  with  me  in  thinking  them  far  better  suited  to  the 
tastes  and  capacities  of  the  young  than  most  of  our  own. 

APPARATUS,    ETC. 

I  have  seen  but  little  of  school  apparatus  abroad  which  is 
not  to  be  found  in  good  schools  at  home.  The  blackboard  is 

18 


274  ANNUAL   REPORTS   ON  EDUCATION. 

a  universal  appendage  to  the  schoolroom,  and  is  much  more 
used  than  with  us.  Indeed,  in  no  state  or  country  have  I  ever 
seen  a  good  school  without  a  blackboard,  nor  a  successful 
teacher  who  did  not  use  it  frequently. 

Generally  speaking,  the  infant  schools  of  England  and  Scot- 
,  land  are  admirably  supplied  with  abundant  and  appropriate 
'apparatus.  The  schoolrooms  are  literally  lined  with  cards 
from  which  to  teach  the  alphabet,  with  short  sentences  in  Eng- 
lish, and  a  few  texts  of  Scripture  or  moral  maxims.  Delinea- 
tions of  various  plants,  trees,  animals,  —  beasts,  birds,  fishes  ; 
of  different  races  of  men,  with  their  varieties  of  physiognomy 
and  costume  ;  of  portraits  of  kings,  queens,  and  distinguished 
personages  ;  a  compass,  a  clock-face,  &c.,  —  are  profusely  pro- 
vided. 

In  Holland,  I  saw  what  I  have  never  seen  elsewhere,  but 
that  which  ought  to  be  in  every  school,  —  the  actual  weights 
and  measures  of  the  country.  These  Avere  used,  not  only  as  a 
means  of  conveying  useful  knowledge,  but  of  mental  exercise 
and  cultivation. 

There  were  seven  different  liquid  measures,  graduated  accord- 
ing to  the  standard  measures  of  the  kingdom.  The  teacher 
took  one  in  his  hand,  held  it  up  before  the  class,  and  displayed 
it  in  all  its  dimensions.  Sometimes  he  would  allow  it  to  be 
passed  along  by  the  members  of  the  class,  that  each  one  might 
have  an  opportunity  to  handle  it  and  to  form  an  idea  of  its 
capacity.  Then  he  would  take  another,  and  either  tell  the 
class  how  many  measures  of  one  kind  would  be  equivalent  to 
one  measure  of  the  other ;  or,  if  he  thought  them  prepared  for 
the  questions,  he  would  obtain  their  judgment  upon  the  relative 
capacity  of  the  respective  measures.  In  this  way  he  would  go 
through  with  the  whole  series,  referring  from  one  to  another, 
until  all  had  been  examined  and  their  relative  capacities  under- 
stood. Then  followed  arithmetical  questions  founded  upon  the 
facts  they  had  learned;  such  as,  if  one  measure-full  of  wiue 
costs  so  much,  what  would  another  measure-full  cost  (designat- 
ing the  measure),  or  four,  or  seveu  other  measures-full.  The 
same  thing  was  then  done  with  the  weights. 


REPORT   FOR    1843.  275 

It  is  easy  to  see  how  much  more  exact  and  permanent  would 
be  the  pupil's  knowledge  of  all  weights  and  measures,  obtained 
in  this  way,  than  if  learned  by  heart  from  the  dry  tables  in  a 
book  ;  and  also  how  many  useful  and  interesting  exercises 
could  be  founded  upon  them  by  a  skilful  teacher.  I  believe  it 
would  be  difficult  to  find  many  men  in  the  community,  of  middle 
age,  who  can  now  repeat  all  those  tables  of  weights  and  meas- 
ures, which,  as  school-boys,  they  could  rehearse  so  volubly  ;  or 
who,  were  they  now  to  see  actual  sets  of  weights  and  measures, 
could  call  all  the  different  ones  by  their  true  names,  or  could 
distinguish  each  denomination  from  the  others  if  not  seen  iu 
juxtaposition  with  them.  Having  learned  the  tables  by  rote, 
the  words  have  long  ago  vanished  from  the  mind,  and  the  ideas 
never  were  in  it. 

Something  of  the  same  kind  should  be  done  also  in  our 
schools  in  reference  to  numbers.  Children  learn  the  nume- 
ration-table without  any  adequate  notion  of  the  rapid  increase 
of  the  successive  denominations,  or  how  vast  the  numbers  are 
which  they  rattle  off  with  such  volubility.  I  have  often  tested 
the  knowledge  of  the  older  classes  iu  our  schools,  as  to  their 
comprehension  of  large  numbers,  by  asking  them  this  question  : 
If  a  man  were  to  count  one  each  second  for  ten  hours  in  a 
day,  how  many  days  would  it  take  him  to  count  a  million  ?  And, 
ia  the  same  class,  the  answers  have  frequently  varied  from  one 
day  to  thirty  ;  and  this  when  each  one  of  the  scholars  could  work 
any  sum  in  the  arithmetic.  They  had  never  learnt,  by  actual 
counting,  the  ratio  of  decimal  increase  ;  and  nothing  but  prac- 
tice will  ever  give  an  idea  of  it.  Dr.  Howe,  of  the  Blind  Insti- 
tution at  South  Boston,  says  he  considers  "  a  peck  of  beans  or 
corn  an  indispensable  part  of  the  apparatus  of  his  school."  If 
a  boy  says  he  has  seen  ten  thousand  horses,  make  him  count 
ten  thousand  kernels  of  corn,  and  he  never  will  see  so  many 
horses  again. 

In  the  public  schools  of  Holland,  too,  large  sheets  or  cards 
were  hung  upon  the  walls  of  the  room,  containing  fac-similes 
of  the  inscription  and  relief —  face  and  reverse  —  of  all  the  cur- 


276  ANNUAL   REPORTS    OX   EDUCATION. 

rent  coins  of  the  kingdom.  The  representation  of  the  gold 
coins  were  yellow  ;  of  the  silver,  white  ;  and  of  the  copper, 
copper-color. 

In  the  schools  both  of  Holland  and  Germany,  I  occasionally 
saw  printed  sheets  suspended  from  the  walls  of  the  schoolroom, 
containing  practical  advice  and  directions  respecting  important 
emergencies  or  duties  of  life  ;  such  as  the  best  mode  of  pro- 
ceeding to  resuscitate  a  drowned  person,  of  curing  a  burn,  of 
stanching  a  ruptured  blood-vessel,  &c.,  &c. 

In  all  the  class-rooms  for  little  children  in  Germany  were 
reading-frames  or  reading-boards  for  elementary  instruction  in 
language.  These  consist  of  parellel  and  horizontal  laths,  or 
bars  (called  in  America  slats,  in  England  sloats),  with 
grooves,  into  which  small  squares  of  pasteboard  or  blocks  of 
wood,  having  letters  printed  upon  them,  could  be  inserted. 
The  manner  in  which  these  are  used  will  be  described  here- 
after, under  the  head  of  "  Reading." 

In  the  schools  for  the  deaf  and  dumb,  I  saw  admirable  col- 
lections of  natural  objects  for  the  use  of  the  pupils.  These 
were  not  merely  an  assortment  of  shells  and  minerals,  which 
generally  fills  up  our  conceptions  of  cabinets  of  this  kind,  but 
assemblages  of  different  seeds  of  plants,  particularly  all  those 
used  for  food  or  in  the  arts,  of  dried  plants,  &c.,  &c.,  arranged 
neatly  in  boxes,  so  that  they  could  easily  be  handled  without 
loss  or  injury.  I  found  similar  collections  in  other  schools,  but 
not  on  so  large  a  scale  ;  for  it  is  peculiarly  necessary  that  the 
deaf  and  dumb  should  see  the  objects  of  their  lessons.  These 
they  are  made  to  describe  in  spoken  as  well  as  in  written 
words,  and  to  connect  their  history  with  geographical  knowl- 
edge. 

In  the  deaf  and  dumb  school  at  Dresden,  I  saw  a  very  large 
collection  of  models  of  every  description  of  utensil,  also  of 
many  machines,  mills,  carts,  &c.,  &c.,  made  from  wood  by  the 
pupils  themselves.  With  the  names  and  uses  of  every  part  of 
these  they  were  made  familiar.  A  vocabulary  thus  learned  is 
much  more  fully  impressed  upon  the  memory  than  by  any 


REPORT   FOR    1843.  277 

other  conceivable  mode  ;  and,  as  it  regards  a  knowledge  of  the 
things  themselves,  it  is  the  only  way  of  imparting  it. 

lu  a  large  charitable  establishment  at  the  Hague,  destined 
for  poor  young  children,  whose  parents  brought  them  to  the 
school  early  in  the  morning  and  left  them  till  night,  when  they 
were  ready  to  return  home  from  their  day-labor,  I  saw  an  ex- 
cellent collection  of  this  sort,  from  which  the  youngest  children 
could  derive  much  practical  and  useful  knowledge.  The  great 
Burger  and  Real  schools  are  generally  supplied  with  fine  instru- 
ments for  lessons  and  practice  in  natural  philosophy,  chemistry, 
and  mechanics.  In  Carlsruhe,  besides  the  admirable  endow- 
ment of  such  apparatus,  which  both  the  State  and  the  friends 
of  education  have  furnished  to  this  class  of  schools,  the  Grand 
Ducal  cabinets,  the  physical  cabinet,  collections  of  natural 
objects,  picture-gallery,  botanic  garden,  even  the  palace-garden, 
and  also  the  Grand  Ducal  court-library,  library  of  the  Grand 
Ducal  physical  cabinet,  that  of  the  directors  of  the  technical 
courts,  and  also  the  workshops  and  manufactories  of  the  city 
and  environs,  are  open  at  all  times  to  the  pupils.  Pupils  study- 
ing in  the  forest  department  are  taken  to  the  governmental 
woodlands  to  study  botany,  &c.,  among  the  trees  and  flowers  ; 
those  of  the  architectural  schools,  the  mining  schools,  &c.,  are 
empowered  and  even  enjoined  by  law  to  visit  the  public  works 
in  progress,  in  company  with  their  teachers. 

These  facts,  besides  being  valuable  as  suggestions  to  us, 
afford  us  an  idea  of  the  greater  practical  turn  given  to  educa- 
tion in  those  countries  than  amongst  ourselves. 

Many  of  the  charity-schools  of  Holland  contained  paintings 
of  no  inconsiderable  excellence  and  value.  In  Germany,  where 
every  thing  (excepting  war  and  military  affairs)  is  conducted 
on  an  inexpensive  scale,  the  walls  of  the  schoolrooms  were 
often  adorned  with  cheap  engravings  and  lithographs  of  dis- 
tinguished men,  of  birds,  beasts,  and  fishes  ;  and,  in  many 
of  them,  a  cabinet  of  natural  history  had  been  commenced. 
And  throughout  all  Prussia  and  Saxony,  a  most  delightful  im- 
pression was  luft  upon  my  mind  by  the  character  of  the  persons 


'218  ANNUAL    REPORTS    ON    EDUCATION. 

whose  portraits  were  thus  displayed.  Almost  without  excep- 
tion, they  were  likenesses  of  good  men  rather  than  of  great 
ones,  —  frequently  of  distinguished  educationists  and  benefactors 
of  the  young,  whose  countenances  were  radiant  with  the  light 
of  benevolence,  and  the  very  sight  of  which  was  a  moral  lesson 
to  the  susceptible  hearts  of  children.  In  this  respect,  they  con- 
trasted most  strongly  with  England,  where  the  great  always 
takes  precedence  of  the  good,  and  where  there  are  fifty  monu- 
ments and  memorials  for  Nelson  and  Wellington  to  one  for 
Howard  or  Wilberforce. 

In  the  new  building  for  the  "  poor  school,"  at  Leipsic,  there 
is  a  large  hall  in  which  all  the  children  assemble  in  the  morn- 
ing for  devotional  purposes.  Over  the  teacher's  desk,  or  pulpit, 
is  a  painting  of  Christ  in  the  act  of  blessing  little  children. 
The  design  is  appropriate  and  beautiful.  Several  most  forlorn- 
lookimjr,  half-naked  children  stand  before  him.  He  stretches 
out  his  arms  over  them,  and  blesses  them.  The  mother  stands 
by  with  an  expression  of  rejoicing  such  as  only  a  mother  can 
feel.  The  little  children  look  lovingly  up  into  the  face  of  the 
.Saviour.  Others  stand  around,  awaiting  his  benediction.  In 
the  background  are  aged  men,  who  gaze  upon  the  spectacle 
with  mingled  love  for  the  children  and  reverence  for  their  ben- 
efactor. Hovering  above  is  a  group  of  angels,  hallowing  the 
scene  with  their  presence. 

LANCASTERIAN    OR    MONITORIAL    SCHOOLS. 

I  saw  many  Lancasteriau  or  Monitorial  schools  in  England, 
Scotland,  and  Ireland,  and  a  few  in  France.  Some  mere  ves- 
tiges of  the  plan  are  still  to  be  found  in  the  "poor  schools" 
of  Prussia ;  but  nothing  of  it  remains  in  Holland  or  in  many 
of  the  German  States.  It  has  been  abolished  in  these  countries 
by  a  universal  public  opinion.  Under  such  an  energetic  and 
talented  teacher  as  Mr.  Crossley,  of  the  Borough  Road  School 
in  London,  or  under  such  men  as  I  found  several  of  the  Edin- 
burgh teachers  to  be,  and  especially  those  of  the  Madras  Col- 


EEPORT   FOR    1843.  279 

lege  at  St.  Andrew's,  the  monitorial  system — where  great 
numbers  must  be  taught  at  a  small  expense  —  may  accomplish 
no  inconsiderable  good.  But  at  least  nine-tenths  of  all  the 
monitorial  schools  I  have  seen  would  suggest  to  me  the  idea 
that  the  name  "  monitorial"  had  been  given  them  by  way  of 
admonishing  the  world  to  avoid  their  adoption.  One  must  see 
the  difference  between  the  hampering,  blinding,  misleading 
instruction  given  by  an  inexperienced  child,  and  the  develop- 
ing, transforming,  and  almost  creative  power  of  an  accom- 
plished teacher  ;  one  must  rise  to  some  comprehension  of  the  vast 
import  and  significance  of  the  phrase  "  to  educate,"  —  before 
he  can  regard  with  a  sufficiently  energetic  contempt  that  boast 
of  Dr.  Bell,  "  Give  me  twenty-four  pupils  to-day,  and  I  will  give 
you  back  twenty-four  teachers  to-morrow." 

SCOTCH  SCHOOLS. 

There  are  some  points  in  which  the  schools  of  Scotland  are 
very  remarkable.  In  the  thoroughness  Avith  which  they  teach 
the  intellectual  part  of  reading,  they  furnish  a  model  worthy 
of  being  copied  by  the  world.  Not  only  is  the  meaning  of  all 
the  important  words  in  the  lesson  clearly  brought  out,  but  the 
whole  class  or  family  of  words  to  which  the  principal  word  be- 
longs are  introduced,  and  their  signification  given.  The  pupil  not 
only  gains  a  knowledge  of  the  meaning  of  till  the  leading  words 
contained  in  his  exercise,  but  also  of  their  roots,  derivatives,  and 
compounds,  and  thus  is  prepared  to  make  the  proper  discrimi- 
nations between  analogous  words  whenever  he  may  hear  or 
read  them  on  future  occasions.  For  instance,  suppose  the 
word  "  circumscribe  "  occurs  in  the  lesson  :  the  teacher  asks  from 
what  Latin  words  it  is  derived;  and,  being  answered,  he  then 
asks  what  other  English  words  are  formed  by  the  help  of  the 
Latin  preposition  "  circum,"  This  leads  to  an  explanation 
of  such  words  as  circumspect,  circumvent,  circumjacent,  circum- 
ambient, circumference,  circumflex,  circumfusion,  circumnavi- 
gate, circumstance,  circumlocution,  &c.,  &c.  The  same  thing 


280  ANNUAL   REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

would  then  be  done  in  reference  to  the  other  etymological 
component  of  "circumscribe"  —  viz.,  "  scribo  ;  "  and  here  the 
specific  meaning  of  the  words  describe,  inscribe,  transcribe, 
ascribe,  prescribe,  superscribe,  subscribe,  &c.,  &c.,  would  be  given. 
After  this  might  come  the  nouns,  adjectives,  and  adverbs  into 
which  this  word  enters  as  one  of  the  elements,  such  as  scrip- 
ture, manuscript,  &c.  The  teacher  says,  "  Give  me  a  word 
which  signifies  to  copy." 

Pupils.  Transcribe. 

T.  To  write  in  a  book,  or  on  a  tablet. 

P.  Inscribe. 

T.  To  write  upon,  or  on  the  outside  of,  as  on  a  letter. 

P.  Superscribe. 

T.  To  write  beneath  or  under. 

P.  Subscribe. 

T.  A  man  goes  around  to  obtain  the  names  for  a  book  or 
newspaper,  or  to  get  promises  of  money  for  stocks  or  for 
charity.  What  does  he  want? 

P.  Subscriptions. 

T.  And  what  are  those  called  who  give  him  their  names? 

P.  Subscribers. 

T.  And  what  is  a  copy  called? 

P.  Transcription. 

T.  Or  by  way  of  abbreviation? 

P.  Transcript. 

The  same  is  done  when  a  derivative  of  the  Latin  word  " pes" 
occurs,  as  in  the  words  impediment,  pedestal,  pediment,  impede, 
expedite ;  or  of  the  word  "  duco,"  in  induce,  produce,  tra- 
duce, reduce,  adduce,  conduce,  inducement,  induction,  deduction, 
reduction,  production ;  and  then  the  names  of  the  agents  or 
persons  performing  these  several  acts  are  given. 

So  of  words  in  which  the  Greek  "  grapho  "  is  an  element, 
as  geography .  chirography,  graphic,  paragraph,  telegraph,  graph- 
ite (a  mineral),  &c. 

The  same  exercises  take  place  in  regard  to  hundreds  of  other 
words. 


REPORT   FOR   1843.  281 

The  Scotch  teachers,  the  great  body  of  whom  are  graduates 
of  colleges,  or  have  attended  the  university  before  beginning  to 
keep  school,  are  perfectly  competent  to  instruct  in  this  thorough 
manner.  I  think  it  obvious,  however,  that  this  mode  of  teach- 
ing may  be  carried  too  far,  as  many  of  our  words,  though 
wholly  or  in  part  of  Latin  or  Greek  derivation,  have  lost  their 
etymological  signification,  and  assumed  a  conventional  one. 

But  all  this  —  admirable  in  its  way  —  was  hardly  worthy 
to  be  mentioned  in  comparison  with  another  characteristic 
of  the  Scottish  schools  ;  viz.,  the  mental  activity  with  which  the 
exercises  were  conducted,  both  on  the  part  of  teacher  and  pupils. 
I  entirely  despair  of  exciting  in  any  other  person,  by  a  descrip- 
tion, the  vivid  impressions  of  mental  activity  or  celerity  which 
the  daily  operations  of  these  schools  produced  in  my  own  mind. 
Actual  observation  alone  can  give  any  thing  approaching  to 
the  true  idea.  I  do  not  exaggerate  when  I  say  that  the  most 
active  and  lively  schools  I  have  ever  seen  in  the  United  States 
must  be  regarded  almost  as  dormitories,  if  compared  with  the 
fervid  life  of  the  Scotch  schools  ;  and,  by  the  side  of  theirs, 
our  pupils  would  seem  to  be  hybernating  animals  just  emerging 
from  their  torpid  state,  and  as  yet  but  half  conscious  of  the 
possession  of  life  and  faculties.  It  is  certainly  within  bounds 
to  say  that  there  were  six  times  as  many  questions  put  and 
answers  given,  in  the  same  space  of  time,  as  I  ever  heard  put 
and  given  in  any  school  in  our  own  country. 

But  a  few  preliminary  observations  are  necessary  to  make 
any  description  of  a  Scotch  school  intelligible. 

In  the  numerous  Scotch  schools  which  I  saw,  the  custom  of 
place-taking  prevailed,  not  merely  in  spelling,  but  in  geogra- 
phy, arithmetic,  reading,  defining,  &c.  Nor  did  this  consist 
solely  in  the  passing-up  of  the  one  giving  a  right  answer  above 
the  one  giving  a  wrong.  But,  if  a  scholar  made  a  very  bright 
answer,  he  was  promoted  at  once  to  the  top  of  the  class :  if  he 
made  a  very  stupid  one,  he  was  sentenced  no  less  summarily 
to  the  bottom.  Periodically,  prizes  are  given  ;  and  the  fact  of 
having  been  "  dux  "  (that  is,  at  the  head  of  the  class)  the 


282  ANNUAL    REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

greatest  number  of  times  is  the  principal  ground  on  which  the 
prizes  are  awarded.  In  some  schools  an  auxiliary  stimulus  is 
applied.  The  fact  of  having  passed  up  so  many  places  (say  ten 
or  twelve)  entitles  the  pupil  to  a  ticket ;  and  a  given  number 
of  these  tickets  is  equivalent  to  being  "  dux  "  once.  When  this 
sharper  goad  to  emulation  is  to  be  applied,  the  spectator  will 
sec  the  teacher  fill  his  hand  with  small  bits  of  paste-board  ;  and 
a>  the  recitation  goes  on,  and  competition  becomes  keen,  and 
places  are  rapidly  lost  and  won,  the  teacher  is  seen  occasionally 
to  give  one  of  these  tickets  to  a  pupil  as  a  counter,  or  token 
that  he  has  passed  up  above  so  many  of  his  fellows  ;  that  is, 
he  may  have  passed  up  above  four  at  one  time,  six  at  another, 
and  two  at  another :  and,  if  twelve  is  the  number  which  enti- 
tles to  a  ticket,  one  will  be  given  without  any  stopping  or  speak- 
ing ;  for  the  teacher  and  pupil  appear  to  have  kept  a  silent 
reckoning,  and,  when  the  latter  extends  his  hand,  the  former 
gives  a  ticket  without  any  suspension  of  the  lesson.  This  gives 
the  greatest  intensity  to  competition  ;  and,  at  such  times,  the 
children  have  a  look  of  almost  maniacal  eagerness  and  anxiety. 
I  have  said  that  questions  were  put  by  the  teacher  with  a 
rapidity  almost  incredible.  When  once  put,  however,  if  not 
answered,  they  are  not  again  stated  in  words.  If  the  first 
pupil  cannot  answer,  the  teacher  rarely  stops  to  say,  "  Next ;  " 
but  —  every  pupil  having  his  eye  on  the  teacher,  and  being 
alive  in  every  sense  and  faculty,  and  the  teacher  walking  up 
and  down  before  the  class,  and  gesticulating  vehemently  —  with 
his  arm  extended,  and  accompanying  each  motion  with  his  eye, 
he  points  to  the  next,  and  the  next,  until  perhaps,  if  the  ques- 
tion is  difficult,  he  may  have  indicated  each  one  in  a  section, 
but  obtained  an  answer  from  none.  Then  he  throws  his  arm  and 
eye  around  towards  one  side  of  the  room,  inviting  a  reply  from 
any  one  ;  and,  if  still  unsuccessful,  he  sweeps  them  across  the 
other  side :  and  all  this  will  take  but  half  a  minute.  Words 
being  too  slow  and  cumbrous,  the  language  of  signs  prevails  ; 
and,  the  parties  being  all  eye  and  ear,  the  interchange  of  ideas 
has  an  electric  rapidity.  While  the  teacher  turns  his  face  and 


EEPORT   FOR    1843.  28$ 

points  his  finger  towards  a  dozen  pupils  consecutively,  inviting 
a  reply,  perhaps  a  dozen  arms  will  be  extended  towards  him 
from  other  sections  or  divisions  of  the  class,  giving  notice  that 
they  are  ready  to  respond  ;  and  in  this  way  a  question  will  be 
put  to  a  class  of  fifty,  sixty,  or  eighty  pupils  in  half  a  minute 
of  time. 

Nor  is  this  all.  The  teacher  does  not  stand  immovably  fixed 
to  one  spot  (I  never  saw  a  teacher  in  Scotland  sitting  in  a 
schoolroom)  ;  nor  are  the  bodies  of  the  pupils  mere  blocks,  rest- 
ing motionless  in  their  seats,  or  lolling  from  side  to  side  as 
though  life  were  deserting  them.  The  custom  is  for  each  pupil 
to  rise  when  giving  an  answer.  This  is  ordinarily  done  so 
quick,  that  the  body  of  the  pupil,  darting  from  the  sitting  into 
the  standing  posture,  and  then  falling  back  into  the  first  posi- 
tion, seems  more  like  some  instrument  sent  suddenly  forward 
by  a  mechanical  force,  and  then  rapidly  withdrawn,  than  like 
the  rising  and  sitting  of  a  person  in  the  ordinary  way.  But  it 
is  obvious  that  the  scene  becomes  full  of  animation  when  — 
leave  being  given  to  a  whole  division  of  a  class  to  answer  —  a 
dozen  or  twenty  at  once  spring  to  their  feet,  and  ejaculate  at  the 
top  of  their  voices.  The  moment  it  is  seen  that  the  question 
has  been  rightly  answered,  and  this  is  instantaneously  shown 
by  the  manner  of  the  teacher,  all  fall  back,  and  another  ques- 
tion is  put.  If  this  is  not  answered,  almost  before  an  attentive 
spectator  can  understand  it,  the  teacher  extends  his  arm  and 
flashes  his  eye  to  the  next,  and  the  next,  and  so  on  ;  and,  when  a 
rapid  signal  is  given  to  another  side  of  the  room,  a  dozen  pupils 
leap  to  the  floor  and  vociferate  a  reply. 

Nor  can  the  faintest  picture  of  these  exciting  scenes  be  given 
without  introducing  something  of  the  technical  phraseology  used 
in  the  school. 

If  a  pupil  is  not  prompt  at  the  moment,  and  if  the  teacher 
means  to  insist  upon  an  answer  from  him  (for  it  will  not  do  to 
pass  by  a  scholar  always,  however  dull),  he  exclaims,  in  no  very 
moderate  or  gentle  voice,  "Come  away,"  or  "Come  away 
now ;  "  and  if  the  first  does  not  answer,  and  the  next  does,  he 


284  ANNUAL   REPORTS   ON  EDUCATION. 

directs  the  latter  to  pass  above  the  former  by  the  conventional 
phrase,  "  Take  him  down."  If  a  whole  section  stands  at  fault 
for  a  moment,  and  then  one  leaps  up,  and  shouts  out  the  reply, 
the  teacher  exclaims,  "  Dux,  boy  ;  "  which  means  that  the  one 
who  answered  shall  take  the  head  of  the  class. 

Suppose  the  teacher  to  be  hearing  his  class  in  a  reading-les- 
son, and  that  the  word  "impediment"  occurs,  something  very 
like  the  following  scene  may  take  place  :  — 

Teacher.  "  Impediment,"  from  what  Latin  words? 

Pupil.  In  and  pes. 

T.  What  does  it  mean? 

P.  To  oppose  something  against  the  feet, — to  keep  them 
back. 

T.  How  is  the  word  "pes"  used  in  statuary? 

P.  In  pedestal,  —  the  block  on  which  a  statue  is  raised. 

T.  In  architecture? 

P.  Pediment. 

T.  In  music? 

P.  Pedal,  a  part  of  an  organ  moved  by  the  feet. 

T.  In  botany  ? 

P.  Pedicle,  or  footstalk  of  a  flower. 

T.  Give  me  a  verb. 

P.  Impede. 

T.  A  noun. 

P.  Impediment. 

T.  An  adjective  which  imports  despatch  in  the  absence  of 
obstacles. 

P.  Expeditious. 

T.  An  adjective  meaning  desirable  or  conducive. 

P.  (Hesitates.)  T.  Come  away.  (To  the  next.)  Come 
away.  (He  now  points  to  half  a  dozen  in  succession,  giving  to 
each  not  more  than  a  twinkling  of  time.) 

Ninth  pupil.  Expedient. 

T.  Take  'em  down.     (This  pupil  then  goes  above  eight.) 

All  this  does  not  occupy  half  the  time  in  the  class  that  it 
takes  to  read  an  account  of  it. 


REPORT   FOR    1843.  285 

In  a  school  where  a  recitation  in  Latin  was  going  on,  I  wit- 
nessed a  scene  of  this  kind.  The  room,  unlike  the  rooms 
where  the  children  of  the  common  people  are  taught,  was 
large.  Seventy  or  eighty  boys  sat  on  deskless,  backless 
benches,  arranged  on  three  sides  of  a  square  or  parallelo- 
gram. A  boy  is  now  called  upon  to  recite,  —  to  pass  a  Latin 
noun,  for  instance.  But  he  does  not  respond  quite  so  quickly 
as  the  report  of  a  gun  follows  the  flash.  The  teacher  cries  out, 
"  Come  away."  The  boy  errs,  giving  perhaps  a  wrong  gender, 
or  saying  that  it  is  derived  from  a  Greek  verb,  when,  in  fact,  it 
is  derived  from  a  Greek  noun  of  the  same  family.  Twenty  boys 
leap  forward  into  the  area,  —  as  though  the  house  were  on  fire, 
or  a  mine  or  an  ambush  had  been  sprung  upon  them,  —  and 
shout  out  the  true  answer  in  a  voice  that  could  be  heard  forty 
rods.  And  so  the  recitation  proceeds  for  an  hour. 

To  an  unaccustomed  spectator,  on  entering  one  of  these 
rooms,  all  seems  uproar,  turbulence,  and  the  contention  of  angry 
voices,  —  the  teacher  traversing  the  space  before  his  class  in  a 
state  of  high  excitement ;  the  pupils  springing  from  their  seats, 
darting  to  the  middle  of  the  floor,  and  sometimes,  with  extended 
arms,  forming  a  circle  around  him,  two,  three,  or  four  deep 
(every  finger  quivering  from  the  intensity  of  their  emotions), 
until  some  more  sagacious  mind,  outstripping  its  rivals,  solves 
the  difficulty,  —  when  all  are  in  their  seats  again,  as  though  by 
magic,  and  ready  for  another  encounter  of  wits. 

I  have  seen  a  school  kept  for  two  hours  in  succession  in  this 
state  of  intense  mental  activity,  with  nothing  more  than  an 
alternation  of  subjects  during  the  time,  or  perhaps  the  relaxa- 
tion of  singing.  At  the  end  of  the  recitation,  both  teacher  and 
pupils  would  glow  with  heat,  and  be  covered  with  perspiration, 
as  though  they  had  been  contending  in  the  race  or  the  ring. 
It  would  be  utterly  impossible  for  the  children  to  bear  such 
fiery  excitement  if  the  physical  exercise  were  not  as  violent  as 
the  mental  is  intense.  But  children  who  actually  leap  into  the 
air  from  the  energy  of  their  impulses,  and  repeat  this  as  often 
as  once  in  two  minutes  on  an  average,  will  not  suffer  from  sup- 
pressed activity  of  the  muscular  system. 


286        ANNUAL  REPORTS  ON  EDUCATION. 

The  mental  labor  performed  in  a  given  period  in  these 
schools,  by  children  under  the  age  of  twelve  or  fourteen  years, 
is  certainly  many  times  more  than  I  have  ever  seen  in  any 
schools  of  our  own  composed  of  children  as  young.  With  us, 
the  lower  classes  do  not  ordinarily  work  more  than  half  the 
time  while  they  are  in  the  schoolroom.  Even  many  members 
of  the  reciting  classes  are  drowsy  and  listless,  and  evidently 
following  some  train  of  thought  —  if  they  are  thinking  at  all  — 
whose  scene  lies  beyond  the  Avails  of  the  schoolhouse,  rather 
than  applying  their  minds  to  the  subject-matter  of  the  lesson, 
or  listening  to  those  who  are  reciting,  or  feigning  to  recite  it. 
But,  iu  the  mode  above  described,  there  is  no  sleepiness,  no 
droning,  no  inattention.  The  moment  an  eye  wanders,  or  a 
countenance  becomes  listless,  it  is  roused  by  a  special  appeal  ; 
and  the  contagion  of  the  excitement  is  so  great  as  to  operate 
upon  every  mind  and  frame  that  is  not  an  absolute  non-con- 
ductor to  life. 

One  sees  at  a  glance  how  familiar  the  teacher  who  teaches 
in  this  way  must  be  with  the  whole  subject,  in  order  to  com- 
mand the  attention  of  a  class  at  all. 

I  was  told  by  the  Queen's  Inspector  of  the  schools  iu  Scot- 
land, that  the  first  test  of  a  teacher's  qualification  is  his 
power  to  excite  and  to  sustain  the  attention  of  his  class.  If 
a  teacher  cannot  do  this,  he  is  pronounced,  without  further 
inquiry,  incompetent  to  teach. 

There  are  some  good  schools  iu  England,  such  as  the  Nor- 
mal School  at  Battersea,  those  of  the  Home  and  Colonial  Infant 
School  Society,  and  the  Borough  Road  School,  in  London,  and 
some  others ;  but,  as  I  saw  nothing  in  these  superior  to  what 
may  be  seen  in  good  schools  at  home,  I  omit  all  remarks  upon 
them.* 

*  The  famous  school  at  Norwood,  —  eight  or  ten  miles  from  London,  —  where 
more  than  a  thousand  of  the  pauper  children  of  London  are  collected,  is  an 
extraordinary  sight,  without  being  an  extraordinary  school. 


REPORT   FOR   1843.  287 

PRUSSIAN   AND    SAXON    SCHOOLS.  —  SUBJECTS   TAUGHT.  —  MODES 
OF   TEACHING,    GOVERNING,    ETC. 

The  questions  which  the  friends  of  education  in  Massachu- 
setts have  been  most  anxious  to  hear  answered  iu  regard  to 
the  schools  of  Prussia,  Saxony,  and  some  other  parts  of  Ger- 
many, are  such  as  these  :  What  branches  are  taught  in  them? 
What  are  the  modes  and  processes  of  teaching?  What  incite- 
ments or  motive-powers  are  employed  for  stimulating  the  pupils 
to  learn?  In  fine,  what  is  done  when  teacher  and  pupils  meet 
each  other  face  to  face  in  the  schoolroom?  how  is  it  done,  and 
with  what  success? 

In  regard  to  the  grand  principles  on  which  our  own  school- 
system  is  organized,  we  look  for  no  substantial  improvement. 
Our  schools  are  perfectly  free.  A  child  would  be  as  much 
astonished  at  being  asked  to  pay  any  sum,  however  small,  for 
attending  our  common  schools,  as  he  would  be  if  payment  were 
demanded  of  him  for  walking  in  the  public  streets,  for  breath- 
ing the  common  air,  or  enjoying  the  warmth  of  the  unappro- 
priable  sun.  Massachusetts  has  the  honor  of  establishing  the 
first  system  of  free  schools  in  the  world  ;  and  she  projected  a 
plan  so  elastic  and  expansive  in  regard  to  the  course  of  studies 
arfd  the  thoroughness  of  instruction,  that  it  may  be  enlarged 
and  perfected,  to  meet  any  new  wants  of  her  citizens,  to  the  end 
of  time.  Our  system,  too,  is  one  and  the  same  for  both  rich 
and  poor ;  for  as  all  human  beings,  in  regard  to  their  natural 
rights,  stand  upon  a  footing  of  equality  before  God,  so,  iu  this 
respect,  the  human  has  been  copied  from  the  divine  plan  of  gov- 
ernment, by  placing  all  citizens  on  the  same  footing  of  equality 
before  the  law  of  the  land.  For  these  purposes,  therefore,  we 
do  not  desire  to  copy  or  to  study  the  systems  of  foreign  nations, 
usually  so  different  from  our  own  :  we  hope,  rather,  that  they 
will  study  and  copy  ours. 

And  further,  in  regard  to  the  general  organization  and  main- 
tenance of  the  Prussian  and  other  German  schools,  AVC  already 
have  extensive  means  of  knowledge.  The  Report  of  M.  Cousin, 


288  ANNUAL   REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

formerly  Minister  of  Public  Instruction  iu  France,  upon  the 
Prussian  system  ;  the  Report  of  Dr.  Bache,  late  President  of 
Girard  College,  in  regard  to  all  kinds  of  charitable  foundations 
for  instruction  in  Europe  ;  the  admirable  Report  of  Professor 
Stowe,  made  to  the  General  Assembly  of  Ohio  in  1837 ; 
together  with  various  articles  to  be  found  iu  reviews  and  other 
periodicals  published  within  the  last  twenty  years,  —  will  supply 
the  general  reader  with  all  that  he  will  care  to  kuow  ou  these 
topics.  My  purpose,  therefore,  is  to  confine  myself  to  those 
poiuts  respecting  which  we  have  not  as  yet  adequate  means  of 
information  ;  and  to  refer  to  what  has  been  sufficiently  detailed 
by  other  inquirers,  only  when  necessary  for  the  sake  of  giving 
unity  and  intelligibleness  to  my  own  remarks. 

I  ought  to  premise  that  I  have  visited  but  a  small  number  of 
the  thirty-eight  German  States,  and  seen  comparatively  but  a 
few  of  the  schools  in  that  great  Confederation.  My  tour  was 
made  through  Prussia,  Saxony,  the  Grand  Duchy  of  Nassau, 
of  Hesse-Darmstadt,  Baden,  and  a  few  of  the  smaller  States, 
together  with  Hamburg  and  Frankfort,  the  largest  of  the  free 
cities  belonging  to  the  Confederation.  This  cautionary  state- 
ment is  necessary,  because  travellers  are  apt  to  generalize  their 
facts,  making  particular  instances  represent  whole  countries  ; 
and  perhaps  readers  are  quite  as  prone  to  this  generalization  as 
writers.  Prussia  contains  a  population  of  fourteen  or  fifteen 
millions,  Saxony  about  two  millions  ;  and,  in  the  schools  of 
these  and  other  German  States,  I  spent  from  six  weeks  to  two 
months,  using  all  practicable  diligence  in  going  from  place  to 
place,  visiting  schools  and  conversing  with  teachers  and  school- 
officers  by  day,  and  examining  educational  pamphlets,  reports, 
&c.,  at  night.  But,  of  course,  I  could  visit  only  a  small  part  of 
the  schools  which  represent  a  population  of  eighteen  or  twenty 
millions.  Perhaps  1  saw  as  fair  a  proportion  of  the  Prussian 
and  Saxon  schools  as  one  would  see  of  the  schools  iu  Mas- 
sachusetts who  should  visit  those  of  Boston,  Newburyport, 
Lexington,  New  Bedford,  Worcester,  Northampton,  and  Spring- 
field. 


REPORT   FOR    1843.  289 

The  authority  and  control  assumed  by  the  above-mentioned 
governments  over  the  youth  of  the  State  are  very  extensive. 
The  impartial  observer,  however,  is  bound  to  admit  that  this 
assumption  is  not  wholly  for  the  aggrandizement  of  the  rulers ; 
that  authority  is  not  claimed  in  the  mere  spirit  of  arbitrary 
power,  but,  to  a  great  extent,  for  the  welfare  of  the  subject. 
A  gentleman  who  formerly  resided  in  one  of  the  smaller  Ger- 
man States,  and  who  there  exercised  the  office  of  judge,  a  part 
of  whose  functions  was  the  appointment  of  guardians  to  minors 
and  others  (in  this  respect  analogous  to  one  of  the  duties  of  our 
Judges  of  Probate),  told  me  that  it  was  the  common  custom 
of  himself  and  his  brethren  in  office,  when  a  guardian  appeared 
to  render  his  annual  account,  to  require  him  to  produce  the 
ward,  as  well  as  the  account,  for  the  inspection  of  the  court ; 
and  no  final  account  of  a  guardian  was  ever  settled  without  a 
personal  inspection  of  the  ward  by  the  judge.  In  these  inter- 
views, not  a  little  could  be  learned,  by  the  personal  manners, 
address,  and  appearance  of  the  ward,  as  to  the  fidelity  with 
which  the  guardian  had  attended  to  the  health,  habits,  and 
education  of  his  charge. 

Another  fact  which  will  strike  the  visitor  to  these  countries 
with  mingled  sorrow  and  joy  is  the  number  and  the  populous- 
ness  of  their  orphan  establishments.  In  the  great  cities,  almost 
without  exception,  one  or  more  of  these  is  to  be  found.  The 
wars  of  Europe  have  torn  away  the  fathers  from  the  protection 
of  their  families  ;  and,  for  long  periods,  almost  all  that  many 
thousands  of  children  knew  of  the  parent,  who  should  have 
been  their  guide  and  counsellor  until  mature  age,  was,  that  he 
died  in  the  camp,  or  added  another  unit  to  the  slaughtered 
hosts  of  the  battle-field.  But  it  must  be  allowed  that  the  gov- 
ernments have  done  something,  however  inadequate,  to  atone 
for  their  enormous  guilt.  The  orphan-houses,  originally  estab- 
lished mainly  for  this  class  of  bereaved  children,  have  been, 
since  the  general  pacification  of  Europe,  appropriated  to 
orphans  of  other  classes.  Here  their  living,  including  board, 
clothes,  lodging,  and  excellent  instruction  in  all  the  element- 

19 


290  ANNUAL   REPORTS   ON  EDUCATION. 

ary  branches,  with  drawing,  music,  &c.,  are  gratuitously  fur- 
nished. 

In  the  Royal  Orphan  House,  at  Potsdam,  for  instance,  there 
are  a  thousand  boys,  —  all  the  children  of  soldiers.  They  seem 
collected  there  as  a  monument  of  the  havoc  which  war  makes 
,of  men.  Connected  with  this,  though  in  another  place,  is  an 
establishment  for  the  orphan  daughters  of  soldiers.  The  insti- 
tution for  boys  differed  from  most  others  of  the  same  class 
which  I  saw,  in  paying  great  attention  to  physical  training. 
As  the  boys  are  destined  for  the  army,  it  is  thought  important 
to  give  them  agility  and  vigor  ;  and,  at  the  age  of  fourteen,  the 
institution  discards  those  who  are  not  healthy.  It  is  not  yet 
discovered  that  activity  and  energy  are  necessary  in  any  occu- 
pation save  that  of  killing  our  fellow-men.  The  boys  practise 
gymnastic  exercises,  —  such  as  climbing  poles,  ascending  ropes, 
flinging  their  bodies  round  and  round  over  a  bar  while  they 
hold  on  only  by  the  bend  of  the  legs  at  the  knee-joints,  vault- 
ing upon  the  wooden-horse,  &c.,  —  until  their  physical  feats 
reach  a  point  of  perfection  which  I  have  never  seen  surpassed, 
except  by  professional  circus-riders  or  rope-dancers.  It  is  of 
these  pupils  that  Dr.  Bache  says,  "  I  have  never  seen  a  body 
of  young  men  all  so  well  physically  developed  ;  a  result  pro- 
duced by  constant  attention  to  their  education  on  this  point." 
In  the  dormitories,  however,  I  saw  the  same  fearful  assemblage 
of  feather-beds  as  elsewhere,  —  a  hundred  and  forty  in  a  room. 
But  the  rooms  had  the  redeeming  circumstance  of  being  well 
ventilated. 

The  Frauke  Institute,  at  Halle,  founded  about  the  beginning 
of  the  last  century,  now  numbering  nearly  three  thousand 
pupils  (a  small  part  only,  at  the  present  time,  are  orphans),  is 
considered  the  parent  of  this  class  of  institutions  in  Germany  ; 
and  a  more  admirable  establishment  of  the  kind,  or  one  con- 
ducted with  more  intelligence  and  utility,  probably  does  not 
exist  in  the  world. 

Another  class  of  institutions  should  challenge  the  admiration 
of  all  civilized  people,  and  be  imitated  in  every  nation.  I  refer 


REPORT    FOR    1843.  291 

to  schools  established  in  connection  with  prisons.  When  a 
Prussian  parent  has  forfeited  his  liberty  by  the  commission  of 
a  crime,  and  is  therefore  sequestered  from  society  and  from  his 
family,  his  children  are  not  left  to  abide  the  scorn  of  the  com- 
munity, nor  abandoned  to  the  tender  mercies  of  chance.  The 
mortification  o£  having  a  disgraced  parent  seems  enough,  with- 
out the  life-long  calamity  of  a  neglected  youth.  Hence  such 
children  are  taken  and  placed  under  the  care  of  a  wise  and 
humane  teacher,  who  supplies  to  them  that  parental  guidance 
which  it  has  been  their  affliction  to  lose.  Indeed,  such  care  is 
taken  in  selecting  the  teachers  of  these  schools,  that  the  trans- 
fer into  their  hands  generally  proves  a  blessing  to  the  children. 
Thus  society  is  saved  from  the  depredations  and  the  expense 
of  a  second,  perhaps  of  a  third  and  a  fourth  generation  of  crim- 
inals, through  these  acts  of  foresight  and  prevention,  —  acts 
which  are  as  clearly  connected  with  sound  worldly  policy  as 
with  those  higher  moral  and  religious  obligations  which  bind 
the  conscience  of  every  citizen  and  legislator. 

Prussia  and  Saxony  have  still  another  class  of  institutions 
of  the  most  beneficent  description  ever  devised  by  man.  These 
are  reformatory  establishments  for  youthful  offenders  ;  or,  as 
they  are  most  expressively  and  beautifully  called  in  the  lan- 
guage of  the  country,  Redemption  Institutes.  The  three  prin- 
cipal establishments  of  this  class  which  I  visited  were,  one 
at  Hamburg,  under  the  care  of  Mr.  Wichern  ;  one  just  outside 
the  Halle  gate  of  the  city  of  Berlin,  superintended  by  Mr.  Kopf ; 
and  one  at  Dresden  under  Mr.  Schubert.  At  this  latter  place, 
for  the  first  and  only  time  in  Germany,  I  heard  correct  physio- 
logical principles  advocated  in  theory,  and  thoroughly  carried 
out  in  practice.  Here  the  feather-bed  as  a  covering  was  dis- 
used and  condemned,  the  woollen  blanket  being  substituted 
for  it ;  and  the  principal,  not  knowing  my  views  upon  the  sub- 
ject, began  to  defend  his  abandonment  of  the  common  practice 
with  something  of  the  zeal  of  a  reformer.* 

*  At  an  orphan  school,  iiear  by,  woollen  was  also  used  as  a  covering  instead  of 
feathers ;  but  here  the  principal  apologized  for  the  absence  of  the  latter,  by  saying 
the  children  and  the  institution  were  too  poor  to  afford  them. 


292  ANNUAL   REPORTS    ON   EDUCATION. 

Some  of  the  facts  connected  with  the  Redemption  Insti- 
tute at  Hamburg  are  so  extraordinary,  and  illustrate  so 
forcibly  the  combined  power  of  wisdom  and  love  in  the  refor- 
mation of  vicious  children,  that  I  cannot  forbear  detailing 
them. 

The  school  of  Mr.  J.  H.  Wichern  is  called  the  Rauhe 
Haus,  and  is  situated  four  or  five  miles  out  of  the  city  of 
Hamburg.  It  was  opened  for  the  reception  of  abandoned 
children  of  the  very  lowest  class,  —  children  brought  up  in  the 
abodes  of  infamy,  and  taught,  not  only  by  example  but  by  pre- 
cept, the  vices  of  sensuality,  thieving,  and  vagabondry,  —  chil- 
dren who  had  never  known  the  family  tie,  or  who  had  known 
it  only  to  see  it  violated.  Hamburg  having  been  for  many 
years  a  commercial  and/ree  city,  and,  of  course,  open  to  adven- 
turers and  renegades  from  all  parts  of  the  world,  has  many 
more  of  this  class  of  population  than  its  own  institutions  and 
manners  would  have  bred.  The  thoughts  of  Mr.  Wichern 
were  strongly  turned  towards  this  subject  while  yet  a  student 
at  the  university ;  but  want  of  means  deterred  him  from 
engaging  in  it,  until  a  legacy  left  by  a  Mr.  Gercken  enabled 
him  to  make  a  beginning  in  1833.  He  has  since  devoted  his 
life  and  all  his  worldly  goods  to  the  work.  It  is  his  first  aim 
that  the  abandoned  children  whom  he  seeks  out  on  the  high- 
way, and  in  the  haunts  of  vice,  shall  know  and  feel  the  bless- 
ings of  domestic  life  ;  that  they  shall  be  introduced  into  the 
bosom  of  a  family  :  for  this  he  regards  as  a  divine  institution, 
and  therefore  the  birthright  of  every  human  being,  and  the  only 
atmosphere  in  which  the  human  affections  can  be  adequately 
cultivated.  His  house,  then,  must  not  be  a  prison,  or  a  place 
of  punishment  or  confinement.  The  site  he  had  chosen  for  his 
experiment  was  one  enclosed  within  high,  strong  walls  and 
fences.  His  first  act  was  to  break  down  these  barriers,  and  to 
take  all  bolts  and  bars  from  the  doors  and  windows.  He  began 
with  three  boys  of  the  worst  description  ;  and,  within  three 
months,  the  number  increased  to  twelve.  They  were  taken 
into  the  bosom  of  Mr.  Wichern' s  family :  his  mother  was 


REPORT   FOR    1843.  293 

their  mother,  and  his  sister  their  sister.  They  were  not  pun- 
ished for  any  past  offences,  but  were  told  that  all  should  be 
forgiven  them  if  they  tried  to  do  well  in  future.  The  defence- 
less condition  of  the  premises  was  referred  to,  and  they  were 
assured  that  no  walls  or  bolts  were  to  detain  them  ;  that  one 
cord  only  should  bind  them,  and  that  the  cord  of  love.  The 
effect  attested  the  all  but  omnipotent  power  of  generosity  and 
affection.  Children  from  seven  or  eight  to  fifteen  or  sixteen 
years  of  age,  in  many  of  whom  early  and  loathsome  vices  had 
nearly  obliterated  the  stamp  of  humanity,  were  transformed 
not  only  into  useful '  members  of  society,  but  into  characters 
that  endeared  themselves  to  all  within  their  sphere  of  acquaint- 
ance. The  education  given  by  Mr.  Wichern  has  not  been  an 
aesthetic  or  literary  one.  The  children  were  told  at  the  begin- 
ning that  labor  was  the  price  of  living,  and  that  they  must  earn 
their  own  bread  if  they  would  secure  a  comfortable  home. 
He  did  not  point  them  to  ease  and  affluence,  but  to  an  honora- 
ble poverty,  which,  they  were  taught,  was  not  in  itself  an  evil. 
Here  were  means  and  materials  for  learning  to  support  them- 
selves ;  but  there  was  no  rich  fund  or  other  resources  for  their 
maintenance.  Charity  had  supplied  the  home  to  which  they 
were  invited  ;  their  own  industry  must  supply  the  rest.  Mr. 
Wichern  placed  great  reliance  upon  religious  training ;  but 
this  did  not  consist  in  giving  them  dry  and  unintelligible  dog- 
mas. He  spoke  to  them  of  Christ,  as  the  benefactor  of  man- 
kind, who  proved  by  deeds  of  love  his  interest  in  the  race ; 
who  sought  out  the  worst  and  most  benighted  of  men  to  give 
them  instruction  and  relief;  and  who  left  it  in  charge  to  those 
who  came  after  him,  and  wished  to  be  called  his  disciples,  to 
do  likewise.  Is  it  strange  that,  enforced  by  such  a  practical 
exemplification  of  Christian  love  as  their  fatherly  benefactor 
gave  them  in  his  every-day  life,  the  story  of  Christ's  words 
and  deeds  should  have  sunk  deeply  into  their  hearts,  and  melted 
them  into  tenderness  and  docility?  Such  was  the  effect.  The 
most  rapid  improvement  ensued  in  the  great  majority  of  the 
children  ;  and  even  those  whom  long  habits  of  idleness  and 


294  ANNUAL   REPORTS   ON    EDUCATION. 

vagabondry  made  it  difficult  to  keep  in  the  straight  path  had 
long  seasons  of  obedience  and  gratitude,  to  which  any  aberra- 
tion from  duty  was  only  an  exception. 

As  the  number  of  pupils  increased,  Mr.  Wichern  saw  that 
the  size  of  the  family  would  seriously  impair  its  domestic  char- 
acter. To  obviate  this,  he  divided  his  company  into  families 
of  twelve  ;  and  he  has  erected  nine  separate  buildings,  situated 
in  a  semicircle  around  his  own,  and  near  to  it,  in  each  of  which 
dwells  a  family  of  twelve  boys  or  of  twelve  girls,  under  the 
care  of  a  House-Father  or  House-Mother,  as  the  assistants  are 
respectively  called.  Each  of  these  families  is,  to  some  extent, 
an  independent  community,  having  an  individuality  of  its  own. 
They  eat  and  sleep  in  their  own  dwelling;  and  the  children 
belonging  to  each  look  up  to  their  own  particular  father  or 
mother,  as  home-bred  children  to  a  parent.  The  general  meet- 
ing every  morning,  —  at  first  in  the  chamber  of  Mr.  Wichern's 
mother,  but  afterwards,  when  the  numbers  increased,  in  the 
little  chapel,  —  and  their  frequent  meetings  at  Avork,  or  in  the 
play-ground,  form  a  sufficient,  and,  in  fact,  a  very  close  bond 
of  union  for  the  whole  community.  Much  was  done  by  the 
children  themselves  in  the  erection  of  their  little  colony  of 
buildings  ;  and,  in  doing  this,  they  were  animated  by  a  feeling 
of  hope  and  a  principle  of  independence  in  providing  a  dwell- 
ing for  themselves,  while  they  experienced  the  pleasures  of 
benevolence  in  rendering  assistance  to  each  other.  Mr.  Wichern 
mentions,  with  great  satisfaction,  the  good  spirit  of  the  architect 
who  came  upon  the  premises  to  direct  in  putting  up  the  first 
house.  This  man  would  not  retain  a  journeyman  for  a  day 
or  an  hour  who  did  not  conduct  with  the  utmost  decorum 
and  propriety  before  the  children  who  were  assisting  in  the 
work. 

Instruction  is  given  in  reading,  writing,  arithmetic,  singing, 
and  drawing ;  and,  in  some  instances,  in  higher  branches. 
Music  is  used  as  one  of  the  most  efficient  instruments  for  soft- 
ening stubborn  wills,  and  calling  forth  tender  feelings  ;  and  its 
deprivation  is  one  of  the  punishments  for  delinquency.  The 


REPORT   FOR    1843.  295 

songs  and  hymns  have  been  specially  adapted  to  the  circum- 
stances and  wants  of  the  community  ;  and  it  has  often  hap- 
pened that  the  singing  of  an  appropriate  hymn,  both  at  the 
gatherings  in  the  mother's  chamber,  which  were  always  more 
or  less  kept  up,  and  in  the  little  chapel,  has  awakened  the  first- 
born sacred  feeling  in  obdurate  and  brutified  hearts.  Some- 
times a  voice  would  drop  from  the  choir,  and  then  weeping 
and  sobbing  would  be  heard  instead.  The  children  would 
say  they  could  not  sing ;  they  must  think  of  their  past  lives, 
of  their  brothers  and  sisters,  or  of  their  parents  living  in  vice 
and  misery  at  home.  On  several  occasions,  the  singing  exercise 
had  to  be  given  up.  Frequently  the  children  were  sent  out  to 
the  garden  to  recover  themselves.  An  affecting  narrative  is 
recorded  of  a  boy  who  ran  away,  but  whom  Mr.  Wichern  pur- 
sued, found,  and  persuaded  to  return.  He  was  brought  back 
on  Christmas  Eve,  which  was  always  celebrated  in  the  mother's 
chamber.  The  children  were  engaged  in  singing  the  Christmas 
hymns  when  he  entered  the  room.  At  first,  they  manifested 
strong  disapprobation  of  his  conduct ;  for  he  was  a  boy  to  whose 
faults  special  forbearance  had  been  previously  shown.  They 
were  then  told  to  decide  among  themselves  how  he  should  be 
punished.  This  brought  them  all  to  perfect  silence  ;  and,  after 
some  whispering  and  consulting  together,  one  who  had  for- 
merly been  guilty  of  the  same  fault  of  ingratitude,  under  still 
less  excusable  circumstances,  burst  out  in  a  petition  for  his 
forgiveness.  All  united  in  it,  reached  out  to  him  a  friendly 
hand  ;  and  the  festival  of  the  Christmas  Eve  was  turned  into  a 
rejoicing  over  the  brother  that  had  been  lost,  but  was  found. 
The  pardon  was  not  in  words  merely,  but  in  deeds.  No  refer- 
ence to  the  fact  was  afterwards  made.  A  day  or  two  after,  he 
was  sent  away  on  an  errand  to  the  distance  of  half  a  mile.  He 
was  surprised  and  affected  by  this  mark  of  confidence  ;  and 
from  that  time  never  abused  his  freedom,  though  intrusted  to 
execute  commissions  at  great  distances.  But  he  could  never 
after  hear  certain  Christmas  hymns  without  shedding  tears ; 
and  long  subsequently,  in  a  confidential  commuuication  to  Mr. 


296  ANNUAL   REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

Wichern  respecting  some  act  of  his  former  life  (an  unburden- 
ing of  the  overladen  conscience,  which  was  very  common  with 
the  inmates,  and  al \vays  voluntary :  for  they  were  told  on  their 
arrival  that  their  past  life  should  never  be  spoken  of  unless 
between  them  and  himself),  he  referred  to  the  decisive  effect 
of  that  scene  of  loving-kindness  upon  his  feelings  and  char- 
acter. 

One  peculiar  featui-e  of  this  institution  is,  that  the  children 
are  not  stimulated  by  the  worldly  motives  of  fame,  wealth,  or 
personal  aggrandizement.  The  superintendent  does  not  inflame 
them  with  the  ambition,  that  if  they  surpass  each  other  at 
recitation,  and  make  splendid  displays  at  public  examinations, 
they  shall,  in  the  end,  become  high  military  officers  or  congress- 
men, or  excite  the  envy  of  all  by  their  wealth  or  fame.  On 
the  other  hand,  so  far  as  this  world's  goods  are  concerned,  he 
commends  and  habituates  them  to  the  idea  of  an  honorable 
poverty ;  and  the  only  riches  with  which  he  dazzles  their 
imaginations  are  the  riches  of  good  works.  He  looks  to  them 
as  his  hope  for  redeeming  others  from  the  sphere  whence  they 
were  taken  ;  and  there  have  been  many  touching  instances  of 
the  reformation  of  parents  and  families,  for  whom  the  natural 
affection  fi^st  sprang  up  in  these  children's  hearts  after  they 
had  learned  the  blessings  of  home. 

One  of  the  most  interesting  effects  of  this  charity  is  the 
charity  which  it  reproduces  in  its  objects  ;  and  thus  it  is  shown 
that,  in  the  order  of  nature,  the  actions  of  good  men,  —  provided 
they  are  also  wise,  —  not  less  than  good  seed,  will  produce 
thirty  or  sixty  or  a  hundred  fold  of  beneficent  fruit.  Mr. 
"NVirhern  makes  a  great  point  of  celebrating  Christmas  ;  and 
the  friends  of  the  school  are  in  the  habit  of  sending  small  sums 
of  money,  and  articles  of  various  kinds,  to  adorn  the  festival. 
This  money  has  often  been  appropriated,  voluntarily,  by  the 
children,  to  charitable  purposes.  They  frequently  give  away 
their  pennies ;  and  instances  have  happened  where  they  have 
literally  emptied  their  little  purses  into  the  hands  of  poverty 
and  distress,  and  taken  off  their  own  clothes  to  cover  the  naked. 


REPORT   FOR    1843.  297 

On  one  occasion,  six  poor  children  had  been  found  by  some  of 
the  scholars,  and  invited  to  the  Christmas  festival.  There 
they  were  clothed,  and  many  useful  aud  pleasing  articles  made 
by  the  givers  were  presented  to  them.  One  of  the  boys  read  a 
passage  from  the  history  of  Christ  ;  and  the  Christmas  songs 
and  other  songs  of  thanksgiving  and  praise  were  sung.  To  the 
sound  of  the  organ  which  a  friend  had  presented  to  the  little 
chapel,  some  verses  welcoming  the  strangers  succeeded.  The 
guests  then  departed,  blessing  the  house  and  its  kind  inhab- 
itants ;  but  who  can  doubt  that  a  voice  of  gladness  more 
precious  than  all  worldly  applauses  sprang  up  unbidden  and 
exulting  in  the  hearts  of  the  little  benefactors? 

But,  among  numerous  less  conspicuous  instances  of  the  change 
wrought  by  wise  aud  appropriate  moral  means  in  the  char- 
acter of  these  so  lately  abandoned  children,  the  most  remark- 
able occurred  at  the  time  of  the  great  Hamburg  fire,  in  May, 
1842.  In  July,  1843,  I  saw  the  vast  chasm  which  the  confla- 
gration had  made  in  the  centre  of  that  great  city.  The  second 
day  of  the  fire,  when  people  were  driven  from  the  city  in 
crowds,  and  houseless  and  half-frantic  suffere'rs  came  to  the 
Rauhe  House  for  shelter,  the  children  —  some  of  whom  had 
friends  aud  relatives  in  the  city  —  became  intensely  excited, 
and  besought  Mr.  "Wichern  for  leave  to  go  in  and  make  them- 
selves useful  to  the  sufferers.  Xot  without  great  anxiety  as  to 
the  force  of  the  temptations  for  escape  or  for  plunder  that 
might  assail  them  in  such  an  exposed  and  tumultuous  scene,  he 
gave  permission  to  a  band  of  twenty-two  to  accompany  him,  on 
condition  that  they  would  keep  together  as  much  as  possible, 
and  return  with  him  at  an  appointed  time.  This  they  readily 
promised,  nor  did  they  disappoint  him.  Their  conduct  was 
physically  as  well  as  morally  heroic.  They  rushed  into  the 
greatest  dangers  to  save  life  and  property  ;  and,  though  some- 
times pressed  to  receive  rewards,  they  steadfastly  refused  them. 
At  stated  intervals,  they  returned  to  the  appointed  place  to 
re-assure  the  confidence  of  their  superior.  On  one  occasion,  a 
lad  remained  absent  long  beyond  the  time  agreed  upou  ;  but  at 


298  ANNUAL   EEPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

last  he  appeared,  quite  exhausted  by  the  labor  of  saving  some 
valuable  property.  Mr.  Wichern  afterwards  learned  from  the 
owner  —  not  from  the  lad  —  that  he  had  steadily  refused  the 
compensation  offered  to  and  even  urged  upon  him.  When 
the  company  returned  home  at  the  appointed  time,  he  sent  forth 
another  band  under  the  care  of  a  House-Father ;  and  these 
exerted  themselves  in  the  same  faithful  and  efficient  manner. 
This  was  clone  as  long  as  the  necessity  of  the  case  required. 
From  this  time,  the  Rauhe  House  was  the  resort  of  the  poor 
and  homeless ;  and  not  for  days  only,  but  for  weeks.  The 
pupils  shared  with  them  their  food,  and  even  slept  upon  the 
ground  to  give  their  beds  to  the  destitute,  sick,  and  injured.  I 
can  hardly  refrain  from  narrating  many  other  facts  of  a  similar 
character  connected  witli  this  institution  ;  for  if  the  angels 
rejoice  over  a  rescued  sinner,  why  should  not  we  partake  of 
that  joy  when  it  is  our  brother  who  is  ransomed  ? 

In  his  last  report,  Mr.  Wichern  says  the  institution  was 
actually  so  impoverished  by  the  demand  made  upon  it  at  that 
time,  and  the  demands  upon  public  charity  have  since  been  so 
great  in  that  unfortunate  city,  that  the  inmates  have  been 
almost  reduced  to  suffering  for  the  necessaries  of  life,  particu- 
larly as  they  were  induced  to  receive  several  children  rendered 
homeless  by  that  calamity.  To  this  object,  however,  even  the 
children  of  the  house  were  ready  and  willing  to  contribute  por- 
tions of  their  wardrobe,  and  they  submitted  cheerfully  to  other 
privations.  Mr.  Wicheru  regretted,  above  all  other  things,  the 
necessity  of  refusing  many  applications  ;  and  it  is  but  doing 
JHStice  to  the  citizens  of  Hamburg  to  state,  that,  on  an  appeal 
made  by  him  for  funds  to  erect  a  new  building,  they  were  gen- 
erously and  promptly  raised  by  those  who  had  such  unusual 
claims  upon  their  charity. 

A  single  remark  I  must  be  allowed  to  make.  When  an 
individual  effects  so  much  good,  it  seems  to  be  often  thought 
that  he  accomplishes  it  by  virtue  of  some  charm  or  magic,  or 
preternatural  influence,  of  which  the  rest  of  the  world  cannot 
partake.  The  superintendent  of  the  Rauhe  House  is  a  refuta- 


REPORT   FOR    1843.  299 

tion  of  this  idea.  Laboriously,  perseveringly,  unintermittingly, 
he  uses  MEANS  for  the  accomplishment  of  his  desired  ends. 
When  I  put  to  him  the  question,  in  what  manner  he  produced 
these  transforming  effects  upon  his  charge,  his  answer  was, 
"  By  active  occupations,  music,  and  Christian  love."  Two  or 
three  things  should  be  stated  in  explanation  of  this  compendious 
reply.  When  a  new  subject  comes  to  the  Rauhe  House,  he  is 
first  received  into  Mr.  Wichern's  own  family.  Here,  under 
the  wise  and  watchful  guardianship  of  the  master,  he  is 
initiated  into  the  new  life  of  action,  thought,  feeling,  which 
he  is  expected  to  lead.  His  dispositions  are  watched,  his  char- 
acter is  studied ;  and,  as  soon  as  prudence  allows,  he  is  trans- 
ferred to  that  one  of  the  little  colonies  whose  House-Father  is 
best  qualified  to  manage  his  peculiarities  of  temperament  and 
disposition.  Soon  after  the  opening  of  the  establishment,  and 
the  increase  of  its  numbers,  Mr.  Wichern  found  that  it  would 
be  impossible  for  him  to  bestow  the  requisite  care  and  over- 
sight upon  each  one  of  his  pupils  which  his  necessities  de- 
manded. He  cast  about  for  assistance  ;  and  though  he  was 
able  to  find  those  in  the  community  who  had  enough  of  the 
spirit  of  benevolence  and  self-sacrifice  to  undertake  the  difficult 
labor  to  which  his  own  life  was  devoted,  yet  he  soon  found  that 
they  had  not  the  other  requisite  qualifications  to  make  their 
benevolent  purposes  available.  He  could  find  enough  well- 
intentioned  persons  to  superintend  the  work-shops,  gardens, 
&c. ;  but  they  had  not  intellectual  competency.  So  he  could 
find  schoolmasters  who  could  give  good  lessons  ;  but  they  were 
not  masters  of  any  handicraft.  He  was  therefore  driven,  as  he 
says,  to  the  expedient  of  preparing  a  class  of  teachers  to 
become  his  auxiliaries  in  the  work.  For  this  end,  he  has 
superadded  to  his  original  plan  a  school  for  the  preparation  of 
teachers,  —  first  to  supply  himself,  then  to  send  abroad  to  open 
other  institutions  similar  to  his  own,  and  thirdly  to  become 
superintendents  of  prisons.  This  last  object  he  deems  very 
important.  Questions  about  prison-architecture,  he  says,  have 
given  a  new  literature  to  the  world  ;  but  as  yet  nothing,  or  but 


300  ANNUAL   REPORTS    ON   EDUCATION. 

little,  is  done  to  improve  the  character  or  increase  the  qualifica- 
tions of  prison-keepers.  I  have  often  felt  the  force  of  this 
remark  in  the  numerous  Continental  prisons  which  I  have 
visited.  Though  the  masters  of  the  prisons  have  generally 
appeared  to  be  very  respectable  men,  yet  the  assistants  or 
deputy-turnkeys  have  very  often  seemed  to  belong  to  a  low 
order  of  society,  from  whose  manners,  conversation,  or  treat- 
ment of  the  prisoners,  no  good  influence  could  be  expected. 

This  second  institution  of  Mr.  "Wichern  is  in  reality  a  normal 
school,  which  the  necessities  of  his  situation  suggested,  and 
forced  him  to  establish. 

During  the  ten  years  of  the  existence  of  this  institution, 
there  have  been  one  hundred  and  thirty-two  children  received 
into  it.  Of  these,  about  eighty  were  there  on  the  1st  of  July, 
1843.  Only  two  had  run  away,  who  had  not  either  voluntarily 
returned,  or,  being  brought  back,  had  not  voluntarily  remained. 
The  two  unreclaimed  fugitives  committed  offences,  fell  into  the 
hands  of  the  civil  magistrate,  and  were  imprisoned. 

Who  can  reflect  upon  this  history,  where  we  see  a  self-sacri- 
ficing man,  by  the  aids  of  wisdom  and  Christian  love,  exorcis- 
ing, as  it  were,  the  evil  spirits  from  more  than  a  hundred  of  the 
worst  children  whom  a  corrupted  state  of  society  has  engen- 
dered,—  who  can  see  this,  without  being  reminded  of  some  case, 
perhaps  within  his  own  personal  knowledge,  where  a  passionate, 
ignorant,  and  perverse  teacher,  who  for  the  sake  of  saving  a 
few  dollars  of  money,  or  from  some  other  low  motive,  has  been 
put  in  possession  of  an  equal  number  of  fine-spirited  children, 
and  has,  even  in  a  shorter  space  of  time,  put  an  evil  spirit  into 
the  bosom  of  them  all?  When  visiting  this  institution,  I  was 
reminded  of  an  answer  given  to  me  by  the  head  master  of  a  school 
of  a  thousand  children  in  London.  I  inquired  of  him  what  moral 
education  or  training  he  gave  to  his  scholars  ;  what  he  did,  for 
instance,  when  he  detected  a  child  in  a  lie.  His  answer  was 
literally  this  :  "  I  consider,"  said  he,  "  all  moral  education  to  be 
a  humbug.  Nature  teaches  children  to  lie.  If  one  of  my  boys 
lies,  I  set  him  to  write  some  such  copy  as  this :  '  Lying  is  a 


REPORT    FOR    1843.  301 

base  and  infamous  offence.'  I  make  him  write  a  quire  of  paper 
over  with  this  copy  ;  and  he  knows  very  well,  that,  if  he  does 
not  bring  it  to  me  in  a  good  condition,  he  will  get  a  flogging." 
On  hearing  this  reply,  I  felt  as  if  the  number  of  things  in  sur- 
rounding society  which  needed  explanation  was  considerably 
reduced. 

What  is  most  remarkable  in  reference  to  the  class  of  institu- 
tions now  under  consideration  is  the  high  character  of  the  men  — 
for  capacity,  for  attainments,  for  social  rank  —  who  preside  over 
them.  At  the  head  of  a  private  orphan  house  in  Potsdam  is  the 
venerable  Von  Turk.  According  to  the  laws  of  his  country, 
Von  Turk  is  a  nobleman.  His  talents  and  acquisitions  were 
such,  that,  at  a  very  early  age,  he  was  elevated  to  the  bench. 
This  was,  probably,  an  office  for  life,  and  was  attended  with 
honors  and  emoluments.  He  officiated  as  judge  for  fourteen 
years  ;  but,  in  the  course  of  this  time,  so  many  criminal  cases 
were  brought  before  him  for  adjudication,  whose  only  cause 
and  origin  were  so  plainly  referable  to  early  neglect  in  the 
culprit's  education,  that  the  noble  heart  of  the  judge  could  no 
longer  bear  to  pronounce  sentence  of  condemnation  against  the 
prisoners ;  for  he  looked  upon  them  as  men,  who,  almost  with- 
out a  paradox,  might  be  called  guiltless  offenders.  While  hold- 
ing the  office  of  judge,  he  was  appointed  school  inspector.  The 
paramount  importance  of  the  latter  office  grew  upon  his  mind 
as  he  executed  its  duties,  until  at  last  he  came  to  the  full  concep- 
tion of  the  grand  and  sacred  truth,  —  that  the  vocation  of  the 
teacher,  who  saves  from  crime  and  from  wrong,  is  much  more 
intrinsically  honorable  than  that  of  the  magistrate,  who  waits 
till  they  are  committed,  and  then  avenges  them.  He  immedi- 
ately resigned  his  office  of  judge,  with  its  life-tenure  and  its 
salary  ;  travelled  to  Switzerland,  where  he  placed  himself  under 
the  care  of  Pestalozzi ;  and,  after  availing  himself  for  three 
years  of  the  instructions  of  that  celebrated  teacher,  he  returned 
to  take  charge  of  an  orphan  asylum.  Since  that  time,  he  has 
devoted  his  whole  life  to  the  care  of  the  neglected  and  destitute. 
He  lives  in  as  plain  and  inexpensive  a  style  as  our  well-off 


302         ANNUAL  REPORTS  ON  EDUCATION. 

farmers  and  mechanics,  and  devotes  his  income  to  the  welfare 
of  the  needy.  I  was  told  by  his  personal  friends  that  he  not 
only  deprived  himself  of  the  luxuries  of  life,  but  submitted  to 
many  privations,  in  order  to  appropriate  his  small  income  to 
others  whom  he  considered  more  needy ;  and  that  his  wife  and 
family  cordially  and  cheerfully  shared  such  privations  with  him 
for  the  same  object.  To  what  extent  would  our  own  commu- 
nity sympathize  with  or  appreciate  the  act,  if  one  of  the  judges 
of  our  higher  courts,  or  any  other  official  dignitary,  should 
resign  an  office  of  honor  and  of  profit  to  become  the  instructor 
of  children ! 

Even  now,  when  the  once  active  and  vigorous  frame  of  this 
patriarchal  man  is  bending  beneath  the  weight  of  years,  he 
employs  himself  in  teaching  agriculture,  together  with  the 
branches  commonly  taught  in  the  Prussian  schools,  to  a  class 
of  orphan  boys.  What  warrior,  who  rests  at  last  from  the 
labors  of  the  tented  field  after  a  life  of  victories ;  what  states- 
man, whose  name  is  familiar  in  all  the  courts  of  the  civilized 
world  ;  Avhat  orator,  who  attracts  towards  himself  tides  of  men 
wherever  he  may  move  in  his  splendid  course,  —  what  one  of  all 
these  would  not,  at  the  sunset  of  life,  exchange  his  fame  and 
his  clustering  honors  for  that  precious  and  abounding  treasury 
of  holy  and  beneficent  deeds,  the  remembrance  of  which  this 
good  old  man  is  about  to  carry  into  another  world  !  Do  we 
not  need  a  new  spirit  in  our  community,  and  especially  in  our 
schools,  which  shall  display  only  objects  of  virtuous  ambition 
before  the  eyes  of  our  emulous  youth,  and  teach  them  that  no 
height  of  official  station,  nor  splendor  of  professional  renown, 
can  equal  in  the  eye  of  Heaven,  and  of  all  good  men,  the  true 
glory  of  a  life  consecrated  to  the  welfare  of  mankind  ? 

CLASSIFICATION. 

The  first  element  of  superiority  in  a  Prussian  school,  and 
one  whose  influence  extends  throughout  the  whole  subsequent 
course  of  instruction,  consists  in  the  proper  classification  of  the 


REPORT  FOR    1843.  303 

scholars.  In  all  places  where  the  numbers  are  sufficiently 
large  to  allow  it,  the  children  are  divided  according  to  ages 
and  attainments  ;  and  a  single  teacher  has  the  charge  only  of  a 
single  class,  or  of  as  small  a  number  of  classes  as  is  practica- 
ble. I  have  before  adverted  to  the  construction  of  the  school- 
houses,  by  which,  as  far  as  possible,  a  room  is  assigned  to  each 
class.  Let  us  suppose  a  teacher  to  have  the  charge  of  but  one 
class,  and  to  have  talent  and  resources  sufficient  properly  to  en- 
gage and  occupy  its  attention,  and  we  suppose  a  perfect  school. 
But  how  greatly  are  the  teacher's  duties  increased  and  his  dif- 
ficulties multiplied  if  he  have  four,  five,  or  half  a  dozen 
classes  under  his  personal  inspection  !  While  attending  to  the 
recitation  of  one,  his  mind  is  constantly  called  off  to  attend  to 
the  studies  and  the  conduct  of  all  the  others.  For  this,  very 
few  teachers  amongst  us  have  the  requisite  capacity ;  and 
hence  the  idleness  and  the  disorder  that  reign  in  so  many  of 
our  schools,  excepting  in  cases  where  the  debasing  motive  of 
fear  puts  the  children  in  irons.  All  these  difficulties  are  at  once 
avoided  by  a  suitable  classification,  —  by  such  a  classification  as 
enables  the  teacher  to  address  his  instructions  at  the  same  time 
to  all  the  children  who  are  before  him,  and  to  accompany  them 
to  the  playground,  at  recess  or  intermission,  without  leaving 
any  behind  who  might  be  disposed  to  take  advantage  of  his 
absence.  All  this  will  become  more  and  more  obvious  as  I 
proceed  with  a  description  of  exercises.  There  is  no  obstacle 
whatever  —  save  prescription,  and  that  vis  inertia  of  mind  which 
continues  in  the  beaten  track  because  it  has  not  vigor  enough 
to  turn  aside  from  it  —  to  the  introduction,  at  once,  of  this 
mode  of  dividing  and  classifying  scholars  in  all  our  large  towns. 

METHOD    OP   TEACHING   YOUNG    CHILDREN   ON   THEIR    FIRST 
ENTERING    SCHOOL. 

In  regard  to  this  as  well  as  other  modes  of  teaching,  I  shall 
endeavor  to  describe  some  particular  lesson  that  I  heard.  The 
Prussian  and  Saxon  schools  are  all  conducted  substantially  upon 


304  ANNUAL    REPORTS    ON   EDUCATION. 

the  same  plan,  and  taught  in  the  same  manner.  Of  course, 
there  must  be  those  differences  to  which  different  degrees  of 
talent  and  experience  give  rise. 

In  Professor  Stowe's  excellent  report,  he  says,  "Before  the 
child  is  even  permitted  to  learn  his  letters,  he  is  under  conver- 
sational instruction  frequently,  for  six  months  or  a  year ;  and 
then  a  single  week  is  sufficient  to  introduce  him  into  intelligent 
and  accurate  plain  reading."  I  confess,  that,  in  the  numerous 
schools  I  visited,  I  did  not  find  this  preparatory  instruction  car- 
ried on  for  any  considerable  length  of  time  before  lessons  in 
which  all  the  children  took  part  were  commenced. 

About  twenty  years  ago,  teachers  in  Prussia  made  the  im- 
portant discovery,  that  children  have  five  senses,  together  with 
various  muscles  and  mental  faculties,  all  which,  almost  by  a 
necessity  of  their  nature,  must  be  kept  in  a  state  of  activity, 
and  which,  if  not  usefully,  are  liable  to  be  mischievously  em- 
ployed. Subsequent  improvements  in  the  art  of  teaching  have 
consisted  in  supplying  interesting  and  useful,  instead  of  mis- 
chievous occupation  for  these  senses,  muscles,  and  faculties. 
Experience  has  now  proved  that  it  is  much  easier  to  furnish 
profitable  and  delightful  employment  for  all  these  powers  than 
it  is  to  stand  over  them  with  a  rod  and  stifle  their  workings, 
or  to  assume  a  thousand  shapes  of  fear  to  guard  the  thousand 
avenues  through  which  the  salient  spirits  of  the  young  play 
outward.  Nay,  it  is  much  easier  to  keep  the  eye  and  hand  and 
mind  at  work  together  than  it  is  to  employ  either  one  of  them 
separately  from  the  others.  A  child  is  bound  to  the  teacher  by 
so  many  more  cords,  the  more  of  his  natural  capacities  the 
teacher  can  interest  and  employ. 

In  the  case  I  am  now  to  describe,  I  entered  a  classroom  of 
sixty  children  of  about  six  years  of  age.  The  children  were 
just  taking  their  seats,  all  smiles  and  expectation.  They  had 
been  at  school  but  a  few  weeks,  but  long  enough  to  have  con- 
tracted a  love  for  it.  The  teacher  took  his  station  before  them, 
and  after  making  a  playful  remark  which  excited  a  light  titter 
around  the  room,  and  effectually  arrested  attention,  he  gave  a 


REPORT   FOR   1843.  305 

signal  for  silence.  After  waiting  a  moment,  during  which  every 
countenance  was  composed  and  every  noise  hushed,  he  made 
a  prayer  consisting  of  a  single  sentence,  asking  that,  as  they 
had  come  together  to  learn,  they  might  be  good  and  diligent. 
He  then  spoke  to  them  of  the  beautiful  day,  asked  what  they 
knew  about  the  seasons,  referred  to  the  different  kinds  of  fruit- 
trees  then  in  bearing,  and  questioned  them  upon  the  uses  of 
trees  in  constructing  houses,  furniture,  &c.  Frequently  he  threw 
in  sportive  remarks  which  enlivened  the  whole  school,  but 
without  ever  producing  the  slightest  symptom  of  disorder. 
During  this  familiar  conversation,  which  lasted  about  twenty 
minutes,  there  was  nothing  frivolous  or  trifling  in  the  manner 
of  the  teacher  :  that  manner  was  dignified,  though  playful ;  and 
the  little  jets  of  laughter  which  he  caused  the  children  occa- 
sionally to  throw  out  were  much  more  favorable  to  a  receptive 
state  of  mind  than  jets  of  tears. 

Here  I  must  make  a  preliminary  remark  in  regard  to  the 
equipments  of  the  scholars,  and  the  furniture  of  the  schoolroom. 
Every  child  had  a  slate  and  pencil,  and  a  little  reading-book  of 
letters,  words,  and  short  sentences.  Indeed,  I  never  saw  a 
Prussian  or  Saxon  school,  above  an  infant  school,  in  which 
any  child  was  unprovided  with  a  slate  and  pencil.  By  the 
teacher's  desk,  and  in  front  of  the  school,  hung  a  blackboard. 
The  teacher  first  drew  a  house  upon  the  blackboard  ;  and  here 
the  value  of  the  art  of  drawing —  a  power  universally  possessed 
by  Prussian  teachers  —  became  manifest.  By  the  side  of  the 
drawing,  and  under  it,  he  wrote  the  word  "  house  "  in  the  German 
script  hand,  and  printed  it  in  the  German  letter.  With  a  long 
pointing-rod,  —  the  end  being  painted  white  to  make  it  more 
visible,  —  he  ran  over  the  form  of  the  letters  ;  the  children, 
with  their  slates  before  them,  and  their  pencils  in  their  hands, 
looking  at  the  pointing-rod,  and  tracing  the  forms  of  the  letters 
in  the  air.  In  all  our  good  schools,  children  are  first  taught  to 
imitate  the  forms  of  letters  on  the  slate,  before  they  write  them 
on  paper ;  here  they  were  first  imitated  on  the  air,  then  on 
slates,  and  subsequently,  in  older  classes,  on  paper.  The  next 
20 


306  ANNUAL   REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

process  was  to  copy  the  word  "  house,"  both  in  script  and  in 
print,  on  their  slates.  Then  followed  the  formation  of  the 
sounds  of  the  letters  of  which  the  word  was  composed,  and  the 
spelling  of  the  word.  Here  the  names  of  the  letters  were  not 
given  as  with  us,  but  only  their  powers,  or  the  sounds  which 
those  letters  have  in  combination.  The  letter  h  was  first  se- 
'lected  and  set  up  in  the  reading-frame  (the  same  before 
described  as  part  of  the  apparatus  of  all  Prussian  schools  for 
young  children)  ;  and  the  children,  instead  of  articulating  our 
alphabetic  h  (aitch),  merely  gave  a  hard  breathing, — such  a 
sound  as  the  letter  really  has  in  the  word  "  house."  Then  the 
diphthong  au  (the  German  word  for  "  house "  is  spelled 
"  haus  ")  was  taken  and  sounded  by  itself  in  the  same  way. 
Then  the  blocks  containing  h  and  au  were  brought  together, 
and  the  two  sounds  were  combined.  Lastly,  the  letter  s  was 
first  sounded  by  itself,  then  added  to  the  others  ;  and  then  the 
whole  word  was  spoken.  Sometimes  the  last  letter  in  a  word 
was  first  taken  and  sounded,  after  that  the  penultimate,  and  so 
on,  until  the  word  was  completed.  The  responses  of  the  chil- 
dren were  sometimes  individual,  and  sometimes  simultaneous, 
according  to  a  signal  given  by  the  master. 

In  every  such  school,  also,  there  are  printed  sheets  or  cards, 
containing  the  letters,  diphthongs,  and  whole  words.  The 
children  are  taught  to  sound  a  diphthong,  and  then  asked  in 
what  words  that  sound  occurs.  On  some  of  these  cards,  there 
are  words  enough  to  make  several  short  sentences ;  and,  when 
the  pupils  are  a  little  advanced,  the  teacher  points  to  several 
isolated  words  in  succession,  which,  when  taken  together,  make 
a  familiar  sentence  ;  and  thus  he  gives  them  an  agreeable  sur- 
prise, and  a  pleasant  initiation  into  reading. 

After  the  word  "  house  "  was  thus  completely  impressed  upon 
the  minds  of  the  children,  the  teacher  drew  his  pointing-rod 
over  the  lines  which  formed  the  house  ;  and  the  children  imi- 
tated him,  first  in  the  air,  while  they  were  looking  at  his  mo- 
tions, then  on  their  slates.  In  their  drawings,  there  was,  of 
course,  a  great  variety  as  to  taste  and  accuracy  ;  but  each  seemed 


REPORT   FOR   1843.  307 

pleased  with  his  own,  for  their  first  attempts  had  never  been 
so  criticised  as  to  produce  discouragement.  Several  children 
were  then  called  to  the  blackboard  to  draw  a  house  with  chalk. 
After  this,  the  teacher  entered  into  a  conversation  about  houses. 
The  first  question  was,  "  What  kind  of  a  house  was  that  on  the 
blackboard?"  Then  the  names  of  other  kinds  of  houses  were 
given.  The  materials  of  which  houses  are  built  were  men- 
tioned, —  stone,  brick,  wood ;  the  different  kinds  of  wood ; 
nails,  and  where  they  were  made  ;  lime,  and  whence  it  came, 
&c.  When  the  teacher  touched  upon  points  with  which  the 
children  were  supposed  to  be  acquainted,  he  asked  ques- 
tions ;  when  he  passed  to  subjects  beyond  their  sphere,  he  gave 
information,  intermingling  the  whole  with  lively  remarks  and 
pleasant  anecdotes. 

And  here  one  important  particular  should  not  be  omitted.  In 
this  as  well  as  in  all  other  schools,  a  complete  answer  was 
always  required.  For  instance,  if  a  teacher  asks,  "  What  are 
houses  made  of  ?  "  he  does  not  accept  the  answer,  "  Of  wood  " 
or  "  Of  stone ; "  but  he  requires  a  full,  complete  (yollstandig) 
answer,  as  "  A  house  may  be  made  of  wood."  The  answer 
must  always  contain  an  intelligible  proposition,  without  refer- 
ence to  the  words  of  the  question  to  complete  it.  And  here, 
also,  the  greatest  care  is  taken  that  the  answer  shall  always  be 
grammatically  correct,  have  the  right  terminations  of  all  arti- 
cles, adjectives,  and  nouns,  and  the  right  grammatical  transpo- 
sitions according  to  the  idioms  and  structure  of  the  language. 
This  secures,  from  the  beginning,  precision  in  the  expression  of 
ideas ;  and  if,  as  many  philosophers  suppose,  the  intellect  could 
never  carry  forward  its  processes  of  argument  or  investigation 
to  any  great  extent,  without  using  language  as  its  instrument, 
then  these  children,  in  their  primary  lessons,  are  not  only  led 
to  exercise  the  intellect,  but  the  instrument  is  put  into  their 
hands  by  which  its  operations  are  facilitated. 

When  the  hour  had  expired,  I  do  not  believe  there  was  a 
child  in  the  room  who  knew  or  thought  that  his  playtime  had 
come.  No  observing  person  can  be  at  a  loss  to  understand 


308  ANNUAL   REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

how  such  a  teacher  can  arrest  and  retain  the  attention  of  his 
scholars.  It  must  have  happened  to  almost  every  one.  at  some 
time  in  his  life,  to  be  present  as  a  member  of  a  large  assembly, 
when  some  speaker,  in  the  midst  of  great  uproar  and  confusion, 
has  arisen  to  address  it.  If,  in  the  very  commencement  of  his 
exordium,  he  makes  what  is  called  a  happy  hit  which  is  an- 
swered by  a  response  of  laughter  or  applause  from  those  who 
are  near  enough  to  hear  it,  the  attention  of  the  next  circle  will 
be  aroused.  If,  then,  the  speaker  makes  another  felicitous  sally 
of  wit  or  imagination,  this  circle,  too,  becomes  the  willing  sub- 
ject of  his  power ;  until,  by  a  succession  of  flashes,  whether 
of  genius  or  of  wit,  he  soon  brings  the  whole  audience  under 
his  command,  and  sways  it  as  the  sun  and  moon  sway  the  tide. 
This  is  the  result  of  talent,  of  attainment,  and  of  the  success- 
ful study  both  of  men  and  of  things  ;  and  whoever  has  a  suf- 
ficiency of  these  requisites  will  be  able  to  command  the  atten- 
tion of  children,  just  as  a  powerful  orator  commands  the 
attention  of  men.  But  the  one  no  more  than  the  other  is  the 
unbought  gift  of  Nature.  They  are  the  rewards  of  application 
and  toil  superadded  to  talent. 

Now,  it  is  obvious,  that,  in  the  single  exercise  above  described, 
there  were  the  elements  of  reading,  spelling,  writing,  grammar, 
and  drawing,  interspersed  with  anecdotes,  and  not  a  little  gen- 
eral information  ;  and  yet  there  was  no  excessive  variety,  nor 
were  any  incongruous  subjects  forcibly  brought  together. 
There  was  nothing  to  violate  the  rule  of  "  one  thing  at  a  time." 

Compare  the  above  method  with  that  of  calling  up  a  class 
of  abecedarians,  or,  what  is  more  common,  a  single  child  ; 
and  while  the  teacher  holds  a  book  or  a  card  before  him,  and, 
with  a  pointer  in  his  hand,  says  a,  and  he  echoes  a  ;  then  b,  and 
he  echoes  b ;  and  so  on  until  the  vertical  row  of  lifeless  and 
ill-favored  characters  is  completed  ;  and  then  of  remanding  him 
to  his  seat  to  sit  still  and  look  at  vacancy.  If  the  child  is 
bright,  the  time  which  passes  during  this  lesson  is  the  only 
part  of  the  day  when  he  does  not  think.  Not  a  single  faculty 
of  the  mind  is  occupied,  except  that  of  imitating  sounds  ;  and 


REPORT   FOR   1843.  309 

even  the  number  of  these  imitations  amounts  only  to  twenty- 
six.  A  parrot  or  an  idiot  could  do  the  same  thing.  And  so  of 
the  organs  and  members  of  the  body.  They  are  condemned 
to  inactivity ;  for  the  child  who  stands  most  like  a  post  is 
most  approved,  nay,  he  is  rebuked  if  he  does  not  stand  like 
a  post.  A  head  that  does  not  turn  to  the  right  or  left,  an  eye 
that  lies  moveless  in  its  socket,  hands  hanging  motionless  at 
the  side,  and  feet  immovable  as  those  of  a  statue,  are  the  points 
of  excellence  while  the  child  is  echoing  the  senseless  table  of 
a,  b,  c.  As  a  general  rule,  six  months  are  spent  before  the 
twenty-six  letters  are  mastered,  though  the  same  child  would 
learn  the  names  of  twenty-six  playmates  or  twenty-six  play- 
things in  one  or  two  days. 

All  children  are  pleased  with  the  idea  of  a  house,  a  hat,  a 
top,  a  ball,  a  bird,  an  egg,  a  nest,  a  flower,  &c.  ;  and  when 
their  minds  are  led  to  see  new  relations  or  qualities  in  these 
objects,  or  when  their  former  notions  respecting  them  are 
brought  out  more  vividly,  or  are  more  distinctly  defined,  their 
delight  is  even  keener  than  that  of  an  adult  would  be  in  ob- 
taining a  new  fact  in  science,  or  in  having  the  mist  of  some 
old  doubt  dispelled  by  a  new  discovery.  Lessons  on  familial- 
objects,  given  by  a  competent  teacher,  never  fail  to  command 
attention  ;  and  thus  a  habit  of  mind  is  induced  of  inestimable 
value  in  regard  to  all  future  study. 

Again  :  the  method  I  have  described  necessarily  leads  to  con- 
versation, and  conversation  with  an  intelligent  teacher  secures 
several  important  objects.  It  communicates  information.  It 
brightens  ideas  before  only  dimly  apprehended.  It  addresses 
itself  to  the  various  faculties  of  the  mind,  so  that  no  one  of 
them  ever  tires  or  is  cloyed.  It  teaches  the  child  to  use  lan- 
guage, to  frame  sentences,  to  select  words  which  convey  his 
whole  meaning,  to  avoid  those  which  convey  either  more  or 
less  than  he  intends  to  express  ;  in  fine,  it  teaches  him  to  seek 
for  thoughts  upon  a  subject,  and  then  to  find  appropriate  lan- 
guage in  which  to  clothe  them.  A  child  trained  in  this  way 
will  never  commit  those  absurd  and  ludicrous  mistakes  into 


310  ANNUAL    REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

which  uneducated  men  of  some  sense  not  unfrequently  fall ; 
viz.,  that  of  mismatching  their  words  and  ideas,  of  hanging, 
as  it  were,  the  garments  of  a  giant  upon  the  body  of  a  pygmy, 
or  of  forcing  a  pygmy's  dress  upon  the  huge  limbs  of  a  giant. 
Appropriate  diction  should  clothe  just  ideas,  as  a  tasteful  and 
substantial  garb  fits  a  graceful  and  vigorous  form. 

The  above-described  exercise  occupies  the  eye  and  the  hand 
as  well  as  the  mind.  The  eye  is  employed  in  tracing  visible 
differences  between  different  forms,  and  the  hand  in  copying 
whatever  is  presented,  with  as  little  difference  as  possible. 
And  who  ever  saw  a  child  that  was  not  pleased  with  pictures, 
and  an  attempt  to  imitate  them  ?  Thus  the  two  grand  objects 
so  strenuously  insisted  upon  by  writers  in  regard  to  the  later 
periods  of  education  and  the  maturer  processes  of  thought  are 
attained  ;  viz.,  the  power  of  recognizing  analogies  and  dissimi- 
larities. 

I  am  satisfied  that  our  greatest  error  in  teaching  children 
to  read,  lies  in  beginning  with  the  alphabet,  —  in  giving 
them  what  are  called  the  "  Names  of  the  Letters,"  a,  b,  c,  &c. 
How  can  a  child  to  whom  Nature  offers  such  a  profusion  of 
beautiful  objects,  of  sights  and  sounds  and  colors,  and  in 
whose  breast  so  many  social  feelings  spring  up,  —  how  can 
such  a  child  be  expected  to  turn  with  delight  from  all  these 
to  the  stiff  and  lifeless  column  of  the  alphabet?  How  can 
one,  who  as  yet  is  utterly  incapable  of  appreciating  the  remote 
benefits  which  in  after-life  reward  the  acquisition  of  knowl- 
edge, derive  any  pleasure  from  an  exercise  which  presents 
neither  beauty  to  his  eye,  nor  music  to  his  ear,  nor  sense  to  his 
understanding? 

Although,  in  former  reports  and  publications,  I  have  dwelt 
at  length  upon  what  seems  to  me  the  absurdity  of  teaching  to 
read  by  beginning  with  the  alphabet,  yet  I  feel  constrained  to 
recur  to  the  subject  again  ;  being  persuaded  that  no  thorough 
reform  will  ever  be  effected  in  our  schools  until  this  practice  is 
abolished. 

When  I  first  began  to  visit  the  Prussian  schools,  I  uniform- 


REPORT   FOR    1843.  311 

ly  inquired  of  the  teachers,  whether,  in  teaching  children  to 
read,  they  began  with  the  names  of  the  letters  as  given  in 
the  alphabet.  Being  delighted  with  the  prompt  negative  which 
I  invariably  received,  I  persevered  in  making  the  inquiry,  until 
I  began  to  perceive  a  look  and  tone  on  their  part,  not  very 
flattering  to  my  intelligence,  in  considering  a  point  so  clear 
and  so  well  settled  as  this  to  be  any  longer  a  subject,  for 
discussion  or  doubt.  The  uniform  statement  was,  that  the 
alphabet,  as  such,  had  ceased  to  be  taught,  as  an  exercise  pre- 
liminary to  reading,  for  the  last  fifteen  or  twenty  years,  by 
every  teacher  in  the  kingdom.  Whoever  will  compare  the 
German  language  with  the  English  will  see  that  the  reasons 
for  a  change  are  much  stronger  in  regard  to  our  own  than  in 
regard  to  the  foreign  tongue. 

The  practice  of  beginning  with  the  names  of  letters  is 
founded  upon  the  idea  that  it  facilitates  the  combination  of  them 
into  words.  On  the  other  hand,  I  believe  that  if  two  children, 
of  equal  quickness  and  capacity,  are  taken,  one  of  whom  can 
name  every  letter  of  the  alphabet  at  sight,  and  the  other  does 
not  know  them  from  Chinese  characters,  the  latter  can  be  most 
easily  taught  to  read,  —  in  other  words,  that  learning  the  letters 
first  is  an  absolute  hinderauce. 

The  advocate  for  teaching  the  letters  asks  if  the  elements  of 
an  art  or  science  should  not  be  first  taught.  To  this  I  would 
reply,  that  the  names  of  the  letters  are  not  elements  in  the 
sounds  of  words,  or  are  so  only  in  a  comparatively  small 
number  of  cases.  To  the  twenty-six  letters  of  the  alphabet 
the  child  is  taught  to  give  twenty-six  sounds,  and  no  more. 
According  to  Worcester,  however,  —  who  may  be  considered 
one  of  the  best  authorities  on  this  subject,  —  the  six  vowels 
only,  have,  collectively,  thirty-three  different  sounds.  In  addi- 
tion to  these,  there  are  the  sounds  of  twenty  consonants,  of 
diphthongs  and  triphthongs.  The  consonants  also  vary  in  sound, 
according  to  the  word  in  which  they  are  used,  as  the  hard  and 
soft  sound  of  c  and  of  g ;  the  soft  and  the  hissing  sound  of  s  ; 
the  soft  or  flat  sound  of  x,  like  gz  ;  the  soft  and  sharp  sound  of 


312  ANNUAL   REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

th,  as  in  this  and  thin  ;  the  different  sounds  of  the  same  letters, 
as  in  chaise,  church  ;  and  the  same  sounds  of  different  letters, 
as  in  tion,  sion ;  in  cial,  tial,  sial ;  cious,  ceous,  tious ;  geous, 
gious,  &c.  It  would  be  difficult,  and  would  not  compensate  for 
the  trouble,  to  compute  the  number  of  different  sounds  which 
a  good  speaker  gives  to  the  different  letters  and  combina- 
tions of  letters  in  our  language,  not  including  the  changes 
of  rhetorical  emphasis,  cadence,  and  intonation  ;  but,  if  ana- 
lyzed, they  would  be  found  to  amount  to  hundreds.  Now,  how 
can  twenty-six  sounds  be  the  elements  of  hundreds  of  sounds 
as  elementary  as  themselves  ?  Generally  speaking,  too,  before 
a  child  begins  to  learn  his  letters,  he  is  already  acquainted  with 
the  majority  of  elementary  sounds  in  the  language,  and  is  in 
the  daily  habit  of  using  them  in  conversation.  Learning  his 
letters,  therefore,  gives  him  no  new  sound :  it  even  restricts 
his  attention  to  a  small  part  of  those  which  he  already  knows. 
So  far,  then,  the  learning  of  his  letters  contracts  his  practice  ; 
and  were  it  not  for  keeping  up  his  former  habits  of  speaking, 
at  home  and  in  the  play-ground,  the  teacher,  during  the  six 
months  or  year  in  which  he  confines  him  to  the  twenty-six 
sounds  of  the  alphabet,  would  pretty  nearly  deprive  him  of  the 
faculty  of  speech. 

But  there  is  another  effect  of  learning  the  names  of  the  let- 
ters first,  still  more  untoward  than  this.  The  letter  a,  says 
Worcester,  has  seven  sounds,  as  in  fate,  fat,  fare,  far,  fast,  fall, 
liar.  In  the  alphabet,  and  as  a  name,  it  has  but  one,  —  the  long 
sound.  Now,  suppose  the  words  of  our  language  in  which  this 
letter  occurs  to  be  equally  divided  among  these  seven  classes. 
The  consequence  must  be,  that,  as  soon  as  the  child  begins  to 
read,  he  will  find  one  word  in  which  the  letter  a  has  the  sound 
he  has  been  taught  to  give  it,  and  six  words  in  which  it  has  a 
different  sound.  If,  then,  he  follows  the  instruction  he  has  re- 
ceived, he  goes  wrong  six  times  to  going  right  once.  Indeed, 
in  running  over  a  score  of  his  most  familiar  words,  —  such  as 
pa,  ma,  father,  apple,  hat,  cat,  rat,  ball,  fall,  call,  warm,  swarm, 
man,  can,  pan,  ran,  brass,  glass,  water,  star,  &c.,  —  he  does  not 


REPORT    FOR    1843.  313 

find,  in  a  single  instance,  that  sound  of  a  which  he  has  been 
taught  to  give  it  in  the  alphabet.  In  an  edition  of  Worcester's 
Dictionary  before  me,  I  find  more  than  three  thousand  words 
whose  initial  letter  is  a ;  and  yet,  amongst  all  these,  there  are 
not  a  hundred  words  in  which  this  initial  letter  has  the  long  or 
alphabetical  sound  ;  that  is,  the  cases  are  more  than  thirty  where 
the  young  reader  would  be  wrong,  if  he  followed  the  instruction 
given  him,  to  one  where  he  would  be  right.  This,  surely,  is  a 
most  disastrous  application  of  the  principle,  that  the  elements 
of  a  science  must  be  first  taught. 

The  letter  e,  the  most  frequent  vowel  in  the  English  language, 
has  five  sounds,  as  in  mete,  met,  there,  her,  fuel ;  and  the  re- 
marks above  made  in  relation  to  the  letter  a  apply  in  nearly 
their  full  force  to  this  vowel.  So  of  the  rest.  Such  is  the 
facility  which  learning  the  names  of  the  letters  gives  to  read- 
ing! 

In  regard  to  all  the  vowels,  it  may  be  said,  not  only  that,  in 
the  very  great  majority  of  cases,  their  sounds  when  found  in 
words  are  different  from  their  names  as  letters,  —  so  that,  the 
more  perfectly  the  child  has  learned  them  as  letters,  the  more 
certain  will  he  be  to  miscall  them  in  words,  —  but  that  these 
different  sounds  follow  each  other  in  books  in  the  most  pro- 
miscuous manner.  Were  there  any  law  of  succession  among 
these  sounds,  so  that  the  short  sound  of  any  one  vowel  should 
universally  follow  the  long  sound  ;  the  obscure,  the  broad,  &c. ; 
or  were  one  of  the  sounds  used  twice  in  succession,  and  then 
another  of  them  once,  and  so  on,  following  some  rule  of  alter- 
nation, —  the  evil  would  be  greatly  mitigated.  The  sagacious 
thrower  of  dice,  by  retaining  in  his  mind  a  long  series  of  the 
throws  last  made,  calculates  with  some  approach  to  certainty 
what  face  will  next  turn  up ;  for,  in  the  long-run,  the  numbers 
of  the  different  faces  turned  up  will  be  nearly  equal.  But  no 
finite  power  can  tell  by  any  calculation  according  to  the  doctrine 
of  chances,  or  by  proceeding  on  the  law  of  exhaustion,  what 
sound  of  any  vowel  will  next  turn  up  in  reading  a  book  of 
English.  There  is,  too,  in  the  human  mind,  a  faculty  corre- 


314  ANNUAL    REPORTS    ON   EDUCATION. 

spending  to  the  law  of  periodicity,  sometimes  followed  by  Na- 
ture, so  that  if  an  event  in  Nature  happens  every  other  year,  or 
once  in  seven,  or  in  forty  years,  the  sagacious  and  philosophic 
mind  penetrates  to  the  law,  and  grasps  it.  But  the  succession 
of  the  different  vowel-sounds  in  the  English  language  is  as  law- 
less as  chaos,  and  leaves  all  human  acumen  or  perspicacity  iu 
bewilderment. 

Did  the  vowels  adhere  to  their  own  sounds,  the  difficulty 
would  be  greatly  diminished  ;  but  not  only  do  the  same  vow- 
els appear  in  different  dresses,  like  masqueraders,  but,  like  har- 
lequins, they  exchange  garbs  with  each  other.  How  often  does 
e  take  the  sound  of  a,  as  in  there,  where,  &c. ;  and  i,  the  sound 
of  e  ;  and  o,  the  sound  of  u  •  and  u,  the  sound  of  o ;  and  y 
and  i  are  always  changing  places. 

In  one  important  particular,  the  consonants  are  more  perplex- 
ing than  the  vowels.  The  very  definition  of  a  consonant,  as 
given  in  the  spelling-books,  is,  "  a  letter  which  has  no  sound, 
or  only  an  imperfect  one,  without  the  help  of  a  vowel."  And 
yet  the  definers  themselves,  and  the  teachers  who  follow  them, 
proceed  immediately  to  give  a  perfect  sound  to  all  the  conso- 
nants. If  a  consonant  has  "  only  an  imperfect  sound,"  why, 
in  teaching  children  to  read,  should  not  this  imperfect  sound  be 
taught  them?  And  again:  in  giving  the  names  of  the  conso- 
nants, why  should  the  vowel  be  sometimes  prefixed,  and  some- 
times suffixed?  In  b,  c,  d,  &c.,  the  vowel  follows  the  conso- 
nant, as  be,  ce,  de ;  in  f,  I,  m,  &c.,  the  vowel  precedes  it,  as 
ef,  el,  em.  But,  when  found  in  words,  the  vowel  precedes  the 
consonant  iu  the  first  class  of  cases  as  often  as  it  follows  it ; 
and,  in  the  latter  class  of  cases,  it  follows  as  often  as  it  precedes. 
The  name  of  the  letter  b  is  written  be ;  but  Avhere  is  the  sound 
of  be  in  ebb,  web,  ebony,  ebullition,  abode,  abound,  and  in  hun- 
dreds of  other  cases  ?  The  name  of  the  letter  c  is  written  ce  : 
but,  in  the  first  place,  c  is  always  sounded  like  s  or  k ;  and,  in 
the  second  place,  where  is  there  any  similitude  to  the  sound  of 
ce  in  the  words  cap,  cite,  cold,  cube,  cynic  f  Where,  too,  is  the 
sound  of  ce  in  words  where  either  of  the  vowels  precedes  the 


REPORT    FOR    1843.  315 

c,  as  in  accent,  echo,  ichthyology,  occasion,  &c.  ?  The  princi- 
ple of  this  remark  applies  to  hundred?,  probably  to  thousands, 
of  cases.  So,  too,  if  b  is  be,  then  be  is  bee,  the  name  of  an 
insect ;  and  if  I  is  el,  then  el  is  eel,  the  name  of  a  fish. 

The  name-sound  of  the  letter  r,  as  taught  in  the  alphabet,  is 
ar  •  but  where  is  this  sound  in  all  those  cases  where  r  precedes 
the  vowel  in  the  formation  of  a  syllable  or  word,  as  in  rain, 
rest,  rich,  rock,  run,  rye  f  They  are  not  sounded  ar-ain,  ar-est, 
&c.  ' 

If  such  an  accumulation  of  evidence  were  insufficient  to  con- 
vince any  reasonable  person,  it  would  be  easy  to  go  through 
with  all  the  letters  of  the  alphabet,  and  to  show,  —  in  regard  to 
the  vowels  —  that,  when  found  in  words,  they  receive  only  oc- 
casionally the  sounds  which  the  child  is  taught  always  to  give 
them  as  letters ;  and,  in  regard  to  the  consonants,  that 
they  never,  in  any  case,  receive  the  sounds  which  the  child  is 
taught  to  affix  to  them.  I  believe  it  is  within  bounds  to  say, 
that  we  do  not  sound  the  letters,  in  reading,  once  in  a  hundred 
times,  as  we  were  taught  to  sound  them  when  learning  the 
alphabet.  Indeed,  were  we  to  do  so  in  one-tenth  part  of  the 
instances,  we  should  be  understood  by  nobody.  What  analogy 
can  be  pointed  out  between  the  rough  breathing  of  the  letter  h, 
in  the  words  when,  where,  how,  &c.,  and  the  name-sound 
(aytch,  aitch,  or  aych,  as  it  is  given  by  different  spelling-book 
compilers)  of  that  letter  as  it  is  taught  from  the  alphabet  ? 

This  subject  might  be  further  illustrated  by  reference  to  other 
languages,  —  the  Greek,  for  instance.  Will  the  names  of  the 
letters,  kappa,  omicron,  sigma,  mu,  omicron,  sigma,  make  the 
word  kosmos  f  And  yet  these  letters  come  as  near  making  that 
word  as  those  given  by  the  Her.  Mr.  Ottiwell  Wood,  at  a  late 
trial  in  Lancashire,  England,  did  to  the  sound  of  his  own  name. 
On  Mr.  Wood's  giving  his  name  to  the  court,  the  judge  said, 
"  Pray,  Mr.  Wood,  how  do  you  spell  your  name  ?  "  to  which  the 
witness  replied,  "  O  double  T,  I  double  U,  E  double  L,  double 
U,  double  0,  D."  In  the  anecdote,  it  is  added  that  the  learned 
judge  at  first  laid  down  his  pen  in  astonishment ;  and  then,  after 


316  ANNUAL   REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

making  two  or  three  unsuccessful  attempts,  declared  lie  was  un- 
able to  record  it.  Mr.  Palmer,  from  whose  prize  essay  this 
anecdote  is  taken,  gives  the  following  account  of  the  manner  in 
which  children  were  taught  to  read  the  first  sentence  in  Web- 
ster's old  spelling-book  :  En-o,  no,  emm-ai-en,  man,  emm-ai-ioy, 
may,  pee-you-tee,  put,  o-double-eff,  off,  tee-aitch-ee,  the,  ell-ai- 
double-you,  law,  o-eff,  of,  gee-o-dee,  God. 

Some  defenders  of  the  old  system  have  attempted  to  find  an 
analogy  for  their  practice  in  the  mode  of  teaching  to  sing  by 
first  learning  the  gamut.  They  compare  the  notes  of  the  gamut, 
which  are  afterwards  to  be  combined  into  tunes,  to  the  letters  of 
the  alphabet  to  be  afterwards  combined  into  words.  But  one  or 
two  considerations  will  show  the  greatest  difference  between 
the  principal  case  and  the  supposed  analogy.  In  written  music, 
there  is  always  a  scale  consisting  of  at  least  five  lines,  and  of 
course  with  four  spaces  between,  and  often  one  or  two  lines  and 
spaces  above  or  below  the  regular  scale  ;  and  both  the  name  of 
a  note  and  the  sound  to  be  given  it  can  always  be  known  by 
observing  its  place  in  the  scale.  To  make  the  cases  analogous, 
there  should  be  a  scale  of  thirty-three  places  at  least  for  the  six 
vowels  only ;  and  this  scale  should  be  enlarged  so  as  to  admit 
the  twenty  consonants,  and  all  their  combinations  with  the  vow- 
els. Such  a  scale  could  hardly  be  crowded  into  an  octavo  page. 
The  largest  pages  now  used  would  not  contain  more  than  a  sin- 
gle printed  line  each  ;  and  the  matter  now  contained  in  an  oc- 
tavo volume  would  fill  the  shelves  of  a  good-sized  library.  If 
music  were  taught  as  unphilosophically  as  reading,  if  its  eight 
notes  were  first  arranged  in  one  straight  vertical  line,  to  be 
learned  by  name,  and  then  transferred  to  a  straight  horizontal 
line,  where  they  should  follow  each  other  promiscuously,  and 
without  any  clew  to  the  particular  sound  to  be  given  them  in 
each  particular  place,  it  seems  not  too  much  to  say,  that  not  one 
man  in  a  hundred  thousand  would  ever  become  a  musician. 

The  comparison  sometimes  made  between  reading  and  arith- 
metic fails  for  the  same  reasons.  In  arithmetic,  the  Arabic 
figures,  when  standing  by  themselves,  have  an  invariable  value  ; 


REPORT    FOR    1843.  317 

and,  when  combined,  their  value  is  always  determined  by  a  cer- 
tain law  of  decimal  progression.  The  figure  5  is  always  five. 
It  may  be  5  units,  5  tens,  5  hundreds,  &c.  ;  but  it  is  always  five, 
and  whether  it  is  5  units,  5  tens,  or  5  hundreds,  is  infallibly 
known  by  the  place  it  occupies.  If  we  knew  that  the  vowel  a 
would  always  be  long  if  found  at  the  end  of  a  word,  that  it 
would  be  short  if  found  one  place  to  the  left,  grave  if  found 
two,  and  broad  if  found  three,  and  so  on,  there  would  then  be 
one  element  of  comparison  between  the  cases,  and  the  argu- 
ment might  have,  what  it  now  seems  to  want,  a  shadow  of 
plausibility. 

There  is  one  fact,  probably  within  every  teacher's  own  obser- 
vation, which  should  be  decisive  on  this  subject.  In  learning 
the  alphabet,  children  pronounce  the  consonants  as  though  they 
were  either  preceded  or  followed  by  one  of  the  vowels  ;  that  is, 
they  sound  b  as  though  it  were  written  be,  and  /  as  though  writ- 
ten ef.  But,  when  they  have  advanced  ever  so  little  way  in  read- 
ing, do  they  not  enunciate  words  where  the  letter  b  is  followed 
by  one  of  the  other  vowels,  or  where  it  is  preceded  by  a  vowel,  as 
well  as  words  into  which  their  own  familiar  sonud  of  be  enters? 
For  example,  though  they  have  called  b  a  thousand  times  as  if 
it  were  written  be,  do  they  not  enunciate  the  words  ball,  bind, 
box,  bug,  &c.,  as  well  as  they  do  the  words  besom,  beatific,  &c.  ? 
They  do  not  say  be-all,  be-ind,  be-ox,  be-ug,  &c.  Do  they  not 
articulate  the  words  ebb,  web,  &c.,  where  the  vowel  comes  first, 
or  the  words  bet,  bell,  beyond,  &c.,  where  the  vowel  is  short  or 
obscure,  as  well  as  they  do  those  words  which  have  their  old  ac- 
customed sound  of  b,  with  the  long  sound  of  e  f  So  of  the  letter 
/,  which  they  have  been  accustomed  to  sound  as  though  writ- 
ten ef.  Do  they  not  articulate  the  word  fig  as  well  as  they  do 
the  first  syllable  of  the  word  effigy  ?  Nay,  except  they  are  very 
apt,  and  remember  in  a  remarkable  manner  the  nonsense  that 
has  been  taught  them,  do  they  ever  call  fig  ef-ig,  or  father, 
ef-ather?  Happy  incapacity  of  a  bright  nature  to  be  turned 
into  a  dunce ! 

The  teachers  in  Prussia  and  Saxony  invariably  practise  what 


318  ANNUAL   KEPORTS   ON    EDUCATION. 

is  called  by  them  the  lautir  (pronounced  lauteer)  method.  In 
Holland,  the  same  method  is  universally  adopted.  With  us,  it 
is  known  by  the  name  phonic.  It  consists  in  giving  each  letter, 
when  taken  by  itself,  the  sound  which  it  has  when  found  in 
combination  ;  so  that  the  sound  of  a  regular  word  of  four 
letters  is  divided  into  four  parts,  and  a  recombination  of  the 
sounds  of  the  letters  makes  the  sound  of  the  word. 

There  are  two  reasons  why  this  lautir  or  phonic  method  is 
less  adapted  to  the  English  language  than  to  the  German  : 
first,  because  our  vowels  have  more  sounds  than  theirs  ;  and, 
secondly,  because  we  have  more  silent  letters  than  they.  This 
is  an  argument,  not  against  their  method  of  teaching,  but  in 
favor  of  our  commencing  to  teach  by  giving  words  before  let- 
ters. And  I  despair  of  any  effective  improvement  in  teaching 
young  children  to  read,  until  the  teachers  of  our  primary 
schools  shall  qualify  themselves  to  teach  in  this  manner,  —  I 
say,  until  they  shall  qualify  themselves ;  for  they  may  attempt 
it  in  such  a  rude  and  awkward  way  as  will  infallibly  incur  a 
failure.  As  an  accompaniment  to  this,  they  should  also  be 
able  to  give  instruction  according  to  the  lautir  or  phonic 
method.  It  is  only  in  this  way  that  the  present  stupefying  and 
repulsive  process  of  learning  to  read  can  be  changed  into  one 
full  of  interest,  animation,  and  instructiveness,  and  a  toilsome 
work  of  months  be  reduced  to  a  pleasant  one  of  weeks. 

Having  given  an  account  of  the  readiug-lesson  of  a  primary 
class  just  after  they  had  commenced  going  to  school,  I  will 
follow  it  with  a  brief  account  of  a  lesson  given  to  a  more 
advanced  class.  The  subject  was  a  short  piece  of  poetry 
describing  a  hunter's  life  in  Missouri.  It  was  first  read,  the 
reading  being  accompanied  with  appropriate  criticisms  as  to 
pronunciation,  tone,  &c.  It  was  then  taken  up  verse  by  verse, 
and  the  pupils  were  required  to  give  equivalent  expressions  in 
prose.  The  teacher  then  entered  into  an  explanation  of  every 
part  of  it,  in  a  sort  of  oral  lecture,  accompanied  with  occa- 
sional questions.  This  was  done  with  the  greatest  minuteness. 


REPORT   FOR    1843.  319 

Where  there  was  a  geographical  reference,  he  entered  at  large 
into  geography ;  where  a  reference  to  a  foreign  custom,  he 
compared  it  with  their  customs  at  home  :  and  thus  he  explained 
every  part,  and  illustrated  the  illustrations  themselves,  until, 
after  an  entire  hour  spent  upon  six  four-line  verses,  he  left 
them  to  write  out  the  sentiment  and  the  story  in  prose,  to  be 
produced  in  school  the  next  morning.  All  this  was  done  with- 
out the  slightest  break  or  hesitation,  and  evidently  proceeded 
from  a  mind  full  of  the  subject,  and  having  a  ready  command 
of  all  its  resources. 

An  account  of  one  more  lesson  will  close  what  I  have  to  say 
on  the  subject  of  reading.  The  class,  consisting  of  young  lads, 
belonged  to  a  Burger  school,  which  they  were  just  about  leav- 
ing. They  had  been  reading  a  poem  of  Schiller,  —  a  sort  of 
philosophical  allegory,  —  and,  when  it  was  completed,  the 
teacher  called  upon  one  of  them  to  give  a  popular  exposition 
of  the  meaning  of  the  piece.  The  lad  left  his  seat,  stepped  to 
the  teacher's  desk,  and,  standing  in  front  of  the  school,  occu- 
pied about  fifteen  or^  tAventy  minutes  in  an  extemporaneous 
account  of  the  poem,  and  what  he  supposed  to  be  its  meaning 
and  moral. 

ARITHMETIC    AND    MATHEMATICS. 

Children  are  taught  to  cipher,  or,  if  need  be,  to  count,  soon 
after  entering  school.  I  will  attempt  to  describe  a  lesson  which 
I  saw  given  to  a  very  young  class.  Blocks  of  one  cube,  two 
cubes,  three  cubes,  &c.,  up  to  a  block  of  ten  cubes,  lay  upon 
the  teacher's  desk.  The  cubes  on  each  block  were  distinctly 
marked  off,  and  differently  colored,  —  that  is,  if  the  first  inch 
or  cube  was  white,  the  next  would  be  black.  The  teacher 
stood  by  his  desk,  and  in  front  of  the  class.  He  set  up  a  block 
of  one  cube,  and  the  class  simultaneously  said  one.  A  block 
of  two  cubes  was  then  placed  by  the  side  of  the  first,  and  the 
class  said  tiuo.  This  was  done  until  the  ten  blocks  stood  by 
the  side  of  each  other  in  a  row.  They  were  then  counted 
backwards,  the  teacher  placing  his  finger  upon  them,  as  a  sig- 


320  ANNUAL   EEPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

nal  that  their  respective  numbers  were  to  be  called.  The  next 
exercise  was,  "  Two  comes  after  one,  three  comes  after  two," 
and  so  on  to  ten  ;  and  then  backwards,  "  Nine  comes  before 
ten,  eight  comes  before  nine;"  and  so  of  the  rest.  The 
teacher  then  asked,  ''  What  is  three  composed  of?  " 

A.  Three  is  composed  of  one  and  two. 

Q.  Of  what  else  is  three  composed? 

A.  Three  is  composed  of  three  ones. 

Q.  What  is  four  composed  of? 

A.  Four  is  composed  of  four  ones,  of  two  and  two,  of  three 
and  one, 

Q.  What  is  five  composed  of? 

A.  Five  is  composed  of  five  ones,  of  two  and  three,  of  two 
twos  and  one,  of  four  and  one. 

Q.  What  numbers  compose  six?  seven?  eight?  nine?  To 
the  latter  the  pupil  would  answer,  "  Three  threes  make  nine ; 
two,  three,  and  four  make  nine  ;  two,  two,  and  five  make  nine  ; 
three,  four,  and  two  make  nine  ;  three,  five,  and  one  make 
nine,"  &c.  The  teacher  then  placed  similar  blocks  side  by 
side,  while  the  children  added  their  respective  numbers  together, 
"  two  twos  make  four,"  "  three  twos  make  six,"  &c.  The 
blocks  were  then  turned  down  horizontally  to  show  that  three 
blocks  of  two  cubes  each  were  equal  to  one  of  six  cubes. 
Such  questions  were  then  asked  as,  "  How  many  are  six  less 
than  eight?  five  less  than  seven?"  &c.  Then,  "  How  many  are 
seven  and  eight?"  The  answer  was  given  thus  :  "  Eight  is  one 
more  than  seven  ;  seven  and  seven  make  fourteen,  and  one 
added  makes  fifteen  :  therefore  eight  and  seven  make  fifteen." 

Q.  How  many  are  six  and  eight? 

A.  Eight  are  two  more  than  six  ;  six  and  six  make  twelve, 
and  two  added  make  fourteen.  Or  it  might  be  thus  :  Six  are 
two  less  than  eight ;  eight  and  eight  are  sixteen  ;  two  taken 
from  sixteen  leave  fourteen  ;  therefore  eight  and  six  are  four- 
teen. They  then  counted  up  to  a  hundred  on  the  blocks. 
Towards  the  close  of  the  lesson,  such  questions  as  these  were 
put,  and  readily  answered :  "  Of  what  is  thirty-eight  com- 
posed ?  " 


REPORT   FOR    1843.  321 

A.  Thirty-eight  is  composed  of  thirty  and  eight  ones,  of 
seven  fives  and  three  ones;  or  sometimes  thus,  —  of  thirty- 
seven  and  one,  of  thirty-six  and  two  ones,  of  thirty-five  and 
three  ones,  &c. 

Q.  Of  what  is  ninety  composed? 

A.  Ninety  is  composed  of  nine  tens,  of  fifty  and  forty,  &c. 

Thus,  with  a  frequent  reference  to  the  blocks  to  keep  up 
attention  by  presenting  an  object  to  the  eye,  the  simple  num- 
bers were  handled  and  transposed  in  a  great,  variety  of  ways. 
In  this  lesson,  it  is  obvious  that  counting,  numeration,  addition, 
subtraction,  multiplication,  and  division  were  all  included  ;  yet 
there  was  no  abstract  rule  or  unintelligible  form  of  words  given 
out  to  be  committed  to  memory.  Nay,  these  little  children 
took  the  first  steps  in  the  mensuration  of  superficies  and  solids 
by  comparing  the  length  and  contents  of  one  block  with  those 
of  others. 

When  the  pupils  were  a  little  farther  advanced,  I  usually 
heard  lessons  recited  in  this  way :  Suppose  4321  are  to  be 
multiplied  by  25.*  The  pupil  says,  five  times  one  are  five 
ones,  and  he  sets  down  5  in  the  unit's  place  ;  five  times  two 
tens,  or  twenty  ones,  are  a  hundred,  and  sets  down  a  0  in 
the  ten's  place ;  five  times  three  hundred  are  one  thousand 
and  five  hundred,  and  one  hundred  to  be  carried  make  one 
thousand  six  hundred,  and  sets  down  a  6  in  the  hundred's 
place  ;  five  times  four  thousand  are  twenty  thousand,  and  one 
thousand  to  be  carried  make  twenty-one  thousand.  The  next 
figure  in  the  multiplier  is  then  taken,  —  twenty  times  one  are 
twenty,  and  a  2  is  set  down  in  the  ten's  place  ;  twenty  times 
two  tens  are  four  hundred,  and  a  4  is  set  down  in  the  hundred's 
place  ;  twenty  times  three  hundred  are  six  thousand,  and  a  6 
is  set  down  in  the  thousand's  place  ;  twenty  times  four  thou- 

*  Thus :    4321 
25 

21605 
8642 

106025 
21 


322  ANNUAL   REPORTS    ON   EDUCATION. 

sand  are  eighty  thousand,  and  an  8  is  set  down  in  the  ten 

thousand's  place.     Then  come  the  additions  to  get  the  product. 

Five  ones  are  five,  two  tens  are  twenty,  and  these  figures  are 

respectively  set  down ;  four  hundred  and  six  hundred  make  a 

thousand,  and  a  0  is  set  down  in  the   hundred's  place  ;   one 

.thousand  to   be   carried   to   six   thousand   makes    seven  thou- 

!  sand,  and  one  thousand  more  makes  eight  thousand,  and  an  8 

is  set  down  in    the    thousand's  place ;    eighty   thousand    and 

,  twenty  thousand  make  one  hundred  thousand,  and  a  0  is  set 

I  down  in   the   ten  thousand's   place,   and  a  1  in   the   hundred 

thousand's  place.     It  is  easy  to  see,  that,  where  the  multiplier 

and  multiplicand  are  large,  this  process  soon  passes  beyond 

mere  child's  play. 

So  in  division.  If  32756  are  to  be  divided  by  75,  the  pupil 
says,  How  many  hundred  times  are  seventy-five,  or  seventy- 
five  ones,  contained  in  thirty-two  thousand  and  seven  hun- 
dred, or  in  thirty-two  thousand  and  seven  hundred  ones?  — 
four  hundred  times ;  and  he  sets  do\vu  a  4  in  the  hundred's 
place  in  the  quotient ;  then  the  divisor  seventy-five  is  multiplied 
(as  before)  by  the  four  hundred,  and  the  product  is  set  down 
under  the  first  three  figures  of  the  dividend  ;  and  there  are  two 
thousand  and  seven  hundred  remaining.  This  remainder  is  set 
down  in  the  next  line,  because  seventy-five  is  not  contained  in 
two  thousand  seven  hundred  any  number  of  hundred  times. 
And  so  of  the  residue  of  the  process. 

When  there  is  danger  that  an  advanced  class  will  forget  the 
value  of  the  denominations  they  are  handling,  they  are  required 
to  express  the  value  of  each  figure  in  full  throughout  the  whole 
process,  in  the  manner  above  described. 

I  shall  never  forget  the  impression  which  a  recitation  by  a 
higher  class  of  girls  produced  upon  my  mind.  It  lasted  an 
hour.  Neither  teacher  nor  pupil  had  book  or  slate.  Questions 
and  answers  were  extemporaneous.  They  consisted  of  prob- 
lems in  Vulgar  Fractions,  simple  and  compound  ;  in  the  Rule 
of  Three,  Practice,  Interest,  Discount,  &c.  A  few  of  the  first 
were  simple  ;  but  they  soon  increased  in  complication  and  dim- 


REPORT   FOR    1843.  323 

culty,  and  in  the  amount  of  the  sums  managed,  until  I  could 
hardly  credit  the  report  of  my  own  senses,  so  difficult  were 
the  questions,  and  so  prompt  and  accurate  the  replies. 

A  great  many  of  the  exercises  in  arithmetic  consisted  in 
reducing  the  coins  of  one  State  to  those  of  another.  In  Ger- 
many, there  are  almost  as  many  different  currencies  as  there  are 
States  ;  and  the  expression  of  the  value  of  one  coin  in  other 
denominations  is  a  very  common  exercise. 

It  struck  me  that  the  main  differences  between  their  mode  of 
teaching  arithmetic  and  ours  consist  in  their  beginning  earlier, 
continuing  the  practice  in  the  elements  much  longer,  requiring 
a  more  thorough  analysis  of  all  questions,  and  in  not  separating 
the  processes,  or  rules,  so  much  as  we  do  from  each  other. 
The  pupils  proceed  less  by  rule,  more  by  an  understanding  of 
the  subject.  It  often  happens  to  our  children,  that,  while 
engaged  in  one  rule,  they  forget  a  preceding.  Hence  many  of 
our  best  teachers  have  frequent  reviews.  But  there,  as  I  stated 
above,  the  youngest  classes  of  chikken  were  taught  addition, 
subtraction,  multiplication,  and  division,  promiscuously.  And 
so  it  was  in  the  later  stages.  The  mind  was  constantly  carried 
along,  and  the  practice  enlarged  in  more  than  one  direction. 
It  is  a  difference  which  results  from  teaching,  in  the  one  case, 
from  a  book ;  and,  in  the  other,  from  the  head.  In  the  latter 
case,  the  teacher  sees  what  each  pupil  most  needs,  and,  if  he 
finds  any  one  halting  or  failing  on  a  particular  class  of  ques- 
tions, plies  him  with  questions  of  that  kind  until  his  deficiencies 
are  supplied. 

In  algebra,  trigonometry,  surveying,  geometry,  &c.,  I  inva- 
riably saw  the  teacher  standing  before  the  blackboard,  drawing 
the  diagrams,  and  explaining  all  the  relations  between  their 
several  parts,  while  the  pupils  in  their  seats,  having  a  pen  and 
a  small  manuscript  book,  copied  the  figures,  and  took  down 
brief  heads  of  the  solution  ;  and  at  the  next  recitation  they 
were  required  to  go  to  the  blackboard,  draw  the  figures  and 
solve  the  problems  themselves.  How  different  this  mode  of 
hearing  a  lesson  from  that  of  holding  the  text-book  in  the  left 


324  ANNUAL   REPORTS    ON   EDUCATION. 

hand,  while  the  fore-finger  of  the  right  carefully  follows  the 
printed  demonstration,  under  penalty,  should  the  place  be  lost, 
of  being  obliged  to  recommence  the  solution  ! 

GRAMMAR    AND    COMPOSITION. 

Great  attention  is  paid  to  grammar,  or,  as  it  is  usually  called 
in  the  plan  of  studies,  the  German  language.  But  I  heard 
very  little  of  the  ding-dong  and  recitative  of  gender,  number, 
and  case,  of  government  and  agreement,  which  make  up  so 
great  a  portion  of  the  grammatical  exercises  in  our  schools, 
and  which  the  pupils  are  often  required  to  repeat  until  they 
really  lose  all  sense  of  the  original  meaning  of  the  terms  they 
use.  Of  what  service  is  it  for  children  to  re-iterate  and  re-assert, 
fifty  times  in  a  single  recitation,  the  gender  and  number  of 
nouns,  about  which  they  never  made  a  mistake  even  before  a 
grammar  book  was  put  into  their  hands?  If  the  object  of 
grammar  is  to  teach  children  to  speak  and  write  their  native 
language  with  propriety,  then  they  should  be  practised  upon 
expressing  their  own  ideas  with  elegance,  distinctness,  and 
force.  For  this  purpose,  their  common  every-day  phraseology 
is  first  to  be  attended  to.  As  their  speech  becomes  more  copi- 
ous, they  should  be  led  to  recognize  those  slight  shades  of  dis- 
tinction which  exist  between  words  almost  synonymous  ;  to 
discriminate  between  the  literal  and  the  figurative  ;  and  to 
frame  sentences  in  which  the  main  idea  shall  be  brought  out 
conspicuously  and  prominently,  while  all  subordinate  ones  — 
mere  matters  of  circumstance  or  qualification  —  shall  occupy 
humbler  or  more  retired  positions.  The  sentences  of  some 
public  speakers  are  so  arranged,  that  what  is  collateral  or  inci- 
dental stands  out  boldly  in  the  foreground,  while  the  principal 
thought  is  almost  lost  in  the  shade,  —  an  arrangement  as  pre- 
posterous as  if  in  the  senate-chamber,  the  forum,  or  the  parade- 
ground,  the  president,  the  judge,  or  the  commanding  officer, 
were  thrust  into  the  rear,  while  a  nameless  throng  of  non-offi- 
cials and  incognitos  should  occupy  the  places  of  dignity  and 


REPORT   FOR    1843.  325 

authority.  Grammar  should  be  taught  in  snch  a  way  as  to 
lead  out  into  rhetoric  as  it  regards  the  form  of  the  expression, 
and  iuto  logic  as  it  regards  the  sequence  and  coherency  of  the 
thoughts.  If  this  is  so,  then  no  person  is  competent  to  teach 
grammar  who  is  not  familiar,  at  least,  with  all  the  leading  prin- 
ciples of  rhetoric  and  logic. 

The  Prussian  teachers,  by  their  constant  habit  of  conversing 
with  the  pupils  ;  by  requiring  a  complete  answer  to  be  given  to 
every  question  ;  by  never  allowing  a  mistake  in  termination  or 
in  the  collocation  of  words  or  clauses  to  pass  uncorrected,  nor 
the  sentence,  as  corrected,  to  pass  uurepeated ;  by  requiring  the 
poetry  of  the  reading-lessons  to  be  changed  into  oral  or  writ- 
ten prose,  and  the  prose  to  be  paraphrased,  or  expressed  in  dif- 
ferent words  ;  and  by  exacting  a  general  account  or  summary 
of  the  reading-lessons,  —  are,  as  we  may  almost  literally  say, 
constantly  teaching  grammar,  or,  as  they  more  comprehen- 
sively call  it,  the  German  language.  It  is  easy  to  see  that 
composition  is  included  under  this  head;  the  writing  of  regu- 
lar "  essays"  or  "  themes"  being  only  a  later  exercise. 

Professor  Stowe  gives  the  following  account  of  the  manner 
of  teaching  and  explaining  the  different  parts  of  speech  :  — 

"  Grammar  is  taught  directly  and  scientifically,  yet  by  no 
means  in  a  dry  and  technical  manner.  On  the  contrary,  tech- 
nical terms  are  carefully  avoided,  till  the  child  has  become 
familiar  with  the  nature  and  use  of  the  things  designated  by 
them,  and  he  is  able  to  use  them  as  the  names  of  ideas  which 
have  a  definite  existence  in  his  mind,  and  not  as  awful  sounds 
dimly  shado \viug  forth  some  mysteries  of  science  into  which 
he  has  no  power  to  penetrate. 

"  The  first  object  is  to  illustrate  the  different  parts  of  speech, 
such  as  the  noun,  verb,  adjective,  adverb ;  and  this  is  done  by 
engaging  the  pupil  in  conversation,  and  leading  him  to  form 
sentences  in  which  the  particular  part  of  speech  to  be  learned 
shall  be  the  most  important  word,  and  directing  his  attention 
to  the  nature  and  use  of  the  word  in  the  place  where  he  uses 
it.  For  example,  let  us  suppose  the  nature  and  use  of  the  ad- 


326  ANNUAL    REPORTS    ON   EDUCATION. 

verb  is  to  be  taught :  the  teacher  writes  upon  the  blackboard 
the  words  here,  there,  near,  &c.  He  then  says,  '  Children,  we 
are  all  together  in  this  room.  By  which  of  the  words  on  the 
blackboard  can  you  express  this  ?  ' 

"  Children.  k  We  are  all  here.' 

"  Teacher.  '  Xow  look  out  of  the  window,  and  see  the  church. 
What  can  you  say  of  the  church  with  the  second  word  on  the 
blackboard  ? ' 

"  Children.  '  The  church  is  there.' 

"  Teacher.  '  The  distance  between  us  and  the  church  is  not 
great :  how  will  you  express  this  by  a  word  on  the  black- 
board ? ' 

"  Children.  '  The  church  is  near.'  The  fact  that  these  dif- 
ferent words  express  the  same  sort  of  relations  is  then  explained, 
and,  accordingly,  that  they  belong  to  the  same  class,  or  are  the 
same  part  of  speech.  The  variations  of  these  words  are  next 
explained. 

"  Teacher.  '  Children,  you  say  the  church  is  near  ;  but  there  is 
a  shop  between  us  and  the  church  :  what  will  you  say  of  the 
shop?' 

"  Children.  '  The  shop  is  nearer.' 

"  Teacher.  '  But  there's  a  fence  between  us  and  the  shop. 
Now,  when  you  think  of  the  distance  between  us,  the  shop,  and 
the  fence,  what  will  you  say  of  the  fence  ? ' 

"  Children.  '  The  fence  is  nearest.'  So  of  other  adverbs. 
The  lark  sings  well.  Compare  the  singing  of  the  lark  with 
that  of  the  canary-bird.  Compare  the  singing  of  the  nightin- 
gale with  that  of  the  canary-bird." 

I  heard  excellent  lessons  on  the  different  meanings  which 
roots,  or  primitive  words,  assume,  when  used  with  different 
affixes  or  suffixes.  An  analogous  lesson  in  our  language  would 
consist  in  giving  the  meanings  of  the  different  words  which 
come  from  one  root  in  the  Latin  ;  as,  convene,  intervene,  pre- 
vent, event,  advent,  &c.  ;  or  accede,  recede;  succeed,  exceed,  pro- 
ceed, secede,  precede,  intercede,  &c. 


REPORT   FOR    1843.  327 

WRITING   AND    DRAWING. 

Such  excellent  hand- writing  as  I  saw  in  the  Prussian  schools 
I  never  saw  before.  I  can  hardly  express  myself  too  strongly 
on  this  point.  In  Great  Britain,  France,  or  in  our  own  coun- 
try, I  have  never  seen  any  schools  worthy  to  be  compared  with 
theirs  in  this  respect.  I  have  before  said  that  I  found  all 
children  provided  with  a  slate  arid  pencil,  and  writing  or  print- 
ing letters,  and  beginning  with  the  elements  of  drawing,  either 
immediately  or  very  soon  after  they  entered  school.  This  fur- 
nishes the  greater  part  of  the  explanation  of  their  excellent 
hand-writing.  A  part  of  it,  I  think,  should  be  referred  to  the 
peculiarity  of  the  German  script,  which  seems  to  me  to  be 
easier  than  our  own.  But,  after  all  due  allowance  is  made  for 
this  advantage,  a  high  degree  of  superiority  over  the  schools  of 
other  countries  remains  to  be  accounted  for.  This  superiority 
cannot  be  attributed  in  any  degree  to  a  better  manner  of  hold- 
ing the  pen  ;  for  I  never  saw  so  great  a  proportion  of  cases  in 
any  schools  where  the  pen  was  so  awkwardly  held.  This  ex- 
cellence must  be  referred,  in  a  great  degree,  to  the  universal 
practice  of  learning  to  draw  contemporaneously  with  learning 
to  write.  I  believe  a  child  will  learn  both  to  draw  and  to  write 
sooner  and  with  more  ease  than  he  will  learn  writing  alone ; 
and  for  this  reason,  —  the  figures  or  objects  contemplated  and 
copied  in  learning  to  draw  are  larger,  more  marked,  more  dis- 
tinctive one  from  another,  and  more  sharply  defined  with  pro- 
jection, angle,  or  curve,  than  the  letters  copied  in  writing.  In 
drawing,  there  is  more  variety ;  in  writing,  more  sameness.  Now, 
the  objects  contemplated  in  drawing,  from,  their  nature,  attract 
attention  more  readily,  impress  the  mind  more  deeply,  and,  of 
course,  will  be  more  accurately  copied,  than  those  in  writing. 
And  when  the  eye  has  been  trained  to  observe,  to  distinguish, 
and  to  imitate,  in  the  first  exercise,  it  applies  its  habits  with 
great  advantage  to  the  second. 

Another  reason  is,  that  the  child  is  taught  to  draw  things 
with  which  he  is  familiar,  which  have  some  significance,  and 


328  ANNUAL   REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

give  him  pleasing  ideas.  But  a  child  who  is  made  to  fill  page 
after  page  with  rows  of  straight  marks,  that  look  so  blank 
and  cheerless,  though  done  ever  so  well,  has  and  can  have  no 
pleasing  associations  with  his  work.  The  practice  of  beginning 
with  making  inexpressive  marks,  or  with  writing  unintelligible 
words,  bears  some  resemblance,  in  its  lifelessness,  to  that  of 
learning  the  alphabet.  Each  exhales  torpor  and  stupidity  to 
deaden  the  vivacity  of  the  worker. 

Again  :  I  have  found  it  an  almost  universal  opinion  with 
teachers  of  the  art  of  writing,  that  children  should  commence 
with  large  hand  rather  than  with  fine.  The  reason  for  this  I 
suppose  to  be,  that,  where  the  letters  themselves  are  larger,  their 
differences  and  peculiarities  are  proportionally  larger ;  hence 
they  can  be  more  easily  discriminated,  and  discrimination  must 
necessarily  precede  exact  copying.  So  to  speak,  the  child  be- 
comes acquainted  "with  the  physiognomy  of  the  large  letters 
more  easily  than  with  that  of  the  small.  Besides,  the  forma- 
tion of  the  larger  gives  more  freedom  of  motion  to  the  hand. 
Now,  in  these  respects,  there  is  more  difference  between  the 
objects  used  in  drawing  and  the  letters  of  a  large  hand  than 
between  the  latter  and  fine  hand ;  and  therefore  the  argument 
in  favor  of  a  large  hand  applies  with  still  more  force  in  favor 
of  drawing. 

In  the  course  of  my  tour,  I  passed  from  countries  where 
almost  every  pupil  in  every  school  could  draw  with  ease,  and 
most  of  them  with  no  inconsiderable  degree  of  beauty  and  ex- 
pression, to  those  where  less  and  less  attention  was  paid  to  the 
subject ;  and,  at  last,  to  schools  where  drawing  was  not  prac- 
tised at  all  :  and,  after  many  trials,  I  came  to  the  conclusion 
that,  with  no  other  guide  than  a  mere  inspection  of  the  copy- 
books of  the  pupils,  I  could  tell  whether  drawing  were  taught 
in  the  school  or  not ;  so  uniformly  superior  was  the  hand-writ- 
ing in  those  schools  where  drawing  was  taught  in  connection 
with  it.  On  seeing  this,  I  was  reminded  of  that  saying  of 
Pestalozzi,  —  somewhat  too  strong,  —  that,  "without  drawing, 
there  can  be  no  writing." 


REPORT   FOR    1843.  329 

But  suppose  it  were  otherwise,  and  that  learning  to  draw  re- 
tarded the  acquisition  of  good  penmanship,  how  richly  would 
the  learner  be  compensated  for  the  sacrifice  !  Drawing,  of  itself, 
is  an  expressive  and  beautiful  language.  A  few  strokes  of  the 
pen  or  pencil  will  often  represent  to  the  eye  what  no  amount 
of  words,  however  well  chosen,  can  communicate.  For  the 
master-architect,  for  the  engraver,  the  engineer,  the  pattern- 
designer,  the  draughtsman,  moulder,  machine-builder,  or  head 
mechanic  of  any  kind,  all  acknowledge  that  this  art  is  essen- 
tial and  indispensable.  But  there  is  no  department  of  business 
or  condition  in  life  where  the  accomplishment  would  not  be 
of  utility.  Every  man  should  be  able  to  plot  a  field,  to  sketch 
a  road  or  a  river,  to  draw  the  outlines  of  a  simple  machine, 
a  piece  of  household  furniture  or  a  farming  utensil,  and 
to  delineate  the  internal  arrangement  or  construction  of  a 
.  house. 

But  to  be  able  to  represent  by  lines  and  shadows  what  no 
words  can  depict  is  only  a  minor  part  of  the  benefit  of  learning 
to  draw.  The  study  of  this  art  develops  the  talent  of  observ- 
ing even  more  than  that  of  delineating.  Although  a  man  may 
have  but  comparatively  few  occasions  to  picture  forth  what  he 
has  observed,  yet  the  power  of  observation  should  be  cultivated 
by  every  rational  being.  The  skilful  delineator  is  not  only 
able  to  describe  far  better  what  he  has  seen,  but  he  sees  twice 
as  many  things  in  the  world  as  he  would  otherwise  do.  To 
one  whose  eye  has  never  been  accustomed  to  mark  the  form, 
color,  or  peculiarities  of  objects,  all  external  Nature  is  enveloped 
in  a  haze,  which  no  sunshine,  however  bright,  will  ever  dissi- 
pate. The  light  which  dispels  this  obscurity  must  come  from 
within.  Teaching  a  child  to  draw,  then,  is  the  development  in 
him  of  a  new  talent,  — the  conferring  upon  him,  as  it  were,  of  - 
a  new  sense,  — by  means  of  which  he  is  not  only  better  enabled 
to  attend  to  the  common  duties  of  life,  and  be  more  serviceable 
to  his  fellow-men,  but  he  is  more  likely  to  appreciate  the  beau- 
ties and  magnificence  of  Nature  which  everywhere  reflect  the 
glories  of  the  Creator  into  his  soul.  When  accompanied  by 


330  ANNUAL    REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

appropriate  instruction  of  a  moral  and  religious  character,  this 
accomplishment  becomes  a  quickener  to  devotion. 

With  the  inventive  genius  of  our  people,  the  art  of  drawing 
would  be  eminently  useful.  They  would  turn  it  to  better  ac- 
count than  any  other  people  iu  the  world.  We  now  perform 
far  the  greater  part  of  our  labor  by  machinery.  With  the  high 
wages  prevalent  amongst  us,  if  such  were  not  the  case,  our 
whole  community  would  be  impoverished.  Whatever  ad- 
vances the  mechanic  and  manufacturing  arts,  therefore,  is 
especially  important  here ;  and  whatever  is  important  for 
men  to  know,  as  men,  should  be  learned  by  children  in  the 
schools. 

But  whatever  may  be  said  of  the  importance  of  this  art,  as  it 
regards  the  community  at  large,  its  value  to  a  school-teacher 
can  hardly  be  estimated. 

If  the  first  exercises  in  reading  were  taught  as  they  should 
be  ;  if  the  squares  of  the  multiplication-table  were  first  to  be 
drawn  on  the  blackboard,  and  then  to  be  filled  up  by  the  pupils 
as  they  should  see  on  what  reason  the  progressive  increase  of 
the  numbers  is  founded ;  if  geography  were  taught  from  the 
beginning,  as  it  should  be,  by  constant  delineations  upon  the 
blackboard,  —  then  every  teacher,  even  of  the  humblest  school, 
ought  to  be  acquainted  with  the  art  of  linear  drawing,  and  be 
able  to  form  all  the  necessary  figures  and  diagrams  not  only 
with  correctness,  but  with  rapidity.  And  in  teaching  naviga- 
tion, surveying,  trigonometry,  geometry,  &c.  ;  in  describing  the 
mechanical  powers ;  in  optics,  in  astronomy,  iu  the  various 
branches  of  natural  philosophy,  and  especially  in  physiology, 
—  the  teacher  who  has  a  command  of  this  art  will  teach  incom- 
parably better  and  incomparably  faster  than  if  he  were  igno- 
rant of  it.  I  never  saw  a  teacher  iu  a  German  school  make 
use  of  a  ruler,  or  any  other  mechanical  aid,  in  drawing  the 
nicest  or  most  complicated  figures.  I  recollect  no  instance  in 
which  he  was  obliged  to  efface  a  part  of  a  line  because  it  was 
too  long,  or  to  extend  it  because  it  was  too  short.  If  squares 
or  triangles  were  to  be  formed,  they  came  out  squares  or  tri- 


EEPORT   FOR    1843.  331 

angles  without  any  overlapping  or  deficiency.  Here  was  not 
only  much  time  gained  or  saved,  but  the  pupils  had  constantly 
before  their  eyes  these  examples  of  celerity  and  perfectness  as 
models  for  imitation.  No  one  can  doubt  how  much  more  cor- 
rectly, as  well  as  more  rapidly,  a  child's  mind  will  grow  in  view 
of  such  models  of  ease  and  accuracy,  than  if  only  slow,  awk- 
ward, and  clumsy  movements  are  the  patterns  constantly  held 
before  it. 

I  saw  hand-writing  taught  in  various  ways.  The  most  com- 
mon mode  for  young  children  was  that  of  writing  on  the  black- 
board for  their  imitation.  In  such  cases,  the  copy  was  always 
beautifully  written,  and  the  lesson  preceded  by  instructions  and 
followed  by  corrections. 

Another  method  which  has  had  some  currency  in  Germany 
is  this  :  If  the  mark  to  be  copied  is  a  simple  straight  line,  thus, 
/  /,  the  teacher  says,  one,  one,  as  words  of  command ;  and,  at 
each  enunciation  of  the  word,  the  pupils  make  a  mark  simulta- 
neously. The  teacher  accelerates  or  retards  his  utterance 
according  to  the  degree  of  facility  the  class  has  acquired.  If 
the  figure  to  be  copied  consists  of  an  upward  and  downward 
stroke,  thus,  /,  7,  the  teacher  says,  one,  two;  one,  two  (one 
for  the  upward,  the  other  for  the  downward  motion  of  the 
hand)  ;  at  first  slowly,  afterwards  more  rapidly.  When  the 
figure  consists  of  three  strokes,  thus,  I,  he  pronounces  one,  two, 
three,  as  before.  Letters  are  formed  in  the  same  way. 

A  supposed  advantage  of  this  method  consists  in  its  retard- 
ing the  motions  of  those  who  would  otherwise  write  too  fast, 
and  hastening  those  who  would  write  too  slow.  But,  for  these 
purposes,  the  teacher  must  see  that  all  keep  time,  otherwise  the 
advantage  is  lost.  And,  on  the  whole,  there  is  so  much  differ- 
ence between  the  natural  quickness  of  perception  and  of  motion 
in  different  pupils,  that  there  can  be  no  such  thing  as  a  univer- 
sal standard.  Some  scholars,  whose  thoughts  and  muscles  are 
of  electric  speed,  would  be  embarrassed  by  being  obliged  to 
write  slowly  ;  and  others  could  not  keep  step,  though  the  music 
played  only  common  time.  Neither  in  their  physical  nor  in 


332  ANNUAL   REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

their  spiritual  natures  does  the  speed  of  children  seem  to  have 
been  graduated  by  any  one  clock. 

The  best  method  which  I  have  ever  seen  of  teaching  penman- 
ship to  large  scholars  was  that  practised  by  Professor  New- 
man, at  the  Normal  School  in  Barre.* 

In  the  schools  I  saw,  orthography,  punctuation,  and  the  use 
of  capitals,  were  early  connected  with  the  exercise  of  writing. 

GEOGRAPHY. 

In  describing  the  manner  in  which  geography  was  taught,  I 
must  use  discrimination ;  for,  in  some  respects,  it  was  taught 
imperfectly,  in  others  pre-eminently  well. 

The  practice  seemed  to  be  uniform,  however,  of  beginning 
with  objects  perfectly  familiar  to  the  child,  —  the  schoolhouse 
with  the  grounds  around  it,  the  home  with  its  yards  or  gardens, 
and  the  street  leading  from  the  one  to  the  other.  First  of  all, 
the  children  were  initiated  into  the  ideas  of  space,  without 
which  we  can  know  no  more  of  geography  than  we  can  of  his- 
tory without  ideas  of  time.  Mr.  Carl  Ritter  of  Berlin  —  proba- 
bly the  greatest  geographer  now  living  —  expressed  a  decided 
opinion  to  me,  that  this  was  the  true  mode  of  beginning. 

Children,  too,  commence  this  study  very  early,  —  soon  after 
entering  school,  —  but  no  notions  are  given  them  which  they 
are  not  perfectly  able  to  comprehend,  reproduce,  and  express. 

I  found  geography  taught  almost  wholly  from  large  maps 
suspended  against  the  walls,  and  by  delineations  on  the  black- 
board. And  here  the  skill  of  teachers  and  pupils  in  drawing 
did  admirable  service.  The  teacher  traced  the  outlines  of  a 
country  on  the  suspended  map,  or  drew  one  upon  the  black- 
board, accompanying  the  exhibition  by  an  oral  lecture  ;  and,  at 
the  next  recitation,  the  pupils  were  expected  to  repeat  what 
they  had  seen  and  heard.  And  in  regard  to  the  natural  divis- 
ions of  the  earth,  or  the  political  boundaries  of  countries,  a 
pupil  was  not  considered  as  having  given  any  proof  that  he 
*  See  Common-school  Journal,  2d  vol.,  p.  345. 


REPORT    FOR    1843.  333 

had  a  correct  image  in  his  mind,  until  he  could  go  to  the  black- 
board, and  reproduce  it  from  the  ends  of  his  fingers.  I  wit- 
nessed no  lesson  unaccompanied  by  these  tests. 

I  will  describe,  as  exactly  as  I  am  able,  a  lesson  which  I 
heard  given  to  a  class  a  little  advanced  beyond  the  elements ; 
remarking,  that,  though  I  heard  many  lessons  given  on  the 
same  plan,  none  of  them  were  signalized  by  the  rapidity  and 
effect  of  the  one  I  am  about  to  describe. 

The  teacher  stood  by  the  blackboard,  with  the  chalk  in  his 
hand.  After  casting  his  eye  over  the  class  to  see  that  all  were 
ready,  he  struck  at  the  middle  of  the  board.  With  a  rapidity 
of  hand  which  my  eye  could  hardly  follow,  he  made  a  series 
of  those  short,  divergent  lines,  or  shadings,  employed  by  map- 
engravers  to  represent  a  chain  of  mountains.  He  had  scarcely 
turned  an  angle,  or  shot  off  a  spur,  when  the  scholars  began 
to  cry  out,  "Carpathian  Mountains,  Hungary;  Black-forest 
Mountains.  Wurtemberg  ;  Giant's  Mountains  (Rieseu-Gebirge), 
Silesia;  Metallic  Mountains  (Erz-Gebirge),  Pine  Mountains 
(Fichtel-Gebirge),  Central  Mountains  (Mittel-Gebirge),  Bo- 
hemia," &c. 

In  less  than  half  a  minute,  the  ridge  of  that  grand  central 
elevation  which  separates  the  waters  that  flow  north-west  into 
the  German  Ocean  from  those  that  flow  north  into  the  Baltic, 
and  south-east  into  the  Black  Sea,  was  presented  to  view,  — 
executed  almost  as  beautifully  as  an  engraving.  A  dozen 
crinkling  strokes,  made  in  the  twinkling  of  an  eye,  represented 
the  head-waters  of  the  great  rivers  which  flow  in  different 
directions  from  that  mountainous  range ;  while  the  children, 
almost  as  eager  and  excited  as  though  they  had  actually  seen 
the  torrents  dashing  down  the  mountain-sides,  cried  out,  "  Dan- 
ube, Elbe,  Vistula,  Oder,"  &c.  The  next  moment  I  heard  a 
succession  of  small  strokes,  or  taps,  so  rapid  as  to  be  almost  in- 
distinguishable ;  and  hardly  had  my  eye  time  to  disc  iru  a  large 
number  of  dots  made  along  the  margins  of  the  rivers,  when 
the  shout  of  "  Lintz,  Vienna,  Prague,  Dresden,  Berlin,"  &c., 
struck  my  ear.  At  this  point  in  the  exercise,  the  spot  which 


334  ANNUAL    REPORTS   ON   EDDCATION. 

had  been  occupied  on  the  blackboard  was  nearly  a  circle,  of 
which  the  starting-point,  or  place  where  the  teacher  first  began, 
was  the  centre ;  but  now  a  few  additional  strokes  around  the 
circumference  of  the  incipient  continent  extended  the  moun- 
tain ranges  outwards  towards  the  plains,  —  the  children  re- 
sponding the  names  of  the  countries  in  which  they  respectively 
laid.  With  a  few  more  flourishes,  the  rivers  flowed  onwards 
towards  their  several  terminations  ;  and,  by  another  succession 
of  dots,  new  cities  sprang  up  along  their  banks.  By  this  time, 
the  children  had  become  as  much  excited  as  though  they  had 
be"en  present  at  a  world-making.  They  rose  in  their  seats,  they 
flung  out  both  hands,  their  eyes  kindled,  and  their  voices  became 
almost  vociferous  as  they  cried  out  the  names  of  the  different 
places,  which,  under  the  magic  of  the  teacher's  crayon,  rose  iuto 
view.  Within  ten  minutes  from  the  commencement  of  the 
lesson,  there  stood  upon  the  blackboard  a  beautiful  map  of 
Germany,  with  its  mountains,  principal  rivers  and  cities,  the 
coast  of  the  German  Oceau,  the  Baltic  and  the  Black  Seas  ;  and 
all  so  accurately  proportioned,  that  I  think  only  slight  errors 
would  have  been  found,  had  it  been  subjected  to  the  test  of  a 
scale  of  miles.  A  part  of  this  time  was  taken  up  in  correcting 
a  few  mistakes  of  the  pupils  ;  for  the  teacher's  mind  seemed 
to  be  in  his  ear  as  well  as  iu  his  hand  ;  and,  notwithstanding  the 
astonishing  celerity  of  his  movements,  he  detected  erroneous 
answers,  and  turned  round  to  correct  them.  The  rest  of  the 
recitation  consisted  in  questions  and  answers  respecting  pro- 
ductions, climate,  soil,  animals,  &c. 

Many  of  the  cosmogonists  suppose,  that  after  the  creation  of 
the  world,  and  when  its  whole  surface  was  as  yet  fluid,  the 
solid  continents  rose  gradually  from  beneath  the  sea ;  first  the 
loftiest  peaks  of  the  Andes,  for  instance,  emerged  from  the  deep, 
and,  as  they  reached  a  higher  and  a  higher  point  of  elevation, 
the  rivers  began  to  flow  down  their  sides,  until,  at  last,  —  the 
lofty  mountains  having  attained  their  height,  the  mighty  rivers 
their  extent  and  volume,  and  the  continent  its  amplitude,  — 
cultivation  began,  and  cities  and  towns  were  built.  The  lesson 


REPORT   FOR    1843.  335 

I  have  described  was  a  beautiful  illustration  of  that  idea,  with 
one  advantage  over  the  original  scene  itself,  —  that  the  spectator 
had  no  need  of  waiting  through  all  the  geological  epochs  to  see 
the  work  completed. 

Compare  the  effect  of  such  a  lesson  as  this,  both  as  to  the 
amount  of  the  knowledge  communicated,  and  the  vividness, 
and  of  course  the  permanence,  of  the  ideas  obtained,  with  a 
lesson  where  the  scholars  look  out  a  few  names  of  places  on 
a  lifeless  atlas,  but  never  send  their  imaginations  abroad  over 
the  earth  ;  and  the  teacher  sits  listlessly  down  before  them  to 
interrogate  them  from  a  book,  in  which  all  the  questions  are 
printed  at  full  length,  to  supersede  on  his  part  all  necessity  of 
knowledge. 

Thoroughly  and  beautifully  as  I  saw  some  departments  of 
geography  taught  in  the  common  schools  of  Prussia,  traced 
out  into  their  connections  with  commerce,  manufactures,  and 
history,  I  found  but  few  of  this  class  of  schools  in  which  uni- 
versal geography  could,  with  any  propriety,  be  considered  as  a 
part  of  the  course.  The  geography  of  their  own  country  was 
minutely  investigated.  That  of  the  western  hemisphere  was 
very  little  understood.  But  this  should  be  said,  that,  as  far  as 
they  professed  to  teach,  they  taught  thoroughly  and  well.* 

*  The  Germans  seem  to  me  to  be  the  best  map  engravers  in  the  world.  Their 
maps  are  at  once  beautiful  and  cheap.  To  show  to  what  an  extraordinary  length 
they  have  gone  in  representing  the  results  of  science  to  the  eye,  I  subjoin  the  titles 
of  several  maps  which  have  been  prepared  by  that  distinguished  artist,  Professor 
Berghaus  of  Potsdam. 

Map  illustrating  the  diffusion  of  heat  over  the  surface  of  Europe. 

Map  of  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  showing  the  currents,  the  great  commercial  thor- 
oughfares, the  diffusion  of  heat,  banks,  and  portions  of  the  bottom  of  the  sea,  &c. 

Map  of  the  Pacilic  Ocean,  its  currents,  thoroughfares,  and  temperature. 

Map  representing  the  Hues  of  equal  intensity  of  magnetic  power  (isodynamic 
lines),  according  to  the  observations  made  between  1790  and  1830. 

Map  of  Humboldt's  system  of  isothermal  curves. 

Map  of  tides. 

Map  of  the  German  Ocean,  with  the  neighboring  parts  of  the  Atlantic,  its  tides, 
and  the  state  of  the  bed  of  the  sea. 

Map  of  the  volcanic  bands,  and  the  central  groups  of  the  Pacific. 

Map.—  Sketch  of  the  geographical  distribution  of  plants.  Spread  of  plants  in  a 
perpendicular  direction.  Principal  circumstances  affecting  the  spread  of  vegeta- 
tion. Relative  curves  of  monocotyledonous  and  dicotyledonous  plants  on  the 


336  ANNUAL    REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

EXERCISES  IN  THINKING. KNOWLEDGE  OF  NATURE.  — T-  KNOWL- 
EDGE   OF    THE   WORLD. KNOWLEDGE    OF    SOCIETY. 

In  the  "  Study-Plans  "  of  all  the  schools  in  the  north  of 
Prussia,  I  found  most,  and,  in  some  of  them,  all,  of  the  above 

Swiss  Alps.  Graphic  statistics  of  particular  families  of  plants.  Outlines  of  some 
forms  ol' plants. 

Map  of  isothermal  curves  of  the  northern  hemisphere. 

Map.  —  General  view  of  mean  barometrical  heights  near  the  seashore,  and  the 
variation  of  the  weight  of  the  atmosphere. 

Map  of  German  rivers,  —  the  Khiue,  Elbe,  and  Oder. 

Map. —  View  of  thf  distribution  of  the  solid  and  fluid  parts  of  the  earth  ;  also 
of  tin;  variety  in  the  form  of  surface,  &c. 

Map  of  isodynamic  lines  in  the  horizontal  projection,  for  the  average  point  of 
the  meridian  of  Paris,  and  of  the  parallels  00°  of  north  and  south  latitude. 

Map  of  the  mean  of  the  temperature  upon  the  whole  earth,  founded  upon  obser- 
vations in  three  hundred  and  seven  places.  Graphic  description  of  the  course  of 
temperature,  for  daily  and  yearly  periods,  in  all  zones. 

Map.  — Currents  of  air  on  the  Xorth  Atlantic  Ocean  to  the  western  part  of  the 
Old  and  to  the  eastern  part  of  the  New  World. 

Map.  —  Hydro-historic  survey  of  the  state  of  the  Oder  in  the  half-century  from 
1781  to  1830. 

Map. —  Survey  of  the  spread  of  the  most  important  cultivable  trees  and  shrubs, 
&c. 

Map  of  the  volcanic  appearances  of  the  Old  World  in  and  around  the  Atlantic 
Ocean. 

Map  of  the  "  specialia"  of  the  volcanic  band  of  the  Atlantic  Ocean. 

Map.  —  Circles  of  the  spread  of  the  most  important  cultivable  growths,  and  also 
a  notice  of  the  course  of  the  isotheren  and  isochimeneu  (or  places  which  show  the 
same  degree  of  heat  in  summer  and  of  cold  in  icinter). 

Map  of  the  tabular  representation  of  the  statistics  of  the  vegetable  kingdom  in 
Europe. 

Map.  —  Botanic,  geographic,  statistic  map  of  Europe. 

Map  of  winds  for  all  the  earth. 

Map,  physical,  of  the  Indian  Ocean. 

Map  of  the  volcanic  kingdom  of  Guatimala,  the  Isthmus  of  Tehuantepec,  Nica- 
ragua, and  1'anama,  and  the  central  volcano  of  the  Southern  Ocean. 

Map  of  the  variations  of  the  magnetic  meridians  and  parallels,  &c. 

Miip.  —  Survey  of  the  proportions  of  rain  in  Europe. 

Map.  — Survey  of  the  meteorological  stations  in  Germany,  Switzerland,  the 
Netherlands,  &c. 

Map  of  the  ideal  profile  of  a  part  of  the  earth's  rind  with  the  plants  and  animals 
drawn  by  Joseph  Fisher,  according  to  the  selection  and  arrangement  of  Dr.  Buck- 
land. 

Map.  —  Botanic  map  of  Germany,  containing  statistics  of  the  most  distinguished 
families  of  plants. 

Map.  —  Hyetographic  (description  of  rain)  map  of  the  earth. 

Map.  —  Hy  elomarisch  (denoting  the  quantity  of  dampness  in  the  atmosphere)  ob- 
servations. 


REPORT   FOR   1843.  337 

subjects  of  lessons.  To  each  Avas  assigned  its  separate  hour 
and  place  in  the  routine  of  exercises.  For  brevity's  sake,  how- 
ever, and  because  the  topics  naturally  run  into  each  other,  I 
shall  attempt  to  describe  them  together. 

These  lessons  consisted  of  familiar  conversations  between 
teacher  and  pupils,  on  subjects  adapted  to  the  age,  capacities, 
and  proficiency  of  the  latter.  With  the  youngest  classes,  things 
immediately  around  them,  —  the  schoolroom,  and  the  materials 
of  which  it  had  been  built ;  its  different  parts,  as  foundation, 
floor,  Avails,  ceiling,  roof,  windows,  doors,  fire-place  ;  its  furni- 
ture and  apparatus  ;  its  books,  slates,  paper  ;  the  clothes  of  the 
pupils,  and  the  materials  from  which  they  were  made  ;  their 
food  and  playthings ;  the  duties  of  children  to  animals,  to  each 
other,  to  their  parents,  neighbors,  to  the  old,  to  their  Maker,  — 
these  are  specimens  of  a  vast  variety  of  subjects  embraced 
under  one  or  another  of  the  above  heads.  As  the  children 
advanced  in  age  and  attainments,  and  had  acquired  full  and 
definite  notions  of  the  visible  and  tangible  existences  around 
them,  and  also  of  time  and  space,  so  that  they  could  understand 
descriptions  of  the  unseen  and  the  remote,  the  scope  of  these 
lessons  was  enlarged,  so  as  to  take  in  the  different  kingdoms 
of  Nature,  the  arts,  trades,  and  occupations  of  men,  and  the 
more  complicated  affairs  of  society. 

When  visiting  the  schools  in  Leipsic,  I  remarked  to  the  su- 
perintendent, that  most  accomplished  educationist,  Dr.  Vogel, 
that  I  did  not  see  on  the  "  Study-Plan  "  of  his  schools  the  title 
"  Exercises  in  Thinking."  His  reply  was,  "  No  ;  for  I  con- 
Map. —  The  warm  currents  of  the  Atlantic  and  the  cold  stream  of  the  Pacific,  in 
parallels  represented  according  to  geographical  situation  and  extent. 

Map  of  Asia  and  Europe  in  reference  to  running-  waters,  and  their  distribution 
into  river-basins  (Gebiete). 

Map. — Comparative  survey  of  the  state  of  the  Rhine,  the  Weser,  the  Elbe,  and 
the  Oder,  from  1831  to  1810. 

Map.  —  Geographic  extent  of  thunder-storms  in  Europe. 

Map.  —  River-basins  of  the  Jsew  World. 

Map.  —  Maelstrom,  &c. 

Map.  —  Mountain-chains  in  Asia  and  Europe. 

Map.  —  Great  mountain  system  of  Europe. 

Map.  —  Mountain-chains  in  North  America. 
22 


338  ANNUAL   EEPORTS   ON  EDUCATION. 

sider  it  a  sin  in  any  teacher  not  to  lead  his  pupils  to  think  in 
regard  to  all  the  subjects  he  teaches."  He  did  not  call  it  an 
omission,  or  even  a  disqualification,  in  a  teacher,  if  he  did  not 
awaken  thought  in  the  minds  of  his  pupils  ;  but  he  perempto- 
rily denounced  it  as  a  "sin"  "Alas!"  thought  I,  "what 
expiation  will  be  sufficient  for  many  of  us  who  have  had 
charge  of  the  young  !  " 

It  is  obvious,  from  the  account  I  have  given  of  these  primary 
lessons,  that  there  is  no  restriction  as  to  the  choice  of  subjects, 
and  no  limits  to  the  extent  of  information  that  may  be  ingrafted 
upon  them.  What  more  natural  than  that  a  kind  teacher 
should  attempt  to  gain  the  attention  and  win  the  good-will  of 
an  active,  eager-minded  boy  just  entering  his  school,  by  speak- 
ing to  him  about  the  domestic  animals  which  he  plays  with,  or 
tends  at  home? — the  dog,  the  cat,  the  sheep,  the  horse,  the 
cow.  Yet,  without  any  interruption  or  overleaping  of  natural 
boundaries,  this  simple  lesson  may  be  expanded  into  a  knowl- 
edge of  all  quadrupeds,  their  characteristics  and  habits  of  life, 
the  uses  of  their  flesh,  skins,  fur,  bones,  horns  or  ivory,  the 
parts  of  the  world  where  they  live,  &c.  So  if  a  teacher 
begins  to  converse  with  a  boy  about  domestic  fowls,  there  is  no 
limit,  save  in  his  own  knowledge,  until  he  has  exhausted  the 
whole  subject  of  ornithology,  —  the  varieties  of  birds,  their 
plumage,  their  uses,  their  migratory  habits,  &c.  What 
more  natural  than  that  a  benevolent  teacher  should  ask  a 
blushing  little  girl  about  the  flowers  in  her  vases  or  garden  at 
home?  and  yet,  this  having  been  done,  the  door  is  opened  that 
leads  to  all  botanical  knowledge,  —  to  the  flowers  of  all  the  sea- 
sons and  all  the  zones,  to  the  trees  cultivated  by  the  hand  of 
man,  or  the  primeval  forests  that  darken  the  face  of  continents. 
Few  children  go  to  school  who  have  not  seen  a  fish,  —  at  least 
a  minnow  in  a  pool.  Begin  with  this,  and  Nature  opposes  no 
barrier  until  the  wonders  of  the  deep  are  exhausted.  Let  the 
schoolhouse,  as  I  said,  be  the  first  lesson ;  and,  to  a  mind  re- 
plenished with  knowledge,  not  only  all  the  different  kinds  of 
edifices  —  the  dwelling-house,  the  church,  the  court-house,  the 


REPORT   FOR   1843.  339 

palace,  the  temple  —  are  at  once  associated,  but  all  the  differ- 
ent orders  of  architecture  —  Corinthian,  Ionic,  Doric,  Egyp- 
tian, Gothic,  &c.  —  rise  to  the  view.  How  many  different  mate- 
rials have  been  brought  together  for  the  construction  of  the 
schoolhouse  !  —  stone,  wood,  nails,  glass,  bricks,  mortar,  paints, 
materials  used  in  glazing,  &c.  Each  one  of  these  belongs  to 
a  different  department  of  Nature  ;  and,  when  an  accomplished 
teacher  has  once  set  foot  in  any  one  of  these  provinces,  he  sees 
a  thousand  interesting  objects  around  him,  as  it  were,  soliciting 
his  attention.  Then  each  one  of  these  materials  has  its  artifi- 
cer ;  and  thus  all  the  mechanical  trades  may  be  brought  under 
consideration,  —  the  house-builder's,  the  mason's,  the  plumber's, 
the  glazier's,  the  locksmith's,  &c.  A  single  article  may  be 
viewed  under  different  aspects,  —  as,  in  speaking  of  a  lock,  one 
may  consider  the  nature  and  properties  of  iron,  its  cohesive- 
ness,  malleability,  &c.,  its  utility,  or  the  variety  of  utensils  into 
which  it  may  be  wrought ;  or  the  conversation  may  be  turned 
to  the  particular  object  and  uses  of  the  lock,  and  upon  these  a 
lesson  on  the  rights  of  property,  the  duty  of  honesty,  the  guilt 
of  theft  and  robbery,  &c.,  be  ingrafted.  So,  in  speaking  of  the 
beauties  and  riches  and  wondei's  of  Nature,  —  of  the  revolution 
of  the  seasons,  the  glory  of  spring,  the  exuberance  of  autumn, 
the  grandeur  of  the  mountain,  the  magnificence  of  the  firma- 
ment, —  the  child's  mind  may  be  turned  to  a  contemplation  of 
the  power  and  goodness  of  God.  I  found  these  religious  aspects 
of  Nature  to  be  most  frequently  adverted  to,  and  was  daily 
delighted  with  the  reverent  and  loving  manner  in  which  the 
name  of  the  Deity  was  always  spoken:  "Der  Hebe  Gott" 
kiThe  dear  God,"  was  the  universal  form  of  expression;  and 
the  name  of  the  Creator  of  heaven  and  earth  was  hardly  ever 
spoken  without  this  epithet  of  endearment. 

It  is  easy  also  to  see  that  a  description  of  the  grounds  about 
the  schoolhouse  or  the  paternal  mansion,  and  of  the  road  lead- 
ing from  one  of  these  places  to  the  other,  is  the  true  starting- 
point  of  all  geographical  knowledge ;  and,  this  once  begun, 
there  is  no  terminus,  until  all  modern  and  ancient  geography, 


840  ANNUAL    REPORTS    ON   EDUCATION. 

and  all  travels  and  explorations  by  sea  and  land,  are  exhausted. 
So  the  boy's  nest  of  marbles  may  be  the  nucleus  of  all  mine- 
ralogy ;  his  top,  his  kite,  his  little  wind-wheel  or  water-wheel, 
the  salient  point  of  all  mechanics  and  technology ;  and  the 
stories  he  has  heard  about  the  last  king  or  the  aged  king,  the 
first  chapter  in  universal  history. 

I  know  full  well  that  the  extent  and  variety  of  subjects  said 
to  be  taught  to  young  children  in  the  Prussian  schools  have 
been  often  sneered  at. 

In  a  late  speech,  made  on  a  public  occasion,  by  one  of  the 
distinguished  politicians  in  our  country,  the  idea  of  teaching 
the  natural  sciences  in  our  common  schools  was  made  a  theme 
for  ridicule.  Let  it  be  understood  in  what  manner  an  accom- 
plished teacher  may  impart  a  great  amount  of  useful  knowledge 
on  these  subjects,  and  perhaps  awaken  minds  which  may  here- 
after adorn  the  age,  and  benefit  mankind  by  their  discoveries, 
and  it  will  be  easily  seen  to  which  party  the  ridicule  most  justly 
attaches.  "What,"  say  the  objectors,  "teach  children  botany, 
and  the  unintelligible  and  almost  unspeakable  names,  monan- 
dria,  diandria,  triandria,  &c.  ?  or  zoology,  with  such  technical 
terms  as  mollusca,  Crustacea,  vertebrata,  mammalia,  &c.  ?  the 
thing  is  impossible !  "  The  Prussian  children  are  not  thus 
taught.  For  years,  their  lessons  are  free  from  all  the  techni- 
calities of  science.  The  knowledge  they  already  possess  about 
common  things  is  made  the  nucleus  around  which  to  collect 
more  ;  and  the  language  with  which  they  are  already  familiar 
becomes  the  medium  through  which  to  communicate  new  ideas, 
and  by  which,  whenever  necessary,  to  explain  new  terms. 
There  is  no  difficulty  in  explaining  to  a  child  seven  years  of 
age  the  distinctive  marks  by  which  Nature  intimates  to  us,  at 
first  sight,  whether  a  plant  is  healthful  or  poisonous  ;  or  those 
by  which,  on  inspecting  the  skeleton  of  an  animal  that  lived 
thousands  of  years  ago,  we  know  whether  it  lived  upon  grass 
or  grain  or  flesh.  It  is  in  this  way  that  the  pupil's  mind  is  car- 
ried forward  by  an  actual  knowledge  of  things,  until  the  time 
arrives  for  giving  him  classifications  aud  nomenclatures. 


REPORT    FOR    1843.  341 

When  a  child  knows  a  great  many  particular  or  individual 
things,  he  begins  to  perceive  resemblances  between  some  of 
them  ;  and  they  then  naturally  assort  themselves,  as  it  were,  in 
his  mind,  and  arrange  themselves  into  different  groups.  Then, 
by  the  aid  of  a  teacher,  he  perfects  a  scientific  classification 
among  them ;  bringing  into  each  group  all  that  belong  to  it. 
But  soon  the  number  of  individuals  in  each  group  becomes  so 
numerous,  that  he  wants  a  cord  to  tie  them  together,  or  a  ves- 
sel in  which  to  hold  them.  Then,  from  the  nomenclature  of 
science,  he  receives  a  name  which  binds  all  the  individuals  of 
that  group  into  one  ever  afterwards.  It  is  now  that  he  per- 
ceives the  truth  and  the  beauty  of  classification  and  nomencla- 
ture. An  infant  that  has  more  red  and  white  beads  than  it 
can  hold  in  its  hands,  and,  to  prevent  them  from  rolling  about 
the  floor  and  being  lost,  collects  them  together,  putting  the 
white  in  one  cup  and  the  red  in  another,  and  sits  and  smiles  at 
its  work,  has  gone  through  with  precisely  the  same  description 
of  mental  process  that  Cuvier  and  Linnaeus  did  when  they  sum- 
moned the  vast  varieties  of  the  animal  and  vegetable  kingdoms 
into  their  spiritual  presence,  and  commanded  the  countless  hosts 
to  arrange  themselves  into  their  respective  genera,  orders,  and 
species. 

Oar  notions  respecting  the  expediency  or  propriety  of  intro- 
ducing the  higher  branches,  as  they  are  called,  into  our  com- 
mon schools,  are  formed  from  a  knowledge  of  our  own  school- 
teachers, and  of  the  habits  that  prevail  in  most  of  the  schools 
themselves.  With  us,  it  too  often  happens,  that  if  a  higher 
branch  —  geometry,  natural  philosophy,  zoology,  botany  —  is 
to  be  taught,  both  teacher  and  class  must  have  text-books.  At 
the  beginning  of  these  text-books,  all  the  technical  names  and 
definitions  belonging  to  the  subject  are  set  down.  These,  be- 
fore the  pupil  has  any  practical  idea  of  their  meaning,  must  be 
committed  to  memory.  The  book  is  then  studied,  chapter  by 
chapter.  At  the  bottom  of  each  page,  or  at  the  ends  of  the 
sections,  are  questions  printed  at  full  length.  At  the  recita- 
tions, the  teacher  holds  on  by  these  leading-strings.  He  intro- 


342  ANNUAL    REPORTS    ON   EDUCATION. 

(luces  no  collateral  knowledge.  He  exhibits  no  relation  be- 
tween what  is  contained  in  the  book  and  other  kindred  sub- 
jects, or  the  actual  business  of  men  and  the  affairs  of  life.  At 
length,  the  day  of  examination  comes.  The  pupils  rehearse 
from  memory  with  a  suspicious  fluency  ;  or  being  asked  for 
some  useful  application  of  their  knowledge,  some  practical 
connection  between  that  knowledge  and  the  concerns  of  life, 
they  are  silent,  or  give  some  ridiculous  answer,  which  at  once 
disparages  science,  and  gratifies  the  ill-humor  of  some  ignorant 
satirist.  Of  course,  the  teaching  of  the  higher  branches  falls 
into  disrepute  in  the  minds  of  all  sensible  men,  as,  under  such 
circumstances,  it  ought  to  do.  But  the  Prussian  teacher  has 
no  book.  He  needs  none.  He  teaches  from  a  full  mind.  He 
cumbers  and  darkens  the  subject  with  no  technical  phraseology. 
He  observes  what  proficiency  the  child  has  made,  and  then 
adapts  his  instructions,  both  in  quality  and  amount,  to  the  ne- 
cessity of  the  case.  He  answers  all  questions.  He  solves  all 
doubts.  It  is  one  of  his  objects  at  every  recitation,  so  to  pre- 
sent ideas  that  they  shall  start  doubts  and  provoke  questions. 
He  connects  the  subject  of  each  lesson  with  all  kindred  and 
collateral  ones,  and  shows  its  relations  to  the  every-day  duties 
and  business  of  life  ;  and  should  the  most  ignorant  man  or  the 
most  destitute  vagrant  in  society  ask  him  "  of  what  use  such 
knowledge  can  be,"  he  will  prove  to  him,  in  a  word,  that  some 
of  his  own  pleasures  or  means  of  subsistence  are  dependent 
upon  it,  or  have  been  created  or  improved  by  it. 

In  the  mean  time,  the  children  are  delighted.  Their  per- 
ceptive powers  are  exercised.  Their  reflecting  faculties  are 
developed.  Their  moral  sentiments  are  cultivated.  All  the 
attributes  of  the  mind  within  find  answering  qualities  in  the 
world  without.  Instead  of  any  longer  regarding  the  earth  as 
a  huge  mass  of  dead  matter,  without  variety  and  without 
life,  its  beautiful  and  boundles.s  diversities  of  substance,  its 
latent  vitality  and  energies,  gradually  dawn  forth,  until,  at 
length,  they  illuminate  the  whole  soul,  challenging  its  admira- 
tion for  their  utility,  and  its  homage  for  the  bounty  of  their 
Creator. 


REPORT  FOR   1843.  343 

There  are  other  points  pertaining  to  the  qualification  of 
teachers,  which  would,  perhaps,  strike  a  visitor  or  spectator  more 
strongly  than  the  power  of  giving  the  kind  of  lessons  I  have  de- 
scribed ;  but  probably  there  is  nothing,  which,  at  the  distance 
of  four  thousand  miles,  would  give  to  a  reader  or  hearer  s<^ 
adequate  an  idea  of  intelligence  and  capacity  as  a  full  under- 
standing of  the  scope  and  character  of  this  class  of  exercises. 
Suppose,  on  the  one  hand,  a  teacher  to  be  introduced  into  a 
school,  who  is  competent  to  address  children  on  this  great 
range  and  variety  of  subjects,  and  to  address  them  in  such  a 
manner  as  to  arouse  their  curiosity,  command  their  attention, 
and  supply  them  not  only  with  knowledge,  but  with  an  inex- 
tinguishable love  for  it ;  suppose  such  a  teacher  to  be  able  to 
give  one,  and  sometimes  two  such  lessons  a  day,  —  that  is,  from 
two  hundred  to  four  hundred  lessons  in  a  year,  —  to  the  same 
class,  and  to  carry  his  classes,  in  this  way,  through  their  eight 
years'  schooling.  On  the  other  hand,  suppose  a  young  man 
coming  fresh  from  the  plough,  the  workshop,  or  the  anvil, 
or,  what  is  no  better,  from  Greek  and  Latin  classics ;  and 
.suppose  his  knowledge  on  the  above-enumerated  subjects  to  be 
divided  into  four  hundred,  or  even  into  two  hundred  parts,  and 
that  only  one  two-hundredth  portion  of  that  stock  of  knowl- 
edge should  be  administered  to  the  children  in  a  day.  Let  us 
.suppose  all  this,  and  we  shall  have  some  more  adequate  idea  of 
the  different  advantages  of  children,  at  the  present  time,  in 
different  parts  of  the  world.  In  Prussia,  the  theory,  and  the 
practice  under  it,  are,  not  that  three  years'  study  under  the 
best  masters  qualifies  a  talented  and  devoted  man  to  become  a 
teacher,  but  that  three  years  of  such  general  preparation  may 
qualify  one  for  that  particular  and  daily  preparation  which  is 
to  be  made  before  meeting  a  class  in  school.  And  a  good 
Prussian  teacher  no  more  thinks  of  meeting  his  classes  without 
this  daily  preparation  than  a  distinguished  lawyer  or  clergyman 
amongst  ourselves  would  think  of  managing  a  cause  before 
court  and  jury,  or  preaching  a  sermon,  without  special  reading 
and  forethought. 


344  ANNUAL  REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

It  is  easy  to  see,  from  the  above  account,  how  such  a  variety 
of  subjects  can  be  taught  simultaneously  in  school,  without  any 
interference  with  each  other  ;  nay,  that  the  "  common  bond," 
which,  as  Cicero  said,  binds  all  sciences  together,  should  only 
increase  their  unity  as  it  enlarges  their  number. 

BIBLE   HISTORY    AND    BIBLE    KNOWLEDGE. 

Nothing  receives  more  attention  in  the  Prussian  schools  than 
the  Bible.  It  is  taken  up  early,  and  studied  systematically. 
The  great  events  recorded  in  the  Scriptures  of  the  Old  and 
New  Testament ;  the  character  and  lives  of  those  wonderful 
men,  who,  from  age  to  age,  were  brought  upon  the  stage  of 
action,  and  through  whose  agency  the  future  history  and  des- 
tiny of  the  race  were  to  be  so  much  modified ;  and  especially 
those  sublime  views  of  duty  and  of  morality  whicli  are  brought 
to  light  in  the  gospel,  —  these  are  topics  of  daily  and  earnest 
inculcation  in  every  school.  To  these,  in  some  schools,  is 
added  the  history  of  the  Christian  religion,  in  connection  with 
contemporary  civil  history.  So  far  as  the  Bible  lessons  are 
concerned,  I  can  ratify  the  strong  statements  made  by  Pro- 
fessor Stowe  in  regard  to  the  absence  of  sectarian  instruction, 
or  endeavors  at  proselytism.  The  teacher,  being  amply  pos- 
sessed of  a  knowledge  of  the  whole  chain  of  events,  and  of 
all  biographical  incidents,  and  bringing  to  the  exercise  a  heart 
glowing  with  love  to  man,  and  with  devotion  to  his  duty  as  a 
former  of  the  character  of  children,  has  no  necessity  or  occa- 
sion to  fall  back  upon  the  formulas  of  a  creed.  It  is  when  a 
teacher  has  no  knowledge  of  the  wonderful  works  of  God, 
and  of  the  benevolence  of  the  design  in  which  they  were 
created  ;  when  he  has  no  power  of  explaining  and  applying  the 
beautiful  incidents  in  the  lives  of  prophets  and  apostles,  and, 
especially,  the  perfect  example  which  is  given  to  men  in  the 
life  of  Jesus  Christ :  it  is  then,  that,  in  attempting  to  give  reli- 
gious instruction,  he  is,  as  it  were,  constrained  to  recur  again 
and  again  to  the  few  words  or  sentences  of  his  form  of  faith, 


EEPORT   FOR    1843.  345 

whatever  that  faith  may  be  ;  and,  therefore,  when  giving  the 
second  lesson,  it  will  be  little  more  than  a  repetition  of  the 
first ;  and  the  two-hundredth  lesson,  at  the  end  of  the  year,  will 
differ  from  that  at  the  beginning,  only  in  accumulated  weari- 
someness  and  monotony. 

There  are  one  or  two  facts,  however,  which  Professor  Stowe 
has  omitted  to  mention,  and  without  a  knowledge  of  which,  one 
would  form  very  erroneous  ideas  respecting  the  character  of 
some  of  the  religious  instruction  in  the  Prussian  schools.  In 
all  the  Protestant  schools,  Luther's  Catechism  is  regularly 
taught ;  and,  in  all  the  Roman-Catholic  schools,  the  catechism 
of  that  communion.  When  the  schools  are  mixed,  they  have 
combined  literary  with  separate  religious  instruction  ;  and  here 
all  the  doctrines  of  the  respective  denominations  are  taught 
early  and  most  assiduously.  I  well  remember  hearing  a  Ro- 
man-Catholic priest  inculcating  upon  a  class  of  very  young 
children  the  doctrine  of  transubstantiation.  He  illustrated  it 
by  the  miracle  of  the  Avater  changed  to  wine  at  the  marriage- 
feast  in  Cana,  and  said  that  He  who  could  turn  water  into 
wine  could  turn  his  own  blood  into  the  same  element,  and  also 
his  body  into  bread  to  be  eaten  with  it.  Contrary,  then,  to  the 
principles  of  our  own  law,  sectarianism  is  taught  in  all  Prussian 
schools  ;  but  it  is  nevertheless  true,  as  Professor  Stowe  says, 
that  the  Bible  can  be  taught,  and  is  taught,  without  it. 


MUSIC. 

All  Prussian  teachers  are  masters  not  only  of  vocal,  but  of 
instrumental  music.  One  is  as  certain  to  see  a  violin  as  a 
blackboard  in  every  schoolroom.  Generally  speaking,  the 
teachers  whom  I  saw,  played  upon  the  organ  also,  and  some 
of  them  upon  the  piano  and  other  instruments.  Music  was  not 
only  taught  in  school  as  an  accomplishment,  but  used  as  a 
recreation.  It  is  a  moral  means  of  great  efficacy.  Its  practice 
promotes  health  ;  it  disarms  anger,  softens  rough  and  turbulent 
natures,  socializes,  and  brings  the  whole  mind,  as  it  were,  into 


346  ANNUAL   REPORTS    ON   EDUCATION. 

a  state  of  fusion,  from  which  condition  the  teacher  can  mould 
it  into  what  forms  he  will,  as  it  cools  and  hardens. 

Were  it  not  that  this  Report  is  extending  to  so  great  a  length, 
I  should  say  much  more  on  the  advantages  of  teaching  music 
in  all  our  schools. 

All  the  subjects  I  have  enumerated  were  taught  in  all  the 
schools  I  visited,  whether  in  city  or  country,  for  the  rich  or  for 
the  poor.  In  the  lowest  school  in  the  smallest  and  obscurest 
village,  or  for  the  poorest  class  in  over-crowded  cities  ;  in  the 
schools  connected  with  pauper  establishments,  with  houses  of 
correction,  or  with  prisons,  —  in  all  these,  there  was  a  teacher 
of  mature,  age,  of  simple,  unaffected,  and  decorous  manners, 
benevolent  in  his  expression,  kind  and  genial  in  his  intercourse 
with  the  young,  and  of  such  attainments  and  resources  as 
qualified  him  not  only  to  lay  down  the  abstract  principles  of 
the  above  range  of  studies,  but,  by  familiar  illustration  and 
apposite  example,  to  commend  them  to  the  attention  of  the 
children. 

I  speak  of  the  teachers  whom  I  saw,  and  with  whom  I  had 
moi-e  or  less  of  personal  intercourse  ;  and,  after  some  oppor- 
tunity for  the  observation  of  public  assemblies  or  bodies  of  men, 
I  do  not  hesitate  to  say,  that,  if  those  teachers  were  brought 
together  in  one  body,  I  believe  they  Avould  form  as  dignified, 
intelligent,  benevolent-looking  a  company  of  men  as  could  be 
collected  from  the  same  amount  of  population  in  any  country. 
They  were  alike  free  from  arrogant  pretension  and  from  the 
affectation  of  humility.  It  has  been  often  remarked,  both  in 
England  and  in  this  country,  that  the  nature  of  a  school- 
teacher's occupation  exposes  him,  in  some  degree,  to  overbearing 
manners,  and  to  dogmatism  in  the  statement  of  his  opinions. 
Accustomed  to  the  exercise  of  supreme  authority,  moving 
among  those  who  are  so  much  his  inferiors  in  point  of  attain- 
ment, perhaps  it  is  proof  of  a  very  well-balanced  mind  if  he 
keeps  himself  free  from  assumption  in  opinion,  and  haughtiness 
of  demeanor.  Especially  are  such  faults  or  vices  apt  to  spring 


REPORT   FOR    1843.  3-17 

up  in  weak  or  ill-furnished  minds.  A  teacher  who  cannot  rule 
by  love  must  do  so  by  fear.  A  teacher  who  cannot  supply 
material  for  the  activity  of  his  pupils'  minds  by  his  talent  must 
put  down  that  activity  by  force.  A  teacher  who  cannot  answer 
all  the  questions,  and  solve  all  the  doubts,  of  a  scholar,  as  they 
arise,  must  assume  an  awful  and  mysterious  air,  and  must 
expound  in  oracles  which  themselves  need  more  explanation 
than  the  original  difficulty.  When  a  teacher  knows  much  and 
is  master  of  his  whole  subject,  he  can  afford  to  be  modest  and 
unpretending.  But  when  the  head  is  the  only  text-book,  and  the 
teacher  has  not  been  previously  prepared,  he  must,  of  course, 
have  a  small  library.  Among  all  the  Prussian  and  Saxon 
teachers  whom  I  saw,  there  were  not  half  a  dozen  instances  to 
remind  one  of  those  unpleasant  characteristics  —  what  Lord 
Bacon  would  call  the  "  idol  of  the  tribe,"  or  profession  —  which 
sometimes  degrade  the  name  and  disparage  the  sacred  calling  of 
a  teacher.  Generally  speaking,  there  seemed  to  be  a  strong  love 
for  the  employment,  always  a  devotion  to  duty,  and  a  profound 
conviction  of  the  importance  and  sacredness  of  the  office  they 
filled.  The  only  striking  instance  of  disingenuousness  or 
attempt  at  deception  which  I  saw  was  that  of  a  teacher  who 
looked  over  the  manuscript  books  of  a  large  class  of  his  schol- 
ars, selected  the  best,  and,  bringing  it  to  me,  said,  "  In  seeing 
one,  you  see  all." 

Whence  came  this  beneficent  order  of  men,  scattered  over 
the  whole  country,  moulding  the  character  of  its  people,  and 
carrying  them  forward  in  a  career  of  civilization  more  rapidly 
than  any  other  people  in  the  world  are  now  advancing?  This 
is  a  question  which  can  be  answered  only  by  giving  an  account 
of  the 


SEMINARIES    FOR   TEACHERS. 

From  the  year  1820  to  1830  or  1835,  it  was  customary,  in  all 
accounts  of  Prussian  education,  to  mention  the  number  of  these 


348  ANNUAL   REPORTS    ON   EDUCATION. 

seminaries  for  teachers.  This  item  of  information  has  now 
become  unimportant,  as  there  are  seminaries  sufficient  to 
supply  the  wants  of  the  whole  country.  The  stated  term  of 
residence  at  these  seminaries  is  three  years.  Lately,  and  in  a 
few  places,  a  class  of  pi-eliminary  institutions  has  sprung  up, 
—  institutions  where  pupils  are  received  in  order  to  determine 
whether  they  are  fit  to  become  candidates  to  be  candidates. 
As  a  pupil  of  the  seminary  is  liable  to  be  set  aside  for  incom- 
petency,  even  after  a  three-years'  course  of  study  ;  so  the  pupils 
of  these  preliminary  institutions,  after  having  gone  through 
with  a  shorter  course,  are  liable  to  be  set  aside  for  incom- 
petency  to  become  competent. 

Let  us  look  for  a  moment  at  the  guards  and  securities,  which, 
in  that  country,  environ  this  sacred  calling.  In  the  first  place, 
the  teacher's  profession  holds  such  a  high  rank  in  public  esti- 
mation, that  none  who  have  failed  in  other  employments  or 
departments  of  business  are  encouraged  to  look  upon  school- 
keeping  as  an  ultimate  resource.  Those,  too,  who,  from  any 
cause,  despair  of  success  in  other  departments  of  business  or 
walks  of  life,  have  very  slender  prospects  in  looking  forward 
to  this.  These  considerations  exclude  at  once  all  that  inferior 
order  of  men,  who,  in  some  countries,  constitute  the  main  body 
of  the  teachers.  Then  come  —  though  only  in  some  parts  of 
Prussia  —  these  preliminary  schools,  where  those  who  wish 
eventually  to  become  teachers  go,  in  order  to  have  their 
natural  qualities  and  adaptation  for  school-keeping  tested ; 
for  it  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  a  man  may  have  the  most 
unexceptionable  character,  may  be  capable  of  mastering  all  the 
branches  of  study,  may  even  be  able  to  make  most  brilliant 
recitations  from  day  to  day,  and  yet,  from  some  coldness  or 
repulsiveness  of  manner,  from  harshness  of  voice,  from  some 
natural  defect  in  his  person  or  in  one  of  his  senses,  he  may  be 
adjudged  an  unsuitable  model  or  archetype  for  children  to  be 
conformed  to,  or  to  grow  by ;  and  hence  he  may  be  dismissed 
at  the  end  of  his  probationary  term  of  six  months.  At  one 
of  these  preparatory  schools  which  I  visited,  the  list  of  sub- 


REPORT   FOR    1843-  349 

jects  at  the  examination  —  a  part  of  which  I  saw  —  was 
divided  into  two  classes,  as  follows :  1.  Readiness  in  Think- 
ing, German  Language,  including  Orthography  and  Composi- 
tion, History,  Description  of  the  Earth,  Knowledge  of  Nature, 
Thorough  Bass,  Calligraphy,  Drawing.  2.  Religion,  Knowl- 
edge of  the  Bible,  Knowledge  of  Nature,  Mental  Arithmetic, 
Singing,  Violin-playing,  and  Readiness  or  Facility  in  Speak- 
ing.* The  examination  in  all  the  branches  of  the  first  class 
was  conducted  in  writing.  To  test  a  pupil's  Readiness  in 
Thinking,  for  instance,  several  topics  for  composition  are  given 
out,  and,  after  the  lapse  of  a  certain  number  of  minutes,  what- 
ever has  been  written  must  be  handed  in  to  the  examiners.  So 
questions  in  arithmetic  are  given  ;  and  the  time  occupied  by  the 
pupils  iu  solving  them  is  a  test  of  their  quickness  of  thought, 
or  power  of  commanding  their  own  resources.  This  facility, 
or  faculty,  is  considered  of  great  importance  in  a  teacher.f 
In  the  second  class  of  subjects,  the  pupils  were  examined  orally. 
Two  entire  days  were  occupied  in  examining  a  class  of  thirty 
pupils,  and  only  twenty-one  were  admitted  to  the  seminary 
school ;  that  is,  only  about  two-thirds  were  considered  to  be 
eligible  to  become  eligible  as  teachers,  after  three  years'  further 
study.  Thus,  in  this  first  process,  the  chaff  is  winnowed  out, 
and  not  a  few  of  the  lighter  grains  of  the  wheat. 

It  is  to  be  understood  that  those  who  enter  the  seminary 
directly,  and  without  this  preliminary  trial,  have  already 
studied,  under  able  masters  in  the  common  schools,  at  least  all 
the  branches  I  have  above  described.  The  first  two  of  the 
three  years  they  expend  mainly  in  reviewing  and  expanding 
their  elementary  knowledge.  The  German  language  is  studied 

*  It  was  a  matter  of  great  surprise  to  me,  that,  among  the  variety  of  branches 
taught  in  the  People's  Schools,  I  nowhere  found  astronomy  in  the  number.  I 
know  not  how  to  account  for  the  omission  of  a  subject  at  once  so  enlarging  to  the 
intellect,  and  so  stimulating  to  devotional  feelings. 

t  The  above-described  is  a  very  common  method  of  examining  in  the  gymnasia 
and  higher  seminaries  of  Prussia.  Certain  sealed  subjects  for  an  exercise  are 
given  to  the  students :  the;,  are  then  locked  up  in  a  room,  each  by  himself,  and,  at 
the  expiration  of  a  given  time,  they  are  called  out,  and  it  is  seen  what  each  one 
has  been  able  to  maku  out  of  his  faculties. 


350  ANNUAL    REPORTS   OX   EDUCATION. 

ill  its  relations  to  rhetoric  and  logic,  and  as  aesthetic  litera- 
ture ;  arithmetic  is  carried  out  into  algebra  and  mixed  math- 
ematics ;  geography,  into  commerce  and  manufactures,  and 
into  a  knowledge  of  the  various  botanical  and  zoological 
productions  of  the  different  quarters  of  the  globe ;  linear 
drawing,  into  perspective  and  machine  drawing,  aud  the  draw- 
ing from  models  of  all  kinds,  aud  from  objects  in  Nature, 
&c.  The  theory  and  practice,  not  only  of  vocal  but  of  instru- 
mental music,  occupy  much  time.  Every  pupil  must  play  on  the 
violin  ;  most  of  them  play  on  the  organ,  and  some  on  other 
instruments.  I  recollect  seeing  a  normal  class  engaged  in 
learning  the  principles  of  harmony.  The  teacher  first  explained 
the  principles  on  which  they  were  to  proceed.  He  then  wrote 
a  bar  of  music  upon  the  blackboard,  and  called  upon  a  pupil  to 
write  such  notes  for  another  part  or  accompaniment  as  would 
make  harmony  with  the  first.  So  he  would  write  a  bar  with 
certain  intervals,  and  then  require  a  pupil  to  write  another, 
with  such  intervals,  as,  according  to  the  principles  of  musical 
science,  would  correspond  with  the  first.  A  thorough  course 
of  reading  on  the  subject  of  education  is  undertaken,  as  well  as 
a  more  general  course.  Bible  history  is  almost  committed  to 
memory.  Connected  with  all  the  seminaries  for  teachers  are 
large  model  or  experimental  schools.  During  the  last  part  of 
the  course,  much  of  the  students'  time  is  spent  in  these  schools. 
At  first  they  go  in  and  look  on  in  silence  while  an  accom- 
plished teacher  is  instructing  a  class.  Then  they  themselves 
commence  teaching  under  the  eye  of  such  a  teacher.  At  last 
they  teach  a  class  alone,  being  responsible  for  its  proficiency, 
and  for  its  condition  as  to  order,  &c.,  at  the  end  of  a  week  or 
other  period.  During  the  whole  course,  there  are  lectures, 
discussions,  compositions,  &c.,  on  the  theory  and  practice  of 
teaching.  The  essential  qualifications  of  a  candidate  for  the 
office  ;  his  attainments,  aud  the  spirit  of  devotion  and  of  religious 
fidelity  in  which  he  should  enter  upon  his  work  ;  the  modes  of 
teaching  the  different  branches ;  the  motive-powers  to  be 
applied  to  the  minds  of  children  ;  dissertations  upon  the  differ- 


REPORT   FOR    1843.  351 

ent  natural  dispositions  of  children,  and  consequently  the  differ- 
ent ways  of  addressing  them,  of  securing  their  confidence  and 
affection,  and  of  winning  them  to  a  love  of  learning  and  a  sense 
of  duty ;  and  especially  the  sacredness  of  the  teacher's  profes- 
sion ;  the  idea  that  he  stands,  for  the  time  being,  in  the  place 
of  a  parent,  and  therefore  that  a  parent's  responsibilities  rest 
upon  him,  that  the  most  precious  hopes  of  society  are  com- 
mitted to  his  charge,  and  that  on  him  depends,  to  a  great  extent, 
the  temporal  and  perhaps  the  future  well-being  of  hundreds  of 
his  fellow-creatures,  —  these  are  the  conversations,  the  ideas, 
the  feelings,  amidst  which  the  candidate  for  teaching  spends 
his  probationary  years.  This  is  the  daily  atmosphere  he 
breathes.  These  are  the  sacred,  elevating,  invigorating  influ- 
ences constantly  pouring  in  upon  his  soul.  Hence,  at  the 
expiration  of  his  course,  he  leaves  the  seminary  to  enter  upon 
his  profession,  glowing  with  enthusiasm  for  the  noble  cause  he 
has  espoused,  and  strong  in  his  resolves  to  perform  its  manifold 
and  momentous  duties. 

Here,  then,  is  the  cause  of  the  worth  and  standing  of  the 
teachers  whom  I  had  the  pleasure  and  the  honor  to  see.  As 
a  body  of  men,  their  character  is  more  enviable  than  that 
of  either  of  the  three  so-called  "  professions."  They  have 
more  benevolence  and  self-sacrifice  than  the  legal  or  medical, 
while  they  have  less  of  sanctimoniousness  and  austerity,  less 
of  indisposition  to  enter  into  all  the  innocent  amusements  and 
joyous  feelings  of  childhood,  than  the  clerical.  They  are  not 
unmindful  of  what  belongs  to  men  while  they  are  serving 
.God,  nor  of  the  duties  they  owe  to  this  world  while  prepar- 
ing for  another. 

On  reviewing  a  period  of  six  weeks,  the  greater  part  of 
which  I  spent  in  visiting  schools  in  the  north  and  middle  of 
Prussia  and  in  Saxony  (excepting,  of  course,  the  time  occupied 
in  going  from  place  to  place),  entering  the  schools  to  hear  the 
first  recitation  in  the  morning,  and  remaining  until  the  last  was 
completed  at  night,  I  call  to  mind  three  things  about  which  I 


352  ANNUAL    REPORTS    ON    EDUCATION. 

cannot  be  mistaken.  In  some  of  my  opinions  and  inferences, 
I  may  have  erred ;  but,  of  the  following  facts,  there  can  be  no 
doubt : — 

1.  During  all  this  time,  I  never  saw  a  teacher  hearing  a 
lesson  of  any  kind   (excepting   a  reading  or   spelling  lesson) 
with  a  book  in  his  hand. 

2.  I  never  saw  a  teacher  sitting  while  hearing  a  recitation. 

3.  Though  I  saw  hundreds   of  schools,  and  thousands  —  I 
think  I  may  say,  within  bounds,  tens  of  thousands  —  of  pupils, 
I  never  saw  one  child  undergoing  punishment,  or  arraigned  for 
misconduct.     I  never  saw  one  child  in  tears  from  having  been 
punished,  or  from  fear  of  being  punished. 

During  the  above  period,  I  witnessed  exercises  in  geography, 
ancient  and  modern  ;  in  the  German  language,  from  the  ex- 
planation of  the  simplest  words  up  to  belles-lettres  disquisitions, 
with  rules  for  speaking  and  writing;  in  arithmetic,  algebra, 
geometry,  surveying,  and  trigonometry ;  in  book-keeping ;  in 
civil  history,  ancient  and  modern  ;  in  natural  philosophy  ;  in 
botany  and  zoology  ;  in  mineralogy,  where  there  were  hundreds 
of  specimens ;  in  the  endless  variety  of  the  exercises  in  think- 
ing ;  knowledge  of  Nature,  of  the  world,  and  of  society ;  in 
Bible  history  and  in  Bible  knowledge  :  and,  as  I  before  said, 
in  no  one  of  these  cases  did  I  see  a  teacher  with  a  book  in  his 
hand.  His  book  —  his  books  —  his  library,  was  in  his  head. 
Promptly,  without  pause,  without  hesitation,  from  the  rich  re- 
sources of  his  own  mind,  he  brought  forth  whatever  the  occa- 
sion demanded.  I  remember  calling  one  morning  at  a  country 
school  in  Saxony,  where  every  thing  about  the  premises,  and 
the  appearance  both  of  teacher  and  children,  indicated  very 
narrow  pecuniary  circumstances.  As  I  entered,  the  teacher 
was  just  ready  to  commence  a  lesson  or  lecture  on  French  his- 
tory. He  gave  not  only  the  events  of  a  particular  period  in 
the  history  of  France,  but  mentioned,  as  he  proceeded,  all  the 
contemporary  sovereigns  of  neighboring  nations.  The  ordinary 
time  for  a  lesson,  here  as  elsewhere,  was  an  hour.  This  was 
somewhat  longer ;  for,  towards  the  close,  the  teacher  entered 


REPORT   FOR    1843.  353 

upon  a  train  of  thought  from  which  it  was  difficult  to  break 
off,  and  rose  to  a  strain  of  eloquence  which  it  was  delightful 
to  hear.  The  scholars  were  all  absorbed  in  attention.  They 
had  paper,  pen,  and  ink  before  them,  and  took  brief  notes  of 
what  was  said.  When  the  lesson  touched  upon  contemporary 
events  in  other  nations,  —  which,  as  I  suppose,  had  been  the 
subject  of  previous  lessons,  —  the  pupils  were  .questioned  con- 
cerning them.  A  small  text-book  of  history  was  used  by  the 
pupils,  which  they  studied  at  home. 

I  ought  to  say,  further,  that  I  generally  visited  schools  with- 
out guide,  or  letter  of  introduction  ;  presenting  myself  at  the 
door,  and  asking  the  favor  of  admission.  Though  I  had  a  gen- 
eral order  from  the  minister  of  Public  Instruction,  commanding 
all  schools,  gymnasia,  and  universities  in  the  kingdom  to  be 
opened  for  my  inspection,  yet  I  seldom  exhibited  it,  or  spoke 
of  it,  —  at  least  not  until  I  was  about  departing.  I  preferred 
to  enter  as  a  private  individual  and  uncommended  visitor. 

I  have  said  that  I  saw  no  teacher  sitting  in  his  school :  aged 
or  young,  all  stood.  Nor  did  they  stand  apart  and  aloof  in 
sullen  dignity.  They  mingled  with  their  pupils,  passing  rap- 
idly from  one  side  of  the  class  to  the  other,  animating,  encour- 
aging, sympathizing,  breathing  life  into  less  active  natures, 
assuring  the  timid,  distributing  encouragement  and  endearment 
to  all.  The  looks  of  the  Prussian  teacher  often  have  the  expres- 
sion and  vivacity  of  an  actor  in  a  play.  He  gesticulates  like 
an  orator.  His  body  assumes  all  the  attitudes,  and  his  face 
puts  on  all  the  variety  of  expression,  which  a  public  speaker 
would  do  if  haranguing  a  lai'ge  assembly  on  a  topic  vital  to 
their  interests. 

It  may  seem  singular,  and  perhaps  to  some  almost  ludicrous, 
that  a  teacher,  in  expounding  the  first  rudiments  of  hand-writ- 
ing, in  teaching  the  difference  between  a  hair-stroke  and  a 
ground-stroke,  or  how  an  I  may  be  turned  into  a  5,  or  a  u  into 
a  iv,  should  be  able  to  work  himself  up  into  an  oratorical 
fervor  ;  should  attitudinize,  and  gesticulate,  and  stride  from  one 
end  of  the  class  to  the  other,  and  appear  in  every  way  to  be 
23 


354  ANNUAL   REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

as  intensely  engaged  as  an  advocate  when  arguing  an  impor- 
tant cause  to  a  jury.  But,  strange  as  it  may  seem,  it  is  never- 
theless true  ;  and,  before  five  minutes  of  such  a  lesson  had 
elapsed,  I  have  seen  the  children  wrought  up  to  an  excitement 
proportionally  intense,  hanging  upon  the  teacher's  lips,  catching 
every  word  he  says,  and  evincing  great  elation  or  depression 
of  spirits  as  they  had  or  had  not  succeeded  in  following  his 
instructions.  So  I  have  seen  the  same  rhetorical  vehemence 
on  the  part  of  the  teacher,  and  the  same  interest  and  animation 
on  the  part  of  the  pupils,  during  a  lesson  on  the  original  sounds 
of  the  letters  ;  that  is,  the  difference  between  the  long  and 
the  short  sound  of  a  vowel,  or  the  different  ways  of  opening 
the  mouth  in  sounding  the  consonants  &  and  p.  This  zeal  of  the 
teacher  enkindles  the  scholars.  He  charges  them  with  his  own 
electricity  to  the  point  of  explosion.  Such  a  teacher  has  no 
idle,  mischievous,  whispering  children  around  him,  nor  any 
occasion  for  the  rod.  He  does  not  make  desolation  of  all  the 
active  and  playful  impulses  of  childhood,  and  call  it  peace  ;  nor, 
to  secure  stillness  among  his  scholars,  does  he  find  it  necessary 
to  ride  them  with  the  nightmare  of  fear.  I  rarely  saw  a 
teacher  put  questions  with  his  lips  alone.  He  seems  so  much 
interested  in  his  subject  (though  he  might  have  been  teaching 
the  same  lesson  for  the  hundredth  or  five  hundredth  time),  that 
his  whole  body  is  in  motion,  —  eyes,  arms,  limbs,  all  contribut- 
ing to  the  impression  he  desires  to  make  ;  and,  at  the  end  of 
an  hour,  both  he  and  his  pupils  come  from  the  work  all  glow- 
ing with  excitement. 

Suppose  a  lawyer  in  one  of  our  courts  were  to  plead  an  im- 
portant cause  before  a  jury,  but  instead  of  standing  and  extem- 
porizing, and  showing  by  his  gestures,  and  by  the  energy  and 
ardor  of  his  whole  manner,  that  he  felt  an  interest  in  his  theme, 
instead  of  rising  with  his  subject,  and  corruscating  with  flashes 
of  genius  and  wit,  he  should  plant  himself  lazily  down  in  a 
chair,  read  from  some  old  book  which  scarcely  a  member  of  the 
panel  could  fully  understand,  and,  after  droning  away  for  an 
hour,  should  leave  them,  without  having  distinctly  impressed 


REPORT   FOR   1843.  355 

their  minds  with  one  fact,  or  led  them  to  form  one  logical  con- 
clusion ;  would  it  be  any  wonder  if  he  left  half  of  them  joking 
with  each  other,  or  asleep?  would  it  be  any  wonder  —  pro- 
vided he  were  followed  on  the  other  side  by  an  advocate  of 
brilliant  parts,  of  elegant  diction,  and  attractive  manner,  by  one 
who  should  pour  sunshine  into  the  darkest  recesses  of  the  case 
—  if  he  lost  not  only  his  own  reputation,  but  the  cause  of  his 
client  also? 

These  incitements  and  endearments  of  the  teacher,  this  per- 
sonal ubiquity,  as  it  were,  among  all  the  pupils  in  the  class, 
prevailed  much  more  as  the  pupils  were  younger.  Before  the 
older  classes,  the  teacher's  manner  became  calm  and  didactic. 
The  habit  of  attention  being  once  formed,  nothing  was  left  for 
subsequent  years  or  teachers  but  the  easy  task  of  maintaining 
it.  Was  there  ever  such  a  comment  as  this  on  the  practice  of 
hiring  cheap  teachers  because  the  school  is  young,  or  incompe- 
tent ones  because  it  is  backward? 

In  Prussia  and  in  Saxony,  as  well  as  in  Scotland,  the  power 
of  commanding  and  retaining  the  attention  of  a  class  is  held 
to  be  a  sine  qua  non  in  a  teacher's  qualifications.  If  he  has  not 
talent,  skill,-  vivacity,  or  resources  of  anecdote  and  wit,  suffi- 
cient to  arouse  and  retain  the  attention  of  his  pupils  during  the 
accustomed  period  of  recitation,  he  is  deemed  to  have  mistaken 
his  calling,  and  receives  a  significant  hint  to  change  his  voca- 
tion. 

Take  a  group  of  little  children  to  a  toy-shop,  and  witness 
their  outburstiug  eagerness  and  delight.  They  need  no  stim- 
ulus of  badges  or  prizes  to  arrest  or  sustain  their  attention  ; 
they  need  no  quickening  of  their  faculties  by  rod  or  ferule. 
To  the  exclusion  of  food  and  sleep,  they  will  push  their  inqui- 
ries, imtil  shape,  color,  quality,  use,  substance,  both  external 
and  internal,  of  the  objects,  are  exhausted ;  and  each  child  will 
want  the  show-man  wholly  to  himself.  But  in  all  the  bound- 
less variety  and  beauty  of  Nature's  work  ;  in  that  profusion  and 
prodigality  of  charms  with  which  the  Creator  has  adorned  and 
enriched  every  part  of  his  creation  ;  in  the  delights  of  affection  ; 


356  ANNUAL   REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

in  the  ecstatic  joys  of  benevolence  ;  in  the  absorbing  interest 
which  an  unsophisticated  conscience  instinctively  takes  in  all 
questions  of  right  and  wrong,  —  in  all  these,  is  there  not  as 
much  to  challenge  and  command  the  attention  of  a  little  child 
as  in  the  curiosities  of  a  toy-shop  ?  When  as  much  of  human 
art  and  ingenuity  has  been  expended  upon  teaching  as  upon 
toys,  there  will  be  less  difference  between  the  cases. 

The  third  circumstance  I  mentioned  above  was  the  beautiful 
relation  of  harmony  and  affection  which  subsisted  between 
teacher  and  pupils.  I  cannot  say  that  the  extraordinary  fact  I 
have  mentioned  was  not  the  result  of  chance  or  accident.  Of 
the  probability  of  that,  others  must  judge.  I  can  only  say,  that, 
during  all  the  time  mentioned,  I  never  saw  a  blow  struck,  I 
never  heard  a  sharp  rebuke  given,  I  never  saw  a  child  in  tears, 
nor  arraigned  at  the  teacher's  bar  for  any  alleged  misconduct. 
On  the  contrary,  the  relation  seemed  to  be  one  of  duty  first, 
and  then  affection,  on  the  part  of  the  teacher  ;  of  affection  first, 
and  then  duty,  on  the  part  of  the  scholar.  The  teacher's  man- 
ner was  better  than  parental ;  for  it  had  a  parent's  tenderness 
and  vigilance  without  the  foolish  dotings  or  indulgences  to 
which  parental  affection  is  prone.  I  heard  no  child  ridiculed, 
sneered  at,  or  scolded,  for  making  a  mistake.  On  the  contrary, 
whenever  a  mistake  was  made,  or  there  was  a  want  of  prompt- 
ness in  giving  a  reply,  the  expression  of  the  teacher  was  that 
of  grief  and  disappointment,  as  though  there  had  been  a  fail- 
ure, not  merely  to  answer  the  question  of  a  master,  but  to 
comply  with  the  expectations  of  a  friend.  No  child  was  dis- 
concerted, disabled,  or  bereft  of  his  senses,  through  fear.  Nay, 
generally,  at  the  ends  of  the  answers,  the  teacher's  practice  is 
to  encourage  him  with  the  exclamation,  "  good,"  "  right," 
"  wholly  right,"  &c.,  or  to  check  him  with  his  slowly  and 
painfully  articulated  "  no ;  "  and  this  is  done  with  a  tone  of 
voice  that  marks  every  degree  of  phis  and  minus  in  the  scale  of 
approbation  or  regret.  When  a  difficult  question  has  been  put 
to  a  young  child  which  tasks  all  his  energies,  the  teacher 
approaches  him  with  a  mingled  look  of  concern  and  encour- 


REPORT   FOR    1843.  357 

agement ;  he  stands  before  him,  the  light  and  shade  of  hope 
and  fear  alternately  crossing  his  countenance ;  he  lifts  his 
arms  and  turns  his  body,  as  a  bowler  who  has  given  a  wrong 
direction  to  his  bowl  will  writhe  his  person  to  bring  the  ball 
back  upon  its  track  ;  and  finally,  if  the  little  wrestler  with 
difficulty  triumphs,  the  teacher  felicitates  him  upon  his  success, 
perhaps  seizes  and  shakes  him  by  the  hand  in  token  of  con- 
gratulation ;  and  when  the  difficulty  has  been  really  formida- 
ble, and  the  effort  triumphant,  I  have  seen  the  teacher  catch  up 
the  child  in  his  arms  and  embrace  him,  as  though  he  were  not 
able  to  contain  his  joy.  At  another  time,  I  have  seen  a 
teacher  actually  clap  his  hands  with  delight  at  a  bright  reply ; 
and  all  this  has  been  done  so  naturally  and  so  unaffectedly  as 
to  excite  no  other  feeling  in  the  residue  of  the  children  than  a 
desire,  by  the  same  means,  to  win  the  same  caresses.  What 
person  worthy  of  being  called  by  the  name,  or  of  sustaining  the 
sacred  relation  of  a  parent,  would  not  give  any  thing,  bear  any 
thing,  sacrifice  any  thing,  to  have  his  children,  during  eight  or 
ten  years  of  the  period  of  their  childhood,  surrounded  by  cir- 
cumstances, and  breathed  upon  by  sweet  and  humanizing  influ- 
ences, like  these? 

I  mean  no  disparagement  of  our  own  teachers  by  the  remark 
I  am  about  to  make.  As  a  general  fact,  these  teachers  are  as 
good  as  public  opinion  has  demanded  ;  as  good  as  the  public 
sentiment  has  been  disposed  to  appreciate ;  as  good  as  public 
liberality  has  been  ready  to  reward  ;  as  good  as  the  preliminary 
measures  taken  to  qualify  them  would  authorize  us  to  expect. 
But  it  was  impossible  to  put  down  the  questionings  of  my  own 
mind,  —  whether  a  visitor  could  spend  six  weeks  in  our  own 
schools  without  ever  hearing  an  angry  word  spoken,  or  seeing 
a  blow  struck,  or  witnessing  the  flow  of  tears? 

In  the  Prussian  schools,  I  observed  the  fair  operation  and 
full  result  of  two  practices  which  I  have  dwelt  upon  with  great 
repetition  and  urgency  at  home.  One  is,  when  hearing  a  class 
recite,  always  to  u>k  the  question  before  naming  the  scholar 
who  is  to  give  the  answer.  The  question  being  first  asked,  all 


358  ANNUAL    REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

the  children  are  alert ;  for  each  one  knows  that  he  is  liable  to 
be  called  upon  for  the  reply.  On  the  contrary,  if  the  scholar 
who  is  expected  to  answer  is  first  named,  and  especially  if  the 
scholars  are  taken  in  succession,  according  to  local  position,— 
that  is,  in  the  order  of  their  seats  or  stations,  —  then  the  atten- 
tion of  all  the  rest  has  a  reprieve  until  their  turns  shall  come. 
In  practice,  this  designation  of  the  answerer  before  the  question 
is  propounded  operates  as  a  temporary  leave  of  absence  or  fur- 
lough to  all  the  other  members  of  the  class. 

The  other  point  referred  to  is  that  of  adjusting  the  ease  or 
difficulty  of  the  questions  to  the  capacity  of  the  pupil.  A  child 
should  never  have  any  excuse  or  occasion  for  making  a  mistake  ; 
nay,  at  first  he  should  be  most  carefully  guarded  from  the  fact, 
and  especially  from  the  consciousness,  of  making  a  mistake. 
The  questions  should  be  ever  so  childishly  simple,  rather  than 
that  the  answers  should  be  erroneous.  No  expense  of  time 
can  be  too  great,  if  it  secures  the  habit  and  the  desire  of  ac- 
curacy. Hence  a  false  answer  should  be  an  event  of  the  rarest 
occurrence,  —  one  to  be  deprecated,  to  be  looked  upon  with 
surprise  and  regret,  and  almost  as  an  offence.  Few  things  can 
have  a  worse  effect  upon  a  child's  character  than  to  set  down 
a  row  of  black  marks  against  him  at  the  end  of  every  lesson. 

The  value  of  this  practice  of  adjusting  questions  to  the 
capacities  and  previous  attainments  of  the  pupils  cannot  be 
over-estimated.  The  opposite  course  necessitates  mistakes, 
habituates  and  hardens  the  pupils  to  blundering  and  uncertain- 
ty, disparages  the  value  of  correctness  in  their  eyes,  and  —  what 
is  a  consequence  as  much  to  be  lamented  as  any  —  gives  plausi- 
bility to  the  argument  iu  favor  of  emulation  as  a  means  of 
bringing  children  back  to  the  habit  of  accuracy  from  which 
they  have  been  driven.  Would  the  trainer  of  horses  deserve 
any  compensation,  or  have  any  custom,  if  the  first  draughts 
which  he  should  impose  upon  the  youug  animals  were  beyond 
their  ability  to  move? 

The  first  of  the  above-uamed  practices  can  be  adopted  by 
every  teacher  immediately,  and  whatever  his  degree  of  com- 


REPORT   FOB   1843.  359 

petency  in  other  respects  may  be.  The  last  improvement  can 
only  be  fully  effected  when  the  teacher  can  dispense  with  all 
text-books,  and  can  teach  and  question  from  a  full  mind  only. 
The  case  is  hopeless  where  a  conspiracy  against  the  spread  of 
knowledge  has  been  entered  into  between  an  author  who  com- 
piles, and  a  teacher  who  uses,  a  text-book  in  which  the  ques- 
tions to  be  put  are  all  prepared  and  printed. 

In  former  reports,  I  have  dwelt  at  length  upon  the  expediency 
of  employing  female  teachers  to  a  greater  extent  in  our  schools. 
Some  of  the  arguments  iu  favor  of  this  change  have  been,  the 
greater  intensity  of  the  parental  instinct  in  the  female  sex, 
their  natural  love  of  the  society  of  children,  and  the  superior 
gentleness  and  forbearance  of  their  dispositions,  —  all  of  which 
lead  them  to  mildness  rather  than  severity,  to  the  use  of  hope 
rather  than  of  fear  as  a  motive  of  action,  and  to  the  various 
arts  of  encouragement,  rather  than  to  annoyances  and  compul- 
sion, in  their  management  of  the  young.  These  views  have  been 
responded  to  and  approved  by  almost  all  the  school-committee 
men  in  the  State  ;  and,  within  the  last  few  years,  the  practice 
of  the  different  districts  has  been  rapidly  conforming  to  this 
theory.  I  must  now  say  that  those  views  are  calculated  only 
lor  particular  meridians.  In  those  parts  of  Germany  which  I 
have  seen,  they  would  not  be  understood.  No  necessity  for 
them  could  be  perceived.  There,  almost  all  teachers,  for  the 
youngest  children  as  well  as  for  the  oldest,  are  men.  Two  or 
three  times,  I  saw  a  female  teacher  in  a  private  school ;  but 
none  in  a  public,  unless  for  teaching  knitting,  needle-work,  &c. 
Yet,  in  these  male  teachers,  there  was  a  union  of  gentleness 
and  firmness  that  left  little  to  be  desired. 

Still,  into  almost  every  German  school  into  which  I  entered, 
I  inquired  whether  corporal  punishment  were  allowed  or  used, 
and  I  was  uniformly  answered  in  the  affirmative.  But  it  was 
further  said,  that  although  all  teachers  had  liberty  to  use  it,  yet 
cases  of  its  occurrence  were  very  rare,  and  these  cases  were 
confined  almost  wholly  to  young  scholars.  Until  the  teacher 
had  time  to  establish  the  relation  of  affection  between  himself 


360  ANNUAL   REPORTS    ON   EDUCATION. 

and  the  new-comer  into  his  school ;  until  he  had  time  to  create 
that  attachment  which  children  always  feel  towards  any  one 
who,  day  after  day,  supplies  them  with  novel  and  pleasing 
ideas,  —  it  was  occasionally  necessary  to  restrain  and  punish 
them.  But,  after  a  short  time,  a  love  of  the  teacher  and  a  love 
of  knowledge  become  a  substitute  —  how  admirable  a  one  !  —  for 
punishment.  When  I  asked  my  common  question  of  Dr.  Vogel 
of  Leipsic,  he  answered,  that  it  was  still  used  in  the  schools  of 
which  he  had  the  superintendence.  "  But,"  added  he,  u  thank 
God,  it  is  used  less  and  less  ;  and,  when  we  teachers  become 
fully  competent  to  our  work,  it  will  cease  altogether." 

To  the  above  I  may  add,  that  I  found  all  the  teachers,  whom 
I  visited,  alive  to  the  subject  of  improvement.  They  had 
libraries  of  the  standard  works  on  education,  —  works  of  which 
there  are  such  great  numbers  in  the  German  language.  Every 
new  book  of  any  promise  was  eagerly  sought  after  ;  and  I 
uniformly  found  the  educational  periodicals  of  the  day  upon 
the  tables  of  the  teachers.  From  the  editor  of  one  of  these 
periodicals,  I  learned  that  more  than  thirty  of  this  description 
are  printed  in  Germany,  and  that  the  obscurest  teacher  in  the 
obscurest  village  is  usually  a  subscriber  to  one  or  more. 

A  feeling  of  deep  humiliation  overcame  me  as  I  contrasted 
this  state  of  things  with  that  in  my  own  country,  where,  of  all 
the  numerous  educational  periodicals  which  have  been  under- 
taken within  the  last  twenty  years,  only  two,  of  any  length  of 
standing,  still  survive.  All  the  others  have  failed  through  the 
indifference  of  teachers  and  the  apathy  of  the  public.  One  of 
the  remaining  two  —  that  conducted  by  F.  Dwight,  Esq.,  of 
Albany,  X.Y.  —  would  probably  have  failed  ere  this,  had  not 
the  legislature  of  the  State  generously  come  to  its  rescue,  by 
subscribing  for  twelve  thousand  copies,  —  one  to  be  sent  to  each 
district  school  in  that  great  State.  The  other  paper,  as  it  is 
well  known,  has  never  re-imbursed  to  its  editor  his  actual  ex- 
penses in  conducting  it. 

The  extensive  range  and  high  grade  of  instruction  which  so 
many  of  the  German  youth  are  enjoying,  and  these  noble 


REPORT   FOR    1843.  301 

qualifications  on  the  part  of  their  instructors,  are  the  natural 
and  legitimate  result  of  their  seminaries  for  teachers.  Without 
the  latter,  the  former  never  could  have  been,  any  more  than 
any  effect  without  its  cause.  Although  "  the  first  regular  sem- 
inai-y  for  teachers  "  (see  Dr.  Bache's  report,  page  222)  "  was 
established  at  Stettin  in  Pomerania  in  1735,"  yet  it  was  not 
until  within  the  last  quarter  of  a  century,  and  especially  since 
the  general  pacification  of  Europe,  that  the  system  has  made 
such  rapid  advances  towards  perfection.  And  so  powerfully 
has  this  system  commended  itself  to  all  enlightened  men,  that 
not  only  have  these  seminaries  for  teachers  been  constantly  in- 
creasing in  Prussia,  in  Saxony,  and  in  the  States  of  the  west 
and  south-west  of  Germany,  but  most  of  the  enlightened  gov- 
ernments of  Europe  have  followed  the  example.  Out  of  Prus- 
sia, the  plan  was  first  adopted  in  Holland.  The  celebrated 
normal  school  of  Mr.  Prinsen  was  established  at  Haarlem,  in 
1816  ;  and  it  is  now  acknowledged  by  all,  that  common-school 
education  has  been  reformed  and  immeasurably  advanced 
throughout  the  whole  of  that  enlightened  country  by  the 
influence  of  this  school. 

When  that  great  governmental  measure  for  the  establishment 
of  common  schools  throughout  France  was  adopted  in  1833, 
one  of  its  main  features  was  the  creation  of  normal  schools. 
At  these  institutions,  young  men  are  not  only  educated,  but 
gratuitously  maintained  ;  they  enjoy  certain  civil  privileges, 
are  exempted  from  military  service,  and,  if  they  acquit  them- 
selves worthily,  they  are  certain  of  an  appointment  as  a  school- 
teacher at  the  end  of  their  course. 

It  is  a  fact  most  interesting  in  itself,  and  worthy  to  be  cited 
as  one  of  the  proofs  of  the  advancement  (however  slow)  of 
the  race,  that  the  normal  school  now  in  successful  operation  at 
Versailles  occupies  the  very  site  —  some  of  its  buildings  are 
the  very  buildings,  and  its  beautiful  grounds  the  very  grounds-— 
which  were  the  dog-kennels  of  Louis  XIV.  and  his  royal  suc- 
cessors.* 

*  A  fact  kindred  to  the  one  mentioned  in  the  text  is,  that,  at  Florence,  an  edi- 
fice once  used  by  the  Inquisition  is  now  occupied  by  an  infant  school.  How  dif- 


362  ANNUAL    REPORTS    ON   EDUCATION. 

Scotland,  so  long  and  so  justly  celebrated  among  the  coun- 
tries of  Europe  for  the  superior  education  of  its  people,  was 
not  slow  to  discover  the  advantages  of  schools  for  the  prepara- 
tion of  teachers.  It  has  now  one  such  school  at  Edinburgh, 
and  one  at  Glasgow,  besides  the  Madras  College  at  St.  An- 
drew's, which  exercises  the  double  function  of  giving  a  classi- 
cal education,  and  of  preparing  teachers  for  schools. 

Under  the  enlightened  administration  of  the  National  Board 
of  Education  for  Ireland,  a  normal  school  has  been  established 
at  Dublin,  and  placed  upon  the  most  liberal  basis.*  Excellent 
buildings  with  large  and  beautiful  yards  and  play-grounds  are 
provided  for  it  in  the  very  heart  of  the  city.  Here  hundreds  of 
the  poor  children  are  in  constant  attendance,  to  whom  instruc- 
tion is  given,  in  part  by  professional  teachers,  and  in  part  by 
the  pupils  of  the  normal  school.  The  normal  pupils  reside  at  a 
place  called  Glasnevin,  a  little  way  out  of  the  city.  Here  they 
have  a  farm,  which  is  conducted  by  a  scientific  agriculturist. 
When  not  engaged  at  the  school  in  the  city,  the  pupils  are  oc- 
cupied on  the  farm.  At  this  normal  school,  none  but  actual 
teachers  are  received.  They  leave  their  own  schools,  and  come 
from  all  parts  of  Ireland  to  receive  instruction  here.  Their 
whole  maintenance  —  tuition,  board,  lodging — is  gratuitous; 
and  a  certain  sum  is  secured  to  them  annually  on  their  return 
to  their  schools.  More  than  a  thousand  teachers  have  already 
availed  themselves  of  the  benefits  of  this  noble  charity. 

Though  the  government  of  England  has  declined  to  follow 
the  example  of  all  the  enlightened  nations  of  Europe,  yet  pri- 
vate individuals  and  societies  are  striving  to  remedy,  to  some 
extent,  the  consequences  of  this  neglect.  A  normal  school 
established  under  the  auspices  of  that  enlightened  educationist, 
Mr.  Kay  Shuttleworth,  is  now  in  successful  operation  at  Bat- 
tersea  ;  and  the  Church  party  have  recently  purchased  and  fitted 
up,  at  an  expense  of  a  hundred  thousand  dollars,  a  normal 
school  at  Chelsea,  near  London. 

ferent  those  uses  I    A  dog-kennel  and  a  normal  school  I  —  a  pandemonium  and  an 
infant  school  I 

*  Lord  Morpeth  gave  £1,000  towards  establi>Iiin<?  this  school. 


REPORT   FOR   1843.  363 

After  the  revolution  of  1830  which  separated  Belgium  from 
Holland,  the  former  country  neglected  its  schools  ;  and,  since 
that  period,  it  seems  to  be  acknowledged  on  all  hands  that  the 
education  of  the  Belgian  people  has  been  rapidly  retrograding. 
But,  by  virtue  of  a  recent  law  (Sept.  23,  1842),  an  entire 
school  system  is  now  organizing  for  that  country.  Under  the 
new  order  of  things,  there  are  to  be  two  normal  schools,  —  one 
at  Lierre  in  the  Province  of  Antwerp,  the  other  at  Nivelles  in 
the  Province  of  Brabant. 

Even  at  St.  Petersburg,  in  Russia,  says  Professor  Stowe, 
"  a  model  school  for  the  education  of  teachers  of  every  grade, 
and  for  all  parts  of  the  empire,"  has  been  established.  Thus 
it  appears  that  almost  every  member  of  the  great  European 
family  of  nations,  which  possesses  any  claims  to  be  called  en- 
lightened or  civilized,  has  looked  with  favor  upon  what  may  be 
considered  one  of  the  greatest  of  all  modern  instrumentalities 
for  the  improvement  of  the  race  ;  and  has  either  founded  this 
class  of  institutions  by  the  direct  authority  and  endowment  of 
the  government  itself,  or  has  allowed  and  encouraged  the  same 
thing  to  be  done  by  the  liberal  and  philanthropic  portion  of  its 
people.  One  empire  alone  has  signalized  its  name  by  an  oppo- 
site course.  That  empire  is  Austria.  Although  the  Austrian 
government  maintains  what  it  calls  a  system  of  schools,  yet 
they  are  schools  which  set  metes  and  bounds,  on  all  sides,  to 
the  development  of  the  human  faculties  ;  although  it  prepares  a 
few  teachers,  yet  it  is  the  office  of  these  teachers  to  lop  and 
prune  the  common  mind,  and  not  to  develop  it ;  and  when,  dur- 
ing the  very  year  previous  to  my  visit,  in  a  part  of  that  empire 
bordering  upon  the  kingdom  of  Saxony,  —  across  whose  fron- 
tier a  little  of  the  light  and  genial  warmth  of  education  had 
been  reflected,  —  a  few  of  the  more  enlightened  subjects  of  that 
arbitrary  power  applied  to  it  for  liberty  to  establish  a  normal 
school  within  their  own  province,  and  offered  to  supply,  gratu- 
itously, the  money  requisite  for  the  purpose,  both  the  applica- 
tion and  the  offer  were  rejected  with  indignity.  Austria,  im- 
penetrable Austria,  over  which  the  black  horizon  of  despotism 


364  ANNUAL    REPORTS    ON   EDUCATION. 

shuts  down  like  a  cover,  excluding,  as  far  as  possible,  all 
light,  intelligence,  and  knowledge,  —  Austria,  true  to  the  base 
and  cowardly  instincts  of  ignorance  and  bigotry,  disallows  the 
establishment  of  a  free  normal  school  for  the  improvement  of 
its  people,  and  spurns  the  proffered  munificence  of  the  noble 
benefactors  who  would  endow  it ! 


SCHOOL-INSPECTORS. 

The  extraordinary  system  of  measures  by  which  the  Prussian 
schools  have  been  elevated,  and  are  now  sustained,  would  not 
be  understood  without  taking  into  view  the  office  and  character 
of  the  school-inspectors.  The  kingdom  is  divided  into  circles, 
or  districts  ;  and,  for  each  one  of  these,  there  is  one  or  more 
school  commissioners  or  inspectors.  These  officers  have  some 
duties  like  those  of  our  town  school-committees  ;  but  their 
functions  more  nearly  resemble  those  of  the  deputy  superin- 
tendents appointed  for  each  county  in  the  State  of  New  York, 
the  latter  being  required  by  law  to  visit  and  examine  all  the 
schools  in  their  respective  counties,  summer  and  winter,  and 
make  report  of  their  condition  to  the  State  superintendent. 

By  visiting  schools,  attending  examinations,  and  by  personal 
introduction,  I  saw  many  of  this  class  of  magistrates.  They 
had  evidently  been  selected  from  among  the  most  talented  and 
educated  men  in  the  community.  They  were  such  men  as 
would  here  be  appointed  as  presidents  or  professors  of  colleges, 
judges  of  the  higher  courts,  or  called  to  other  civil  stations 
for  which  talent,  attainment,  and  character  are  deemed  essen- 
tial prerequisites.  The  office  is  one  both  of  honor  and  emolu- 
ment. 

It  is  easy  to  see  how  efficient  such  a  class  of  officers  must 
have  been  in  bringing  up  teachers  to  a  high  standard  of  quali- 
fications at  the  beginning ;  and  in  creating,  at  last,  a  self- 
inspired,  self-improving  spirit,  among  them.  If  examiners, 
inspectors,  school-committees,  —  or  by  whatever  other  name 
they  may  be  called,  —  know  little  of  geography,  grammar, 


REPORT   FOR    1843.  365 

arithmetic,  or  the  art  of  reading,  the  candidate  who  presents 
himself  before  them  for  examination  will  feel  no  need  of 
knowing  more  than  they  do  ;  and  a  succession  of  ignorant  and 
incompetent  candidates  will  be  sure  to  apply  for  schools  in 
towns  which  have  ignorant  examiners.  The  whole  Prussian 
system  impressed  me  with  a  deep  sense  of  the  vast  difference  in 
the  amount  of  general  attainment  and  talent  devoted  to  the 
cause  of  popular  education  in  that  country  as  compared  with 
any  other  country  or  state  I  had  ever  seen.  I  must  refer  to 
other  sources  of  information  in  regard  to  the  municipal  or 
parochial  supervision  of  the  schools  ;  and  can  only  observe,  that 
over  all  these  intermediate  functionaries  is  the  Minister  of 
Public  Instruction.  This  officer  is  a  member  of  the  king's 
council.  He  takes  rank  with  the  highest  officers  in  the  govern- 
ment, sits  at  the  council-board  of  the  nation  with  the  minister 
of  state,  of  war,  of  finance,  &c.  ;  and  his  honors  and  emolu- 
ments are  equal  to  theirs.  He  has  no  merely  clerical  duties  to 
perform  ;  and,  being  relieved  from  all  official  drudgery,  he  can 
devote  his  time  and  his  talents  to  the  higher  duties  of  his 
department.  Such  also  has  been  the  case  in  France  since  the 
late  organization  of  their  system  of  public  instruction. 

In  justice  to  Prussia  also,  and  as  one  of  the  explanations  of 
the  remarkable  phenomena  presented  by  her  schools,  the  fact 
should  not  be  omitted,  that,  before  establishing  her  own  school- 
system,  she  commissioned  agents  to  visit  other  countries  to 
examine  into  theirs,  in  order  that  her  own  path  might  be  illu- 
minated by  all  the  light  that  could  be  reflected  upon  it  from 
other  parts  of  the  world. 

SCHOOL-ATTENDANCE. 

One  of  the  most  signal  features  of  the  school-system  of 
Prussia  and  of  many  of  the  neighboring  States  is  the  univer- 
sality of  the  children's  attendance.  After  a  child  has  arrived 
at  the  legal  age  for  attending  school,  —  whether  he  be  the  child 
of  noble  or  of  peasant, — the  only  two  absolute  grounds  of 


366  ANNUAL   REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

exemption  from  attendance  are  sickness  and  death.  The 
German  language  has  a  word  for  which  we  have  no  equivalent 
either  in  language  or  in  idea.  The  word  is  used  in  reference 
to  children,  and  signifies  due  to  the  school ;  that  is,  when  the 
legal  age  for  going  to  school  arrives,  the  right  of  the  school  to 
the  child's  attendance  attaches,  just  as,  with  us,  the  right  of  a 
creditor  to  the  payment  of  a  note  or  bond  attaches  on  the  day 
of  its  maturity.  If  a  child,  after  having  been  once  enrolled  as 
a  member  of  the  school,  absents  himself  from  it,  or  if,  after 
arriving  at  the  legal  age,  he  is  not  sent  there  by  his  parents,  a 
notice  in  due  form  is  sent  to  apprise  them  of  the  delinquency. 
If  the  child  is  not  then  forthcoming,  a  summons  follows. 
The  parent  is  cited  before  the  court ;  and  if  he  has  no  excuse, 
and  refuses  compliance,  the  child  is  taken  from  him,  and  sent  to 
school,  the  father  to  prison. 

From  a  pamphlet  published  by  a  director  of  the  schools  in 
Halle,  I  translate  the  following  forms  of  notices  and  sum- 
monses, in  order  to  give  a  more  vivid  idea  of  the  manner  in 
which  this  business  is  conducted  :  — 

(Notice  from  the  Teacher  to  the  Parent.) 

We  miss from  the  class  since ,  without  having  received  any  inti- 
mation of  the  reasons  of  absence.     We  request  you,  therefore,  to  indorse 
the  cause  of  absence  on  the  back  of  this  ticket,  and  to  send  your  child  (or 
ward)  to  school  again. 
HALLE, 

If  the  offence  of  absence  without  excuse  is  continued  or  is 
repeated,  the  register  of  the  school  is  exhibited  to  the  school- 
director,  who  sends  the  following  summons  to  the  parent :  — 

To , 

We  now  present  to  you  the  list  of  school-absences  through  the  police. 

Your is  found  upon  it.     If  you  do  not  wish  to  be  informed  against, 

present  yourself,  at  the  latest,  between  the  hours  of  and  to  the 

undersigned,  with  your  excuses. 
HALLE, 

If  a  valid  excuse  is  not  now  forthcoming,  the  school-director 
gives  information  of  the  case  to  the  school-inspector,  who  cites 


REPORT   FOB   1843.  367 

the  delinquent  parent  before  a  magistrate  by  the  following 
warrant,  which  is  put  into  the  hands  of  a  police-officer  to 
be  served :  — 

arc  hereby  called  upon  to  appear  on          at          to  be  tried  for  the 

neglected  school-attendance  of  your  child. 

HALLE,  (Signed) ,  Sdwol-Inspcctor. 

I  had  frequent  conversations  with  school-teachers  and  school- 
officers  respecting  this  compulsory  attendance  of  the  children. 
From  these  sources,  I  gathere  d  the  information,  that,  with  one 
exception,  there  was  very  little  complaint  about  it,  or  opposi- 
tion to  it.  Were  it  not  that  some  of  the  children  are  compelled 
to  receive  instruction  in  a  religious  creed  from  which  their 
parents  dissent,  there  would  rarely  be  a  murmur  of  complaint 
in  the  community.  The  children  are  so  fond  of  the  school, 
the  benefits  of  public  instruction  are  now  so  universally  ac- 
knowledged, and  the  whole  public  sentiment  has  become  so 
conformed  to  the  practice,  that  I  believe  there  is  quite  as  little 
complaint  (excepting  on  account  of  the  invasion  of  religious 
freedom  before  referred  to)  under  the  rigorous  system  of 
Prussia  as  under  our  lax  one.  One  school-officer,  of  whom  I 
inquired  whether  this  enforced  school-attendance  were  accept- 
able and  popular,  replied,  that  the  people  did  not  know  any 
other  way,  and  that  all  the  children  were  born  with  an  innate 
idea  of  going  to  school. 

It  should  be  added,  however,  that  parents  are  not  obliged  to 
send  their  children  to  a  public  school ;  if  they  prefer  it,  the 
children  may  be  sent  to  a  private  school :  but  they  must  be 
sent  to  some  one.  All  teachers,  however,  of  private  as  well  as 
of  public  schools,  must  submit  to  an  examination,  and  have  a 
certificate  of  qualification  from  the  government  officer. 

A  very  erroneous  idea  prevails  with  us,  that  this  enforce- 
ment of  school-attendance  is  the  prerogative  of  despotism  alone. 
I  believe  it  is  generally  supposed  here  that  such  compulsion  is 
not  merely  incompatible  with,  but  impossible  in,  a  free  or  elec- 
tive government.  This  is  a  great  error.  With  the  exception 


368  ANNUAL   REPORTS    ON   EDUCATION. 

of  Austria  (including  Bohemia)  and  Prussia,  almost  all  the 
other  States  of  Germany  have  now  constitutional  governments. 
Many  of  them  have  an  upper  and  lower  house  of  assembly, 
like  our  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives.  Whoever  will 
attend  the  Parliament  of  Saxony,  for  instance,  will  witness  as 
great  freedom  of  debate  as  in  any  country  in  the  world ;  and 
no  law  can  be  passed  but  by  a  majority  of  the  representatives, 
chosen  by  the  people  themselves.  In  the  first  school  I  visited, 
in  Saxony,  I  heard  a  lesson  "  On  Government,"  in  which  all 
the  great  privileges  secured  to  the  Saxon  people  by  their  con- 
stitution were  enumerated ;  and  both  teacher  and  pupils  con- 
trasted their  present  free  condition  with  that  of  some  other 
countries,  as  well  as  with  that  of  their  own  ancestors,  in  a 
spirit  of  congratulation  and  triumph.  The  elective  franchise 
in  this  and  in  several  of  the  other  States  of  Germany  is  more 
generally  enjoyed,  that  is,  the  restrictions  upon  it  are  less,  than 
in  some  of  the  States  of  our  own  Union.  And  yet  in  Saxony, 
years  after  the  existence  of  this  constitution,  and  when  no  law 
could  be  passed  without  the  assent  of  the  people's  representa- 
tives in  Parliament  assembled,  a  general  code  of  school  laws 
was  enacted,  from  the  143d  section  of  which  I  translate  the 
following.  The  title  is,  — 

UPON  NEGLECT  OF  SCHOOL-ATTENDANCE. — "1st.  In  every  parish 
where  there  is  a  school-union,  there  shall  be  a  school-messenger.  In  large 
parishes  which  are  divided  into  many  school-districts,  every  school  shall 
have  a  particular  messenger,  besides  one  for  every  school-district. 

"  2d.  Excepting  on  the  common  vacations,  and  on  those  weeks  and  days 
when  there  is  no  school,  the  school-messenger  must  ask  the  teacher,  on 
every  school-day,  after  the  school-hours,  what  children  have  been  absent 
without  an  adequate  excuse. 

"  3d.  In  places  where  there  is  but  one  school,  the  school-messenger  must 
ask  this  question  at  least  twice  a  week,  on  Wednesdays  and  Saturdays,  and 
require  an  account  of  the  last  three  days. 

"4th.  The  next  morning,  not  later  than  an  hour  before, the  beginning 
of  the  morning  school,  the  school-messenger  of  every  place  must  go  to  the 
parents  of  the  absent  and  unexcused  child,  and  demand  him  for  the  school, 
or  else  the  reason  for  his  absence.  For  every  such  visit,  the  parent  must  give 
the  messenger  six  pfennings. 


EEPORT   FOR    1843.  369 

"  5th.  If  a  child  does  not  come  after  this  demand,  but  remains  away 
unexcused  for  two  days,  the  school-messenger  must  take  him  on  the  third 
day,  and  conduct  him  to  the  school.  The  fee  from  the  parents  shall  be  one 
groschen. 

"  6th.  A  child  of  a  place  where  there  is  but  one  school,  who  does  not 
come  on  the  Monday  or  Thursday  after  the  visit  of  the  school-messenger, 
and  remains  unexcused,  also  if  he  stays  away  six  days  without  adequate 
excuse,  must  be  taken  by  the  messenger  and  carried  to  the  school ;  and  the 
fee  from  the  parents  shall  be  two  groschen. 

"  7th.  If  the  child  stays  from  the  school,  with  the  knowledge  of  its 
parents,  after  being  thus  carried  to  it  by  the  messenger,  measures  for  pun- 
ishment must  be  taken. 

"  8th.  If  the  messenger  cannot  collect  his  fees,  he  must  apply  to  the 
magistrates,  whose  duty  it  is  to  coerce  the  payment. 

"  9th.  If  the  parents  are  actually  too  poor  to  pay  the  same,  the  magis- 
trates must  demand  payment  quarterly  from  the  school-chest. 

"  10th.  The  magistracy  must  lend  their  assistance  to  the  messenger,  if, 
without  good  reason,  he  is  prevented  from  taking  the  child  to  school,  or  if 
he  is  improperly  treated  while  executing  the  duties  of  his  office." 

In  many  of  the  German  States,  the  anniversaries  of  the  date 
of  their  constitution  are  celebrated  by  fetes  and  shows,  by  din- 
ners and  speeches,  as  we  celebrate  our  great  national  festival, 
the  Fourth  of  July  ;  and  yet,  in  these  States,  by  virtue  of  laws 
which  the  free  representatives  of  a  free  people  have  enacted, 
every  child  is  compelled  to  attend  school  1 

HIGHER    SCHOOLS. 

This  account  of  the  people's  schools  would  be  very  imperfect 
did  I  omit  to  mention  one  or  two  other  classes  among  them, 
corresponding  in  grade  with  our  town-schools,  or  public  high- 
schools.  These  are  the  real  and  burgher  schools,  which  hold 
the  same  relation  to  the  elementary  schools  that  our  town- 
schools  hold  to  those  of  the  districts. 

The  Royal  Real  School  of  Berlin  —  the  first  in  point  of  date 
—  was  formed  as  early  as  1747  by  Counsellor  Hecker.  The 
epithet  "real"  is  used  in  contradistinction  from  "learned." 
At  the  time  when  this  school  was  established,  Latin  and  Greek 
were  the  exclusive  objects  of  study  in  the  learned  schools  ;  and 

24 


370  ANNUAL   REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

the  avowed  purpose  in  founding  this  was,  that  "  not  mere 
words  should  be  taught  to  the  pupils,  but  realities,  —  explana- 
tions being  made  to  them  from  models  and  plans,  and  of  sub- 
jects calculated  to  be  useful  in  after-life."  The  establishment 
of  this  class  of  schools  was  the  commencement  of  a  great  educa- 
tional reform.  Even  now,  the  Germans  could  afford  to  barter 
any  quantity  of  classical  annotations,  or  of  home-made  Latin 
and  Greek  prose  or  verse,  for  enough  of  mechanical  skill  to 
make  a  good  household  utensil,  a  good  farming-tool,  or  a  good 
machine.  Doubtless,  too,  their  best  students  would  excogitate 
more  philosophically  by  day  if  they  knew  enough  to  sleep  more 
physiologically  at  night ;  but  this  knowledge  Latin  and  Greek 
do  not  give. 

The  special  design  of  the  Burgher  school  is  to  prepare  young 
men  to  become  citizens,  —  that  is,  to  qualify  them  for  the  trans- 
action of  such  municipal  or  other  public  affairs  as  they  may  be 
called  upon  to  perform.  The  man  whose  duty  it  may  be  to 
build  bridges,  to  construct  drains,  to  lay  out  streets  or  roads,  to 
erect  public  buildings,  to  pass  ordinances  for  the  establishment 
or  regulation  of  the  police,  and  for  the  general  administration 
of  city  or  county  affairs,  should  have  some  special  preparation 
for  duties  so  various  and  responsible  ;  and  the  city  which  fails 
to  educate  those  young  men  who  are  afterwards  to  perform 
such  duties  in  her  behalf  will  find,  in  the  end,  that  their  mis- 
takes, mismanagement,  and  want  of  economy,  will  cost  a  hun- 
dred times  more  than  the  original  outlay  which  would  have 
qualified  them  for  such  offices.  In  a  country  like  ours,  where 
all  the  citizens  not  only  elect  to  office,  but  are  themselves  eligi- 
ble, if  education  does  not  fit  the  great  body  of  the  people  for 
the  performance  of  these  duties,  it  is  clear  that  we  must  be  con- 
stantly putting  valuable  trusts  into  the  hands  of  incompetent 
trustees. 

The  above  classes  of  schools  are  also  schools  for  the  useful 
arts,  manufactures,  and  commerce.  In  some  of  them,  architect- 
ure, engineering,  mining,  &c.,  are  taught ;  and  the  course  of 
studies  is  susceptible  of  being  enlarged  to  any  extent,  until  they 
become  complete  polytechnic  institutions. 


REPOET   FOR    1843.  371 

I  was  so  fortunate  as  to  arrive  at  Cologne  pending  an  exami- 
nation of  its  Burgher  school.  One  day  had  already  been  spent ; 
but  I  was  present  on  the  morning  of  the  second,  before  the  ex- 
ercises commenced.  A  programme  of  the  order  of  perform- 
ances, accompanied  by  remarks  and  explanations  on  the  course 
of  studies  and  the  methods  of  instruction,  had  been  prepared 
for  the  use  of  examiners  and  visitors.  It  consisted  of  twenty- 
four  printed  folio  pages,  a  fact  which  shows  the  degree  of  atten- 
tion devoted  to  the  subject.  The  number  and  apparent  stand- 
ing and  character  of  the  visitors  ratified  the  inference  which 
one  would  naturally  draw  from  such  a  fact.  From  this  pro- 
gramme, it  appeared  that  the  subjects  of  examination  were 
religion ;  the  German  (their  native)  language ;  the  French, 
Latin,  English,  and  Italian  languages ;  history,  geography, 
knowledge  of  Nature,  arithmetic,  and  geometry ;  drawing, 
calligraphy,  and  singing,  —  in  all,  thirteen  branches. 

I  shall  speak  only  of  that  part  of  the  examination  which  I 
heard. 

In  arithmetic,  after  a  little  time  had  been  spent  in  expound- 
ing the  mere  relations  of  numbers,  the  pupils  gave  an  account 
of  the  different  weights  and  measures  of  the  neighboring  States  ; 
of  the  standard  value  of  gold  and  silver  as  determined  by  the 
laws  of  different  nations  ;  of  the  current  coins  of  all  the  nations 
of  Europe  and  of  the  United  States  of  North  America.  They 
were  then  required  to  change  coins  of  one  denomination  and 
country  into  those  of  another.  After  this  they  were  examined 
in  electro-magnetism,  having  apparatus  on  which  to  try  experi- 
ments. A  class  of  boys  from  thirteen  to  seventeen  years  of 
age  was  then  examined  in  the  French  and  English  languages. 
During  the  exercise  in  French,  both  teacher  and  pupils  spoke 
>n  French;  and,  during  the  exercise  in  English,  both  teacher  and 
pupils  spoke  in  English.  These  exercises  consisted  in  transla- 
tion, parsing,  and  general  remarks.  The  teacher's  remarks  on 
the  construction  and  genius  of  the  English  language  would  have 
done  credit  to  a  professor  in  one  of  our  colleges.  A  want  of 
time  excluded  examinations  in  Latin  and  Italian  ;  but  all  that 


372  ANNUAL    REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

I  saw  and  heard  was  performed  so  well  as  to  create  an  assur- 
ance of  ability  to  sustain  an  examination  in  any  other  branch 
set  down  in  the  programme.  After  this  came  declamation  in 
three  languages.  In  this  exercise,  I  observed  there  was  not  a 
single  gesticulation,  nor  any  symptom  of  an  internal  impulse 
towards  one.  The  lads  took  their  station  behind  a  table,  which 
they  seized  with  both  hands,  and  held  steadfastly  until  the 
close. 

After  the  examination  was  completed,  the  head  teacher  occu- 
pied half  an  hour  in  delivering  an  address,  a  part  of  which  was 
directed  to  the  young  meu  who  were  about  to  leave  the  school, 
and  a  part  to  parents  and  visitors  on  their  duties  to  it.* 

In  many  parts  of  the  Continent,  evening  schools  are  kept, 
which  are  attended  by  apprentices  and  others.  In  these  schools, 
all  branches  of  useful  knowledge  are  taught.  In  Paris,  I  have 
seen  men  forty  or  fifty  years  of  age  in  attendance,  and  diligently 
studying  the  branches  appropriate  to  their  respective  occupa- 
tions. Such  schools  occupy  the  place,  to  some  extent,  of  our 
debating-clubs  and  lycenms.  The  school  communicates  knowl- 
edge ;  the  debating-club  and  the  lyceum  suppose  the  actual 
possession  of  knowledge.  Where  this  knowledge  does  not 
actually  exist,  is  not  the  school  preferable  ? 

In  some  of  the  German  States,  the  law  requires  apprentices 
to  attend  school  a  certain  number  of  evenings  in  every  week. 
In  one  of  these  States,  I  was  informed  that  complaint  had  been 
made  by  the  apprentices  because  they  were  deprived  of  the  dis- 
posal of  their  own  time,  and  were  obliged  to  defray  the  expense 
of  tuition  at  school  out  of  their  pocket-money.  To  obviate  this 
complaiut,  the  law  was  changed.  All  apprentices  were  still 

*  la  a  private  school  in  Utrecht,  composed  of  both  masters  and  misses,  I  heard 
a  lesson  in  English  history,  conducted  principally  in  the  French  language.  During 
the  lesson,  a  boy  was  called  to  the  blackboard,  who  traced  down  in  a  diagram 
form,  in  a  manner  similar  to  the  great  historical  charts  to  be  found  in  Lavoisne's 
Atlas,  a  regular  succession  of  the  English  sovereigns,  from  the  time  of  Edward 
III.  to  the  present  Queen.  How  valuable  and  permanent  must  history  be  when 
learned  in  this  way  ! 

In  this  school,  four  languages,  the  German,  Dutch,  French,  and  English,  were 
spoken  promiscuously  by  both  teachers  and  pupils ;  and  each  one  of  these  languages 
seemed  to  be  struggling  to  obtain  its  share  of  attention. 


REPORT   FOR    1843.  373 

obliged  to  pay  a  tuition-fee ;  but  the  government  remitted  the 
payment  in  favor  of  those  who  attended,  exacting  it  only  of  the 
absentees. 

In  most,  if  not  in  all,  the  German  cities  which  I  visited,  I 
found  Sunday  schools  in  active  operation.  These  are  estab- 
lished, not,  as  with  us,  for  the  purpose  of  giving  moral  or  reli- 
gious, but  secular  instruction.  Their  exercises  consist  mainly 
in  reading,  writing,  composition,  arithmetic,  geography,  draw- 
ing, and  so  forth.  They  are  attended  principally  by  appren- 
tices, laborers,  and  others,  whose  age  for  attending  the  element- 
ary schools  has  passed,  and  who  are  engaged,  during  the  week- 
days, in  their  respective  industrial  employments. 

From  what  has  been  said,  it  will  be  observed  that  there  is  a 
remarkable  difference  between  the  lads,  or  youth,  of  Prussia  and 
our  own,  in  regard  to  the  nature  and  character  of  the  literary 
exercises  to  which  they  betake  themselves  after  leaving  the 
elementary  schools.  With  us  they  attend  the  lyceum,  the  de- 
bating-society, the  political  reading-room  or  news-room.  There, 
notwithstanding  the  excellent  instruction  they  have  already 
received  iu  the  school,  they  seek  to  enlarge  and  carry  forward 
their  elementaiy  knowledge  by  attending  the  evening  school 
and  the  Sunday  school.  Their  course  springs  from  the  idea, 
that  further  preliminary  knowledge  is  to  be  acquired ;  ours 
from  the  idea,  that  sufficient  preliminary  knowledge  has  already 
been  obtained,  —  sufficient  to  qualify  them  to  enter  upon  the 
business  of  life,  sufficient  for  the  decision  of  all  social  and 
political  questions.  Before  we  give  a  decided  preference  to  our 
own  course,  would  it  not  be  well  to  inquire  whether  the  suppo- 
sition on  which  it  proceeds  is  true  ? 

In  Prussia,  Saxony,  and  some  other  of  the  German  States, 
schools  for  further  cultivation,  as  they  are  called  (Fortbildung- 
Schulen),  are  rapidly  increasing. 

Having  brought  to  a  close  what  I  propose  to  say  respecting 
the  spirit  and  the  methods  of  instruction  prevalent  in  the  Ger- 
man schools,  perhaps  it  may  not  be  wholly  useless  to  others, 
who  may  make  a  similar  tour  of  exploration,  if  I  add,  that,  after 


374  ANNUAL   REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

leaving  the  north  of  Prussia  and  the  kingdom  of  Saxony,  I 
observed  a  slight  falling-off,  a  declension,  in  the  tone  and  con- 
duct of  the  schools.  This,  however,  was  slight,  until  I  ap- 
proached the  Rhine.  But  here,  in  the  Grand  Duchy  of  Nas- 
sau, of  Hesse  Darmstadt,  of  Baden,  and  in  the  cities  of  Cob- 
lentz,  Cologne,  and  Dusseldorf,  although  the  same  general 
system  was  everywhere  iu  operation,  yet  its  body  was  not  ani- 
mated and  informed  by  so  active  and  zealous  a  soul. 

The  above  view  of  the  condition  of  the  Prussian  schools,  and 
of  the  degree  of  influence  they  exert  upon  the  national  charac- 
ter, would  be  incomplete  without  a  few  general  remarks. 

The  question  is  sometimes  asked,  why.  with  such  a  wide- 
extended  and  energetic  machinery  for  public  instruction,  the 
Prussians,  as  a  people,  do  not  rise  more  rapidly  in  the  scale  of 
civilization  ;  why  the  mechanical  and  useful  arts  remain  among 
them  in  such  a  half-barbarous  condition  ;  why  the  people  are 
so  sluggish  and  unenterprising  in  their  character ;  and,  finally, 
why  certain  national  vices  are  not  yet  extirpated. 

These  questions  may  be  readily  answered.  First.  It  is  a 
great  defect  in  the  People's  schools  of  Prussia,  that  the  children 
leave  them  at  so  early  an  age.  At  fourteen,  when  the  mind, 
by  blending  its  own  reflections  with  the  instructions  of  an  ac- 
complished teacher,  is  perhaps  in  the  very  best  state  for  making 
rapid  advances,  the  child  is  withdrawn  from  school,  and  his 
progress  suddenly  arrested.  The  subsequent  instruction  of  the 
evening  school  and  the  Sunday  school  reaches  but  a  small  part 
of  the  rural  population. 

Secondly.  There  is  a  great  dearth  of  suitable  books  for  the 
reading  of  the  older  children  or  younger  men.  Notwithstand- 
ing the  multitude  of  publications  sent  forth  annually  from  the 
prolific  German  brain,  but  very  few  of  them  are  adapted  to  the 
youthful  mind ;  and  that  great  instrumentality  for  operating  in 
every  place,  however  secluded  or  remote,  and  for  elevating 
every  individual,  however  indigent  or  obscure,  —  THE  DISTRICT 
SCHOOL  LIBRARY,  —  has  hardly  yet  been  heard  of  in  the  king- 
dom. Hence  there  is  a  failure  of  mental  nutriment  on  which 


REPORT   FOR    1843.  375 

the  common  people  can  thrive.  Whenever  I  mentioned  our 
own  plan  of  school-libraries,  it  struck  all,  whether  teachers, 
school-officers,  or  friends  of  free  and  progressive  institutions, 
as  one  of  the  grand  desiderata  for  carrying  forward  the  public 
mind  in  its  career  of  improvement.  I  have  the  happiness  to 
believe  that  our  course  on  this  subject  will  not  only  diffuse 
blessings  by  its  direct  agency  at  home,  but  will  enlarge  into  a 
wide  circle  of  beneficence  by  the  effect  of  its  example  abroad. 

The  Prussians  have  political  newspapers  ;  but  these  are  under 
a  rigorous  censorship.  There  are  but  few  of  them,  and  their 
size  is  very  small.  One  of  our  mammoth  sheets  would  nearly 
supply  a  Prussian  editor  for  a  year. 

Thirdly.  But  the  most  potent  reason  for  Prussian  backward- 
ness and  incompetency  is  this,  —  Avhen  the  children  come  out 
from  the  school,  they  have  little  use  either  for  the  faculties  that 
have  been  developed,  or  for  the  knowledge  that  has  been  ac- 
quired. Their  resources  are  not  brought  into  demand  ;  their 
powers  are  not  roused  and  strengthened  by  exercise.  Our 
common  phrases,  "  the  active  duties  of  life  ;  "  "  the  responsi- 
bilities of  citizenship  ; "  "  the  stage,  the  career,  of  action  ;  " 
"  the  obligations  to  posterity,"  —  would  be  strange-sounding 
words  in  a  Prussian  ear.  There,  government  steps  in  to  take 
care  of  the  subject  almost  as  much  as  the  subject  takes  care  of 
his  cattle.  The  subject  has  no  officers  to  choose,  no  inquiry 
into  the  character  or  eligibleness  of  candidates  to  make,  no  vote 
to  give.  He  has  no  laws  to  enact  or  abolish.  He  has  no  ques- 
tions about  peace  or  war,  finance,  taxes,  tariffs,  post-office,  or 
internal  improvement,  to  decide  or  discuss.  He  is  not  asked 
where  a  road  shall  be  laid,  or  how  a  bridge  shall  be  built, 
although,  in  the  one  case,  he  has  to  perform  the  labor,  and,  in 
the  other,  to  supply  the  materials.  His  sovereign  is  born  to 
him.  The  laws  are  made  for  him.  In  war,  his  part  is  not  to 
declare  it  or  to  end  it,  but  to  fight,  and  be  shot  in  it,  and  to  pay 
for  it.  The  tax-gatherer  tells  him  how  much  he  is  to  pay. 
The  ecclesiastical  authority  plans  a  church  which  he  must 
build  ;  and  his  spiritual  guide,  who  has  been  set  over  him  by 


376  ANNUAL   REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

another,  prepares  a  creed  and  a  confession  of  faith  all  ready 
for  his  signature.  He  is  directed  alike  how  he  must  obey  his 
king,  and  worship  his  God.  Now,  although  there  is  a  sleeping 
ocean  in  the  bosom  of  every  child  that  is  born  into  the  world, 
yet  if  no  freshening,  life-giving  breeze  ever  sweeps  across  its 
surface,  why  should  it  not  repose  in  dark  stagnation  forever? 

Many  of  our  expensively-educated  citizens  will  understand 
too  well  what  I  mean,  in  saying,  that  when  they  came  from  the 
schools,  and  entered  upon  the  stage  of  life,  they  had  a  practical 
education  to  begin.  Though  possessed  of  more  lore  than  they 
could  recite,  yet  it  was  of  a  kind  unavailable  in  mart  or  count- 
ing-room ;  and  they  still  had  the  a,  b,  c  of  a  business-educa- 
tion to  commence.  What,  then,  must  be  the  condition  of  a 
people,  to  the  great  body  of  whom  not  even  this  late  necessity 
ever  comes? 

Besides,  it  was  not  until  the  beginning  of  the  present  century 
that  the  Prussian  peasantry  were  emancipated  from  a  condition 
of  absolute  vassalage.  Who  could  expect  that  the  spirit  of  a 
nation,  which  centuries  of  despotism  had  benumbed  and  stupe- 
fied, could  at  once  resume  its  pristine  vigor  and  elasticity? 

Fourthly.  As  it  respects  the  vices  of  the  Prussians,  the  same 
remark  applies  to  them  as  to  those  of  all  the  continental  nations 
of  Europe,  —  they  are  the  vices  of  the  sovereign,  and  of  the 
higher  classes  of  society,  copied  by  the  lower  without  the  dec- 
orations which  gilded  them  in  their  upper  sphere.  Mr.  Laing 
(the  same  author  before  referred  to)  says,  — 

"  Of  all  the  virtues,  that  which  the  domestic  family  educa- 
tion of  both  sexes  most  obviously  influences — that  which 
marks  more  clearly  than  any  other  the  moral  condition  of  a 
society,  the  home  state  of  moral  and  religious  principles,  the 
efficiency  of  those  principles  in  it,  and  the  amount  of  that  moral 
restraint  upon  passion  and  impulses  which  it  is  the  object  of 
education  and  knowledge  to  attain  —  is  undoubtedly  female 
chastity. 

"  Will  any  traveller,  will  any  Prussian,  say  that  this  index- 
virtue  of  the  moral  condition  of  a  people  is  not  lower  in  Prus- 
sia than  in  almost  any  part  of  Europe  ?  " 


REPORT   FOR    1843.  377 

"  This,"  says  Mr.  Laing,  "  is  a  fact  not  to  be  denied,  when 
the  fruits  of  this  educational  system  may  be  appreciated  in  the 
generation  of  the  adults."  Allowing  the  accusation  to  be  true, — 
which,  however,  so  far  as  it  gives  to  Prussia  a  criminal  pre- 
eminence over  many  other  Continental  nations,  may  well  be 
questioned,  —  and  can  any  thing  surpass  the  absurdity  of  ex- 
pecting that  a  deep-seated  vice  of  this  description  can  be  extir- 
pated in  a  single  age  by  the  influence  of  any  education,  how- 
ever perfect,  or  by  any  other  human  means  of  reform  whatever? 
It  would  be  a  revolution  such  as  was  never  yet  wrought  in  so 
short  a  period,  even  by  miracles  ;  no,  not  even  under  the  Jew- 
ish theocracy,  when  men  looked  to  the  Omnipotent  himself  for 
the  execution  and  the  avengement  of  the  laws.  Could  so  fatal 
a  canker  in  the  social  body  be  so  easily  eradicated  from  it,  the 
criminality  of  sovereigns  and  of  the  high-born,  of  princes  and 
of  nobles,  would  be  infinitely  less  than  it  now  is  for  spreading 
so  virulent  a  vice  among  the  lower  orders  by  the  contagion  of 
their  own  example,  or  for  allowing  its  existence  by  their  neglect. 
The  vicious  indulgences  of  the  elevated  descend  through  all 
the  grades  of  society  beneath  them  ;  and  the  bitterest  drop  in 
the  cup  of  their  abominations  is  that  which  flows  forward,  and 
pollutes  the  blood  of  generations  yet  unborn.  Besides,  what 
man  of  conscientiousness,  of  an  awakened  moral  sense,  can 
sympathize  with  denunciations  levelled  at  the  poor  and  igno- 
rant, while  those  who  dwell  in  high  places  and  give  the  law  to 
society  escape  unrebuked?  Before  the  pure  spirit  of  justice, 
the  worst  debaucheries  and  licentiousness  that  ever  reeked  in 
the  stews  of  Athens  are  less  criminal  than  the  amours  and 
obscenities  of  the  gods  on  Olympus.  Throughout  the  whole 
history  of  mankind,  the  vices  of  the  low  have  been  only 
vulgarized  copies  and  editions  of  the  profligacies  of  their  social 
superiors,  —  the  coarse  penny  prints  of  the  illuminated  and 
voluptuous  originals  of  kingly  and  courtly  sensualism. 

A  proverb  has  now  obtained  currency  in  Prussia,  which 
explains  the  whole  mystery  of  the  relation  between  their  schools 
and  their  life.  "  THE  SCHOOL  is  GOOD,  THE  WORLD  is  BAD." 


378  ANNUAL   REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

The  quiescence  or  torpidity  of  social  life  stifles  the  activity  ex- 
cited in  the  schoolroom.  Whatever  pernicious  habits  and  cus- 
toms exist  in  the  community  act  as  antagonistic  forces  against 
the  moral  training  of  the  teacher.  The  power  of  the  govern- 
ment presses  upon  the  partially-developed  faculties  of  the 
youth  as  with  a  mountain's  weight.  Still,  in  knowledge  and 
in  morality,  in  the  intellect  and  in  the  conscience,  there  is  an 
expansive  force  which  no  earthly  power  can  overcome.  Though 
rocks  and  mountains  were  piled  upon  it,  its  imprisoned  might 
will  rend  them  asunder,  and  heave  them  from  their  bases,  and 
achieve  for  itself  a  sure  deliverance.  No  one  who  witnesses 
that  quiet,  noiseless  development  of  mind  which  is  now  going 
forward  in  Prussia,  through  the  agency  of  its  educational 
institutions,  can  hesitate  to  predict  that  the  time  is  not  far  dis- 
tant when  the  people  will  assert  their  right  to  a  participation  in 
their  own  government.  The  late  king  made  a  vow  to  his  sub- 
jects that  he  would  give  them  a  constitution.  He  survived  a 
quarter  of  a  century  to  falsify  his  word,  and  at  last  went 
down  to  his  grave  with  the  promise  unredeemed.  This  was  a 
severer  shock  to  his  power  than  if  he  had  lost  half  the  wealth 
of  his  realm.  Thousands  of  his  subjects  do  not  hesitate  now 
to  declare,  that  fidelity  on  his  part  was  the  only  equivalent  for 
loyalty  on  theirs ;  and  standing  in  his  mausoleum,  amid  the 
costliest  splendors  of  architecure  and  statuary,  —  the  marble 
walls  around  covered  with  gilded  inscriptions  in  honor  of  the 
royal  name,  —  they  interpolate  a  black  line  upon  his  golden 
epitaph,  and  say,  "  He  promised  his  people  a  constitution,  but 
violated  his  royal  faith,  and  died  forsworn." 

Some  suspicions  are  entertained  that  the  present  sovereign  is 
adverse  to  that  mighty  intellectual  movement  which  is  now  so 
honorably  distinguishing  Prussia  from  most  of  the  nations  in 
Europe.  Alike  for  the  fame  of  the  king,  and  the  welfare  of 
humanity,  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  these  suspicions  are  groundless. 
He  has  the  power  of  gaining  as  enviable  and  lasting  a  renown 
as  any  sovereign  who  ever  sat  upon  an  earthly  throne.  The 
opportunity  is  before  him,  the  materials  are  in  his  hands. 


REPORT   FOR   1843.  379 

Through  a  peaceful  revolution  by  knowledge,  he  can  save  a 
fiery  revolution  by  blood.  He  can  liberalize  the  institutions  of 
his  people,  elevate  their  condition,  and  continue  to  enlighten 
their  minds,  until  they  shall  become  a  luminary  in  the  heart  of 
Europe,  shedding  its  benignant  beams  upon  surrounding  na- 
tions. One  of  his  ancestors  has  been  surnamed  "  the  Great," 
because  he  aggrandized  his  country  in  war,  —  because  he  rav- 
ished the  population  and  seized  the  territory  of  other  nations, 
and  added  them  to  his  own  ;  but  this  monarch  may  win  a  purer 
and  a  nobler  fame,  —  not  by  the  captives  or  the  domain  which 
he  shall  take,  by  conquest  or  spoliation,  from  the  nations  around 
him,  but  by  the  example  and  the  enlightenment  which  he  shall 
be  instrumental  in  giving  both  to  contemporaries  and  to  pos- 
terity. 

CORPORAL   PUNISHMENT. 

I  have  uniformly  made  inquiries  respecting  the  use  of  cor- 
poral punishment  as  a  means  of  order  and  an  incitement  to 
progress  in  schools. 

I  need  not  repeat  what  was  said  above  (ante,  pp.  359—60)  in 
regard  to  corporal  punishment  in  Germany. 

In  Holland,  corporal  punishment  is  obsolete.  Several  teach- 
ers and  school-officers  told  me  there  was  a  law  prohibiting  it 
in  all  cases.  Others  thought  it  was  only  a  universal  practice 
founded  on  a  universal  public  opinion.  The  absence  of  the 
Minister  of  Public  Instruction,  when  I  was  at  the  Hague,  pre- 
vented my  obtaining  exact  information  on  this  interesting  point. 
But,  whatever  was  the  cause,  corporal  punishment  was  not  used. 
In  cases  of  incorrigibleness,  expulsion  from  school  was  the 
remedy. 

One  of  the  school-magistrates  in  Amsterdam  told  me,  that, 
last  year,  about  five  thousand  children  were  taught  in  the  free 
schools  of  that  city.  Of  this  number,  from  forty  to  fifty  were 
expelled  for  bad  conduct.  This  would  be  about  one  per  cent. 

At  Haarlem,  Mr.  De  Vries  told  me  he  had  kept  the  same 
school  for  about  twenty  years,  that  its  average  number  had 


380         ANNUAL  REPORTS  ON  EDUCATION. 

been  six  hundred  scholars,  that  not  an  instance  of  the  infliction 
of  corporal  punishment  had  occurred  during  the  whole  time, 
and  that  two  only  (boys)  had  been  expelled  from  it  as  hope- 
lessly incorrigible.  He  added,  that  both  those  boys  had  been 
afterwards  imprisoned  for  crime.  On  seeing  the  manner  of 
Mr.  De  Vries,  his  modes  of  instruction,  and  the  combined  dig- 
nity and  affection  with  which  he  treated  his  pupils,  I  could 
readily  believe  the  statement. 

The  schools  of  Holland  were  remarkable  for  good  order,  — 
among  the  very  best,  certainly,  which  I  have  anywhere  seen. 
Nor  does  this  arise  from  any  predominance  of  phlegm  in  the 
constitution,  or  any  tameness  of  soul ;  for  the  Dutch  are  cer- 
tainly as  high-toned  and  free-spirited  a  people  as  any  in  Eu- 
rope. This  fact  may  be  read  in  their  organization  and  natural 
language,  as  well  as  learned  from  their  history. 

In  Hamburg,  I  visited  an  institution  of  a  novel  character. 
It  was  a  punishment-school,  or  school-prison,  —  a  place  of  in- 
struction and  restraint  for  those  children  belonging  to  the 
poor-schools  of  the  city  who  commit  any  aggravated  offence. 
In  Hamburg,  many  poor  people  receive  assistance  from  the 
city.  One  of  the  conditions  of  the  succor  is,  that  those  who 
receive  it  shall  send  their  children  to  the  schools  provided  for 
them.  If  a  child  in  these  schools  commits  any  trivial  or  ordi- 
nary offence,  he  is  punished  in  the  school  in  the  usual  way. 
But,  if  the  transgression  is  gross,  or  if  he  persists  in  a  course 
of  misconduct,  he  is  sentenced  by  the  competent  authorities  to 
a  prison,  or  punishment-school  (Strafschule).  Here  he  must  go 
at  eight  in  the  morning,  and  remain  until  eight  in  the  evening. 
A  part  of  the  day  is  spent  in  study,  a  part  in  work.  I  saw  the 
children  picking  wool.  There  were  twenty-one  boys  in  one 
room,  and  eleven  girls  in  another.  The  school  was  in  the  third 
story  of  a  building ;  and  near  the  schoolrooms  were  small  and 
wretched  bed-rooms,  where  those  whose  sentence  covered  the 
night,  as  it  sometimes  did,  were  compelled  to  sleep. 

The  children  were  usually  sentenced  to  so  many  stripes,  as 
well  as  to  so  many  days'  confinement ;  and  the  teacher  kept  a 


REPORT    FOR    1843.  381 

book,  as  a  jailer  keeps  a  record  of  his  prisoners,  in  which  the 
case  of  each  child  was  recorded.  At  the  expiration  of  the  sen- 
tence, the  children  return  to  the  school  whence  they  came.  In- 
stances of  a  second,  and  even  of  a  third  commitment  sometimes 
occur. 

While  I  was  stopping  at  the  punishment-school,  the  hour  of 
dinner  arrived.  All  the  boys  left  their  schoolroom  for  one  of 
the  adjacent  rooms,  and  all  the  girls  for  another.  They  ar- 
ranged themselves  in  groups  of  four  each,  on  the  opposite  sides 
of  a  long  table.  A  bowl  of  bean-porridge  was  set  in  the  centre 
of  each  group,  and  to  each  child  was  given  a  large,  round, 
coarse  wooden  spoon.  The  teacher  entered  a  sort  of  pulpit, 
and  said  grace,  after  which  the  children  ate  their  homely  meal. 
There  was  very  little  of  indecorous  behavior,  such  as  winking 
or  laughing  in  a  clandestine  manner  ;  but  the  sobriety  appeared 
to  me  to  come  more  from  fear  than  from  repentance.  One  of 
the  rules  was,  that,  during  the  twelve  hours  of  daily  confine- 
ment, the  children  should  have  no  communication  with  each 
other ;  but  it  happened  here,  as  it  has  in  many  other  cases 
where  all  communication  is  interdicted,  that  it  is  carried  on 
clandestinely,  or  by  stealth,  —  an  evil  much  greater  than  any 
which  can  result  from  allowed  intercourse. 

The  highest  tension  of  authority  which  I  anywhere  wit- 
nessed was  in  the  Scotch  schools.  There,  as  a  general  rule, 
the  criminal  code  seemed  to  include  mistakes  in  recitation  as 
well  as  delinquencies  in  conduct ;  and,  where  these  were  com- 
mitted, nothing  of  the  "  law's  delay  "  intervened  between 
offence  and  punishment.  If  a  spectator  were  not  vigilant,  there 
might  be  an  erroneous  answer  by  a  pupil,  and  a  retributive 
blow  on  his  head  by  the  teacher's  fist,  so  instantaneous  and 
so  nearly  simultaneous  as  to  elude  observation.  Still  the  bond 
of  attachment  between  teacher  and  pupils  seemed  very  strong. 
It  was,  however,  a  bond  founded  quite  as  much  on  awe  as  on 
simple  affection.  The  general  character  of  the  nation  was 
distinctly  visible  in  the  schools.  Could  the  Scotch  teacher  add 
something  more  of  gentleness  to  his  prodigious  energy  and 


382  ANNUAL   REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

vivacity,  and  were  the  general  influences  which  he  imparts  to 
his  pupils  modified  in  one  or  two  particulars,  he  would  become 
a  model  teacher  for  the  world. 

In  England,  as  there  is  no  national  system,  nor  any  authori- 
tative or  prevalent  public  opinion  towards  which  individual 
practice  naturally  gravitates,  a  great  diversity  prevails  on  this 
head.  In  some  schools,  talent  and  accomplishment  have  wholly 
superseded  corporal  punishment ;  iu  others,  it  is  the  all-in-all 
of  the  teacher's  power,  whether  for  order  or  for  study.  I  was 
standing  one  day,  in  conversation  with  an  assistant  teacher,  in 
a  school  consisting  of  many  hundred  children,  when,  observing 
that  he  held  in  his  hand  a  lash  or  cord  of  Indian  rubber, 
knotted  towards  the  end,  I  asked  him  its  use.  Instead  of 
answering  my  question  in  words,  he  turned  round  to  a  little 
girl  sitting  near  by,  perfectly  quiet,  with  her  arms,  which  were 
bare,  folded  before  her  and  lying  upon  her  desk,  and  struck 
such  a  blow  upon  one  of  them  as  raised  a  great  red  wale,  or 
stripe,  almost  from  elbow  to  wrist. 

In  some  of  the  proprietary  and  endowed  schools  of  England, 
the  practice  of  solitary  confinement  still  prevails.  In  large 
establishments  at  Birmingham,  Liverpool,  &c.,  I  saw  cells,  or 
solitary  chambers,  four  or  five  feet  square,  for  the  imprison- 
ment of  offenders.  These  were  not  for  mere  children,  but  for 
young  men.  I  have  seen  a  lad  fifteen  or  sixteen  years  of  age. 
dressed  in  a  cap  and  gown,  —  the  scholastic  uniform  of  Eng- 
land, —  a  prisoner  in  one  of  these  apartments. 

In  some  of  the  private  establishments  at  Paris,  an  extent  of 
surveillance  over  the  conduct  of  students  prevails  of  which  we 
have  no  idea.  This  is  intended  to  supersede  the  necessity  of 
punishment  by  taking  away  all  opportunity  for  transgression. 
Some  of  the  private  schools  are  subsidiary  to  the  colleges,  — 
that  is,  the  master  of  the  private  school  has  the  general  charge 
and  superintendence  of  the  students,  maintains  them  at  his 
own  house,  instructs  them  himself,  or  by  his  assistants,  at  home, 
but  takes  them  daily  to  the  college,  where  their  lessons  are 
finally  heard  by  professors.  I  attended,  one  morning,  the 


REPORT  FOR    1843.  383 

opening  of  the  College  Bourbon,  in  Paris.  At  eight  o'clock, 
the  private  teachers  came,  followed  by  their  pupils  marching  in 
procession.  All  entered  a  large  square,  or  court,  enclosed  on 
all  sides,  except  the  gateway,  by  the  college-buildings.  Soon 
after,  the  roll  of  a  drum  was  heard,  at  which  all  the  students 
arranged  themselves  in  classes.  At  a  second  drum-beat,  they 
marched  to  their  recitation-rooms.  The  teachers  then  returned 
home  ;  but,  at  the  end  of  the  college-exercises,  they  were  to  be  in 
attendance  again,  to  take  back  their  charge  in  the  same  way  as 
they  had  conducted  them  thither.  To  us  this  would  seem  sin- 
gular, because  many  of  the  students  had  already  passed  the  age 
which  we  call  the  age  of  discretion.  By  the  invitation  of  one 
of  the  teachers,  I  accompanied  him  home.  The  collegians 
were  only  the  older  pupils  in  his  school,  and  I  wished  to  see 
the  rest  of  his  establishment.  It  was  laid  out  on  a  most  liberal 
scale  as  to  play-grounds,  schoolrooms,  dormitories,  kitchen, 
&c.,  and  was  in  an  excellent  condition  of  order  and  neatness. 
The  arrangement  was  such,  that  he  could  inspect  all  the  play- 
grounds while  sitting  in  his  study  ;  in  this  particular  resem- 
bling those  prisons  where  all  the  wards  can  be  inspected  from 
a  central  point.  But  this  was  not  all.  As  I  passed  round  to 
see  the  several  schoolrooms,  I  observed  that  a  single  pane 
of  glass  had  been  set  into  the  wall  of  each  room,  so  that  the 
principal,  or  any  one  deputed  by  him,  could  inspect  both  the 
class  and  its  teacher  withoi>t  a  moment's  warning.  This  was 
pointed  out  as  one  of  the  distinguishing  excellences  in  the  con- 
struction of  the  rooms.  It  was  stated  also,  that,  in  order  to 
save  the  younger  from  contamination  by  associating  with  the 
older,  there  was  not  only  an  entire  separation  of  them  in  the 
schoolrooms,  but  also  in  the  play-grounds  and  sleeping  apart- 
ments ;  and  it  was  added  further,  that  if  two  brothers  of  differ- 
ent ages,  and  belonging  to  different  classes,  should  attend  the 
school  at  the  same  time,  they  \vould  not  be  allo\ved  to  see  each 
other.  I  afterwards  saw  the  same  contrivances  for  inspection, 
not  only  in  other  schools,  but  in  the  Royal  College  of  Ver- 
sailles, a  very  distinguished  institution. 


384  ANNUAL   REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

I  feel  unable  to  decide  whether,  in  such  a  state  of  society 
and  with  such  children,  this  piercing  surveillance  is  not  the 
wisest  thing  that  can  be  done  ;  but  with  us  the  question  cer- 
tainly arises,  whether  the  cause  of  school  morals  would  gain 
more  in  the  end  by  a  closeness  of  inspection  designed  to  pre- 
vent the  outflow  of  all  natural  action,  or  by  allowing  more 
freedom  of  will,  with  a  careful  training  of  the  conscience 
beforehand,  and  a  strict  accountability  for  conduct  after- 
wards. 

At  all  times  and  in  all  countries,  the  rule  is  the  same,  —  the 
punishment  of  scholars  is  the  complement  of  the  proper  treat- 
ment of  children  by  parents  at  home,  and  the  competency  of 
the  teacher  in  school.  Where  there  is  less  on  one  side  of  the 
equation,  there  must  be  more  on  the  other. 

EMULATION. 

In  the  Prussian  and  Saxon  schools,  emulation  is  still  used  as 
one  of  the  motive-powers  to  study  ;  but  I  nowhere  saw  the 
passion  inflamed  to  an  insupportable  temperature.  I  was  uni- 
formly told  that  its  employment  was  becoming  less  and  less, 
and  that  the  best  authorities  throughout  the  country  were  now 
discountenancing  rather  than  encouraging  it.  Just  in  propor- 
tion as  the  qualifications  of  teachers  had  improved,  it  had  been 
found  less  necessary  to  enlist  this  passion  in  their  service  ;  and 
as  the  great  idea  of  education  —  that  of  the  formation  of  Chris- 
tian character  and  habits  —  had  been  more  and  more  devel- 
oped, emulation  had  been  found  an  adverse,  and  not  a  favoring 
influence. 

France  and  Scotland  are  the  two  countries  in  Europe  where 
emulation  between  pupils,  as  one  of  the  motive-powers  to 
study,  is  most  vigorously  plied.  In  France,  the  love  of 
approbation,  of  couspicuousness,  of  eclat,  of  whatever  minis- 
ters to  the  national  passion  of  vanity,  holds  pre-eminence.  In 
Scotland,  rivalry  is  more  frequently  stimulated  by  the  hope  of 
reward. 


REPORT   FOR    1843.  385 

In  one  of  the  pensions,  or  boarding-schools,  of  Paris,  I  was 
struck  by  the  sight  of  a  large  number  of  portraits  of  young 
men.  These  were  hung  around  the  walls  of  the  principal's 
room,  which  was  a  large  apartment,  three  of  whose  sides  were 
nearly  covered  by  them.  They  were  the  portraits  of  those 
pupils  of  the  school  who  had  afterwards  won  prizes  at  a  college- 
examination.  The  name  of  the  pupil,  the  year,  and  the  sub- 
ject-matter on  which  he  had  surpassed  his  competitors,  were 
inscribed  respectively  beneath  the  portraits.  In  the  room  of 
the  head  of  the  Royal  College  at  Versailles,  I  also  saw  the 
portraits  of  those  students  of  the  college  who  had  won  prizes 
at  the  university.  This  display,  and  the  facts  connected  with 
it,  speak  volumes  in  regard  to  the  French  character,  and  the 
motive-powers  under  which  not  only  the  scholars,  but  the 
nation  works.  A  brief  account  of  a  single  phasis  of  this  sys- 
tem, —  for  it  is  reduced  to  a  system,  —  if  not  particularly  inter- 
esting, may  be  instructive. 

The  pensions,  or  boarding-schools,  are  equivalent  to  our 
select  or  private  schools.  Their  patronage  depends  upon  their 
reputation  ;  and  that  reputation  is  mainly  graduated  by  the 
number  of  distinguished  scholars  they  send  out.  Hence  to  send 
pupils  to  the  college  who  gain  prizes  for  scholarship  brings 
celebrity  to  the  school,  and  emolument  to  the  master.  To 
obtain  talented  boys,  therefore,  becomes  a  grand  object  with  the 
masters  of  the  pensions.  For  this  purpose,  careful  inquiries 
are  made,  and  sometimes  agents  are  employed  to  search  out 
lads  of  promise,  and  bring  them  to  the  school.  In  some 
instances,  not  only  tuition,  but  the  whole  expense  of  board, 
lodging,  &c.,  is  gratuitously  furnished ;  and,  in  extraordinary 
cases,  a  pecuniary  bounty  beyond  the  whole  expenses  of  the 
pupil  has  been  given.  It  may  be  said  that  this  has  a  good 
effect,  because  it  searches  out  the  latent  talent  of  the  country, 
and  suffers  no  genius  to  be  lost  through  neglect.  But  here,  as 
everywhere  else,  the  great  question  is,  whether  the  principle 
is  right ;  for  no  craft  of  man  can  circumvent  the  laws  of  Nature, 
or  make  a  bad  motive  supply  the  place  or  produce  the  results 
25 


386  ANNUAL   REPOETS   ON  EDUCATION. 

of  a  good  one.  The  teachers  do  not  supply  these  facilities,  or 
encourage  this  talent,  from  benevolence.  It  is  speculation.  It 
is  pecuniary  speculation  ;  and,  if  they  did  not  anticipate  a  richer 
return  for  their  outlay  when  invested  in  this  manner  than 
when  used  in  a  legitimate  way,  they  would  not  incur  such 
extraordinary  trouble  and  risk.  Hence  they  devote  themselves 
in  an  especial  manner  to  the  training  of  these  prize-fighters, 
while  other  pupils  suffer  a  proportional  neglect.  The  very 
children,  therefore,  who  are  attracted  to  the  school  in  conse- 
quence of  its  celebrity,  are  defrauded  of  their  share  of  attention, 
in  order  that  the  reputation  of  the  school,  for  which  they  have 
been  made  victims,  may  induce  others  to  join  it,  to  be  made 
victims  in  their  turn.  Thus  the  system  prospers  by  the  evil  it 
works.  There  is  the  same  ambition  among  the  colleges  to  win 
the  prizes  of  the  university.  The  day  of  examination,  when 
these  prizes  are  awarded,  is  one  of  great  pomp  and  ceremony. 
The  Minister  of  Public  Instruction  and  other  high  official  dig- 
nitaries usually  attend ;  the  king  himself  has  sometimes  been 
present  in  person  ;  and  it  is  a  standing  rule  that  the  successful 
competitors  are  invited  to  dine  at  the  royal  table. 

Who  that  is  conversant  with  the  history  of  France  does  not 
see  how  much  of  her  poverty,  her  degradation,  and  her  suffer- 
ing, even  in  the  proudest  periods  of  her  annals,  is  directly 
attributable  to  this  inordinate  love  of  praise?  and  especially 
how  much  of  the  humiliation  of  later  times  —  when  the  charm 
of  her  invincibility  was  broken,  and  she  was  obliged  to  ransom 
herself  from  the  grasp  of  her  conquerors  by  gold  wrung  from 
her  toiling  millions  —  is  directly  traceable  to  the  predominance 
in  her  character  of  this  love  of  applause?  It  was  this  blind 
passion  for  glory  which  created  Bonaparte,  and  which  sustained 
him  not  less  faithfully  in  all  his  vast  schemes  of  wickedness 
than  in  his  plans  for  improvement.  "  Had  the  Romans  not 
been  sheep,  Caesar  had  not  been  a  wolf." 

Among  all  the  nations  of  Christendom,  our  own  is,  perhaps, 
second  only  to  France  in  the  love  of  approbation  as  a  prompter 
and  guide  to  action.  Ought  we,  then,  to  cultivate  this  passion, 


REPORT   FOR    1843.  387 

already  of  inordinate  growth,  by  the  use  of  emulation  in  our 
schools? 

On  a  former  page  (ante,  p.  281),  when  speaking  of  the 
modes  of  instruction  in  the  Scotch  schools,  I  have  incidentally 
described  the  skill  and  power  with  which  their  teachers  wield 
the  lash  of  emulation.  I  recur  to  the  subject  again,  only  to 
observe,  that  this  motive  is  not  confined  in  Scotland  to  the 
lower  grades  of  schools,  but  bears  equal  sway  in  colleges  and 
universities ;  that  it  is  not  employed  in  imparting  secular 
knowledge  only,  but  is  an  instrument  equally  welcome  and 
made  equally  efficient  in  giving  religious  instruction. 

Whatever  one  may  think  of  employing  such  a  motive  in 
matters  purely  intellectual,  I  cannot  believe  that  a  religious 
lesson  like  the  following  —  of  which  I  give  an  exact  account 
as  I  heard  it  —  will  fail  of  shocking  its  hardiest  defender  :  — 

Teacher.  What  sort  of  death  was  denounced  against  our  first 
parents  for  disobedience? 

1st  Pupil.  Temporal  death. 

T.  No  (and  pointing  instantaneously  to  the  second). 

2d  P.  To  die. 

The  teacher  points  to  the  third,  crying,  "  Come  away  !  "  — 
and  then  to  the  fourth.  A  dozen  pupils  leap  to  the  floor,  a 
dozen  hands  are  thrust  out,  all  quivering  with  eagerness. 

4lh  P.   Spiritual  death. 

T.  Go  up,  Dux  (that  is,  take  the  head  of  the  class). 

And  so  of  the  following,  from  the  Westminster  Catechism, 
which,  with  all  the  proofs,  is  committed  to  memory :  — 

Teacher.  What  is  the  misery  of  that  estate  whereinto  man 
fell? 

Pupil.  All  mankind,  by  their  fall,  lost  communion  with 
God,  are  under  his  wrath  and  curse,  and  so  made  liable  to  all 
the  miseries  of  this  life,  to  death  itself,  and  to  the  pains  of  hell 
forever  (giving  the  proofs). 

T.  What  sort  of  a  place  is  hell? 

P.  A  place  of  devils. 

T.  How  does  the  Bible  describe  it? 


388  ANNUAL  EEPORT3   ON  EDUCATION. 

1st  P.   (Hesitates.) 

T.  Next,     Next.     Next. 

5th  P.  A  lake  of  fire  and  brimstone. 

T.  Take  'em  down  four. 

And  thus,  on  these  awful  themes,  a  belief  and  contemplation 
of  which  should  turn  the  eyes  into  a  fountain  of  tears,  and 
make  the  heart  intermit  its  beatings,  there  is  the  same  ambition 
for  intellectual  superiority  as  on  a  question  in  the  multiplication- 
table.  There  is  no  more  apparent  solemnity  in  the  former  case 
than  in  the  latter. 

Nor  is  this  mode  of  treating  sacred  themes  confined  to  the 
schools.  In  the  universities,  money  is  employed  to  stimulate 
theological  effort ;  and  a  sordid,  financial  aspect  is  given  to  the 
holiest  subjects.  For  instance,  in  looking  over  the  published 
list  of  prize  questions  in  the  Glasgow  University  for  the  last 
two  or  three  years,  I  find  the  following  offers  :  — 

"  The  University  Silver  Medal,  for  the  best  Essay  on  the 
Analogy  of  the  Mosaic  and  Christian  Dispensations." 

Other  prizes,  of  various  values,  are  offered  for  the  best  essay 
on  such  subjects  as  the  following  :  — 

"  For  the  best  Lecture  on  1  John  iii.  1-6.  All  students 
of  divinity  in  this  university,  during  the  session  1843-44,  may 
be  competitors." 

"  For  the  best  Essay  on  the  Goodness  of  God,  by  students 
of  the  third  and  fourth  year." 

"  For  the  best  Discourse  on  John  xiv.  27." 

"  For  an  Essay  on  the  Character  of  Christ." 

"  For  the  best  specimen  of  reading  the  Holy  Scriptures." 

"  For  the  best  Lecture  on  the  35th  chap,  of  Isaiah." 

"  Prize  for  Essay  from  students  of  the  second  year  ;  subject, 
'  The  Personality  of  the  Holy  Ghost,'  " 

Thus  the  sordidness  of  worldly  motives  is  forever  mingled 
with  the  purity  of  sacred  themes.  Men  are  addressed  as  though 
piety  dwelt  in  the  purse,  and  not  in  the  heart ;  and  the  holiness 
of  God's  nature  and  the  sanctity  of  the  divine  commands  are 
flung  wantonly  into  the  ring,  to  be  fought  for,  with  dialectic 


REPORT   FOR    1843.  389 

weapons,  by  hired  wrestlers  and  prize-fighters.  What  value 
would  the  New  Testament  retain  in  our  eyes,  had  the  Gospels 
and  the  Epistles  been  prize-essays,  penned  by  money-loving 
disciples  and  apostles  for  so  many  Jewish  shekels  or  talents  ! 
Under  the  influences  which  God  and  Nature  are  shedding 
around  us,  the  heart  may  be  trained  to  a  moral  intrepidity  that 
will  bear  martyrdom  in  the  cause  of  truth,  or  to  an  avarice  that 
will  sell  its  Redeemer  for  thirty  pieces  of  silver.  Which  class 
of  these  motives  ought  the  great  literary  institutions  of  a  coun- 
try, in  all  ways,  to  foster? 

MORAL   AND    RELIGIOUS   INSTRUCTION. 

It  has  been  an  object  of  paramount  interest  with  me,  through- 
out my  whole  tour,  to  learn  in  what  manner  and  to  what  ex- 
tent moral  and  religious  instruction  are  given  in  schools.  In 
addition  to  the  inherent  interest  which  belongs  to  the  subject 
itself,  the  great  variety  of  practice  existing  abroad  promises  to 
throw  much  light  upon  our  course  of  proceedings  at  home. 
The  statutes  of  Massachusetts  relative  to  public  instruction, 
while  they  prohibit  the  inculcation  upon  school-children  of  any 
such  religious  views  as  "  favor  the  tenets  of  any  particular  sect 
of  Christians,"  provide  guaranties  for  the  moral  character  of 
teachers,  and  prescribe  their  duties  in  the  following  compre- 
hensive and  noble  language  :  — 

"  It  shall  be  the  duty  of  the  president,  professors,  and  tutors 
of  the  University  at  Cambridge,  and  of  the  several  colleges,  and 
of  all  preceptors  and  teachers  of  academies,  and  all  other  in- 
structors of  youth,  to  exert  their  best  endeavors  to  impress  on 
the  minds  of  children  and  youth  committed  to  their  care  and 
instruction  the  principles  of  piety,  justice,  and  a  sacred  regard 
to  truth,  love  to  their  country,  humanity  and  universal  benevo- 
lence, sobriety,  industry  and  frugality,  chastity,  moderation 
and  temperance,  ami  those  other  virtues  which  are  the  orna- 
ment of  human  society,  and  the  basis  upon  which  a  republican 
constitution  is  founded  ;  and  it  shall  be  the  duty  of  such  in- 


390  ANNUAL    REPORTS    ON   EDUCATION. 

structors  to  endeavor  to  lead  their  pupils,  as  their  ages  and  ca- 
pacities will  admit,  into  a  clear  understanding  of  the  tendency 
of  the  above-mentioned  virtues  to  preserve  and  perfect  a  re- 
publican constitution,  and  secure  the  blessings  of  liberty,  as 
well  as  to  promote  their  future  happiness  ;  and  also  to  point  out 
to  them  the  evil  tendency  of  the  opposite  vices." 

The  aim  of  our  law  obviously  is,  to  secure  as  much  of  reli- 
gious instruction  as  is  compatible  witli  religious  freedom.  Let 
us  see  how  our  policy  in  this  respect  compares  with  that  of 
other  countries. 

In  Ireland,  a  National  Board  of  Education  has  existed  for 
twelve  years,  having  been  constituted  in  1831.  It  is  founded 
on  the  principle  of  religious  tolerance  and  conciliation,  as  be- 
tweeu  the  two  great  sects  into  which  that  country  is  divided. 
Some  of  the  most  distinguished  men,  lay  and  clerical,  of  both 
the  Protestant  and  Catholic  communions,  compose  it.  In  the 
letter  of  the  Chief  Secretary  for  Ireland,  which  is  the  charter 
and  constitution  of  the  Board,  its  object  is  expressed  in  the  fol- 
lowing words :  "  To  superintend  a  system  of  education,  from 
which  should  be  banished  even  the  suspicion  of  proselytism, 
and  which,  admitting  children  of  all  religious  persuasions, 
should  not  interfere  with  the  peculiar  tenets  of  any."  To  ex- 
clude all  possible  occasion  for  jealousy,  the  Board  require  "  that 
no  use  shall  be  made  of  the  schoolrooms  for  any  purpose  tend- 
ing to  contention,  — such  as  the  holding  of  political  meetings  in 
them,  or  bringing  into  them  political  petitions  or  documents  of 
any  kind  for  signature  ;  and  that  they  shall  not  be  converted 
into  places  of  public  worship.  The  commissioners  require  the 
schoolrooms  to  be  used  exclusively  for  purposes  of  education." 

Another  of  the  standing  regulations  is  as  follows  :  — 

"  The  commissioners  regard  the  attendance  of  any  of  their 
teachers  at  meetings  held  for  political  purposes,  or  their  taking 
part  in  elections  for  members  of  parliament,  except  by  voting, 
as  incompatible  with  the  performance  of  their  duties,  and  as  a 
violation  of  rule  which  will  render  them  liable  to  dismissal." 

All  religious  instruction  is  expressly  prohibited  in  the  schools  ; 


REPORT   FOR    1843.  391 

and  this  prohibition  includes  "  the  reading  of  the  Scriptures," 
"  the  teaching  of  catechisms,"  "  public  prayer,"  and  "  all  other 
religious  exercises  :  "  but  separate  hours  are  set  apart,  in  which 
all  the  children  receive  religious  instruction  from  the  clergy- 
men of  their  respective  denominations  ;  the  principle  being  to 
give  combined  literary  and  moral  with  separate  religious  in- 
struct iou. 

In  every  schoolroom,  a  copy  of  the  following  "  General 
Lesson,"  prepared  by  that  distinguished  and  excellent  prelate, 
Dr.  AVhately,  the  Protestant  Archbishop  of  Dublin,  is  to  be 
conspicuously  hung  up  ;  and  all  teachers  are  required  to  incul- 
cate its  principles  upon  the  children  under  their  charge. 

"  Christians  should  endeavor,  as  the  Apostle  Paul  commands  them,  to 
'  live  peaceably  with  all  men  '  (Rom.  xii.  18),  even  with  those  of  a  different 
religious  persuasion. 

"Our  Saviour,  Christ,  commanded  his  disciples  to  'love  one  another.' 
He  taught  them  to  love  even  their  enemies,  to  bless  those  that  cursed  them, 
and  to  pray  for  those  who  persecuted  them.  He  himself  prayed  for  his 
murderers. 

"  Many  men  hold  erroneous  doctrines ;  but  we  ought  not  to  hate  or  perse- 
cute them.  We  ought  to  seek  for  the  truth,  and  to  hold  fast  what  we  are 
convinced  is  the  truth ;  but  not  to  treat  harshly  those  who  are  in  error. 
Jc.sus  Christ  did  not  intend  his  religion  to  be  forced  on  men  by  violent 
moans.  He  would  not  allow  his  disciples  to  fight  for  him. 

"  If  any  persons  treat  us  unkindly,  we  must  not  do  the  same  to  them  ; 
tor  Christ  and  his  apostles  have  taught  us  not  to  return  evil  for  evil.  If  we 
would  obey  Christ,  we  must  do  to  others,  not  as  they  do  to  us,  but  as  we 
would  wish  them  to  do  to  us. 

••  Quarrelling  with  our  neighbors  and  abusing  them  is  not  the  way  to 
convince  them  that  we  are  in  the  right,  and  they  in  the  wrong.  It  is  more 
likely  to  convince  them  that  we  have  not  a  Christian  spirit. 

"  We  ought  to  show  ourselves  followers  of  Christ,  who,  'when  he  was 
reviled,  reviled  not  again'  (1  Pet.  ii.  23),  by  behaving  gently  and  kindly 
to  every  one." 

Under  the  auspices  of  this  Board,  more  has  been  done  within 
the  last  twelve  years  for  the  education  of  the  Irish  nation  than 
had  been  effected  for  a  century  before  under  a  system  whose 
instruments  were  coercion,  imprisonment,  banishment,  and 


392  ANNUAL   EEPORTS   ON    EDUCATION. 

death.  On  the  21st  of  March,  1843,  when  the  Board  issued 
its  last  report,  2,721  schools  hud  been  established,  in  which 
319,792  scholars  were  in  a  course  of  education  ;  and  this  num- 
ber was  rapidly  increasing.  At  this  date,  the  Board  had  estab- 
lished a  Normal  School,  at  which  a  thousand  teachers  had  been 
educated  ;  had  prepared  a  complete  series  of  school-books  ;  had 
digested  a  code  of  regulations  for  the  whole  system ;  and  not- 
withstanding the  novelty  of  the  subjects,  and  the  number  and 
delicacy  of  the  questions  to  be  settled,  as  between  opposing 
parties  in  religion  and  politics,  not  a  single  protest  had  been 
entered  upon  its  recoids,  nor  had  any  schism  disturbed  the  har- 
mony of  its  members. 

In  Holland,  all  doctrinal  religious  instruction  is  excluded 
from  the  schools.  The  Bible  is  not  read  in  them.  Children 
are  permitted  to  withdraw7  at  a  certain  hour,  to  receive  a  lesson 
in  religion  from  their  pastors  ;  but  this  is  not  required.  It  is 
optional  to  go  or  remain. 

In  England,  as  there  is  neither  law  nor  system  on  the  sub- 
ject of  education,  each  teacher  —  with  the  exception  noticed 
below  —  does  as  he  pleases.  In  the  schools  sustained  by  the 
Church,  the  views  of  the  Church,  both  as  to  religious  doctrine 
and  Church  government,  are  taught ;  and  sometimes,  though 
not  always,  in  the  schools  of  the  Dissenters,  their  distinctive 
opinions  are  inculcated.  There  are,  however,  a  few  other 
schools,  which  are  established  upon  a  ue'utral  basis,  as  between 
opposing  sects.  In  these,  the  common  principles  and  require- 
ments of  morality,  and  all  the  preceptive  parts  of  the  gospel, 
as  contradistinguished  from  its  doctrinal,  are  carefully  incul- 
cated. The  Harp  Alley  School,  in  London,  is  a  good  specimen 
of  this  class.  This  school  contains  children  of  Churchmen 
and  Dissenters,  of  Catholics  and  Jews.  The  teacher  told  me, 
that  though  himself  a  Churchman,  yet,  being  placed  there  to 
educate  children  of  all  denominations,  he  did  so  with  entire 
impartiality,  and  without  their  knowing  what  his  own  views 
might  be. 

There  is  one  large  class   of  schools,  —  technically  called 


REPORT   FOR    1843.  393 

Grammar  Schools,  because  they  were  established  to  give  in- 
struction in  the  Greek  and  Latin  languages,  whose  annual 
income  amounts  to  about  £100,000  (nearly  8500,000),  —  which, 
by  construction  of  law,  are  held  to  be  so  far  under  the  juris- 
diction of  the  Church,  that  the  masters  must  be  licensed  by  an 
archbishop  or  bishop,  and  must  take  the  oath  and  make  the 
subscriptions  and  declarations  which  are  recited  in  the  license. 

The  form  of  the  ordinary's  license  is  as  follows  :  "  We  give 
and  grant  to  you,  A.  B.,  in  whose  fidelity,  learning,  good  con- 
science, moral  probity,  sincerity,  and  diligence  in  religion,  we 
do  fully  confide,  our  license  or  faculty  to  perform  the  office  of 

master  of  the  Grammar  School  at ,  in  the  county,  &c.,  to 

which  you  have  been  duly  elected,  to  instruct,  teach,  and  in- 
form boys  in  grammar  and  other  useful  and  honest  learning 
and  knowledge  in  the  said  school,  allowed  of  and  established 
by  the  laws  and  statutes  of  this  realm  ;  you  having  first  sworn 
in  our  presence,  on  the  Holy  Evangelists,  to  renounce,  oppose, 
and  reject  all  and  all  manner  of  foreign  jurisdiction,  power,  au- 
thority, and  superiority,  and  to  bear  faith  and  true  allegiance 
to  her  Majesty  Queen  Victoria,  &c.  ;  and  subscribed  to  the  thir- 
ty-nine articles  of  religion  of  the  United  Church  of  England 
and  Ireland,  and  to  the  three  articles  of  the  thirty-sixth  canon 
of  1603,  and  to  all  things  contained  in  them  ;  and  having  also, 
before  us,  subscribed  a  declaration  of  your  conformity  to  the 
Liturgy  of  the  United  Church  of  England  and  Ireland  as  is 
now  by  law  established.  In  testimony,"  &c. 

In  Scotland,  although  there  is  no  law  prescribing  the  quality 
of  religious  instruction  to  be  given,  yet  there  is  a  public  opin- 
ion not  less  authoritative  than  law,  —  a  public  opinion,  indeed, 
whose  peremptory  demands  are  more  sure  to  be  obeyed  without 
the  sanctions  of  law  than  a  law  would  be  without  the  exactions 
of  this  public  opinion. 

After  the  particular  attention  which  I  gave  to  this  subject, 
both  in  England  and  Scotland,  I  can  say,  without  any  excep- 
tion, that  in  those  schools  where  religious  creeds,  and  forms  of 
faith,  and  modes  of  worship,  were  directly  taught,  I  found  the 


394  ANNUAL   REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

common  doctrines  and  injunctions  of  morality,  and  the  mean- 
ing of  the  preceptive  parts  of  the  gospel,  to  be  much  less 
taught,  and  much  less  understood  by  the  pupils,  than  in  the 
same  grade  of  schools,  and  by  the  same  classes  of  pupils, 
with  us. 

Probably,  however,  I  can  give  a  better  notion  of  this  subject 
by  relating  a  few  instances  from  my  own  observation,  just  as 
they  occurred.  But,  for  this  purpose,  I  shall  quote  only  from 
schools  of  a  high,  or,  at  least,  of  a  very  respectable  character ; 
as  it  would  be  uninstructive  on  such  a  subject  to  take  specimens 
from  those  of  a  low  grade. 

In  a  school  of  high  standing,  a  few  miles  from  London,  after 
the  teacher  had  gone  through  with  his  exercises  in  the  common 
branches,  I  requested  him  to  give  me  a  specimen  of  his  manner 
of  teaching  the  social  virtues,  such  as  regard  to  truth,  an  ob- 
servance of  the  rights  cf  property,  &c.  Upon  this,  he  turned 
to  the  older  class  of  scholars,  and  said,  "  What  instances  of 
lying  are  given  in  the  Bible  ?  " 

A.  The  case  of  Ananias  and  Sapphira. 

Q.  Against  whom  was  that  crime  committed? 

A.  Against  the  Holy  Ghost. 

Q.  What  doctrine  of  the  Bible  does  this  prove? 

A.  The  doctrine  of  the  Trinity. 

Here  he  stopped,  as  though  the  subject  of  lying  were  ex- 
hausted. He  then  took  up  another  subject,  and  proceeded  as 
follows :  — 

Q.  Do  you  recollect  any  case  in  the  Scriptures  in  which 
stealing  is  condemned? 

A.  The  case  of  Achan. 

Q.  Any  case  of  Sabbath-breaking? 

A.  The  man  who  gathered  sticks  on  the  Sabbath,  and  was 
stoned  to  death. 

Here  again  he  stopped.  "  But."  said  I,  "  how  do  you  inculcate 
an  observance  of  the  Sabbath  at  the  present  day?  Your  boys 
know  very  well  that  Sabbath-breakers  are  not  stoned  to  death, 
in  our  time,  anywhere  ;  and,  if  the  observance  of  that  day  is  to 


REPORT   FOR    1843.  395 

rest  upon  the  fear  of  being  stoned  to  death,  it  will  not  be  ob- 
served." He  replied,  that  he  taught  from  such  examples  as  were 
to  be  found  in  the  Bible,  and  knew  no  other  way.  He  said  the 
same  about  the  vice  of  lying.  In  this  school,  I  heard  a  lesson 
of  an  hour's  length,  in  which  the  teacher  read  passage  after 
passage  from  the  liturgy,  called  upon  the  pupils  to  give  an  expo- 
sition of  the  meaning  of  each,  and  to  quote  those  texts  of  Scrip- 
ture which  were  supposed  to  prove  it.  The  answers  were  given 
with  great  promptness,  and  showed  a  familiar  acquaintance 
with  the  language  of  the  Bible. 

In  a  school  in  Edinburgh,  in  which  the  intellectual  exercises 
were  conducted  in  a  most  efficient  manner,  the  teacher  put  the 
New  Testament  into  my  hands,  and  requested  me  to  select  any 
passage  I  might  choose,  from  either  of  the  four  Gospels,  or 
from  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  and  then  to  read  the  passage 
selected  to  a  class  of  about  eighty  boys  and  girls,  who  were,  as 
I  should  judge,  from  eleven  to  thirteen  years  of  age.  At  the 
same  time,  a  Testament  was  given  to  each  of  the  class. 
Accordingly,  I  opened  the  book  at  random,  and  read  the  first 
verse  upon  which  my  eye  fell.  Before  I  had  finished  the  verse, 
a  large  number  of  the  class  had  turned  to  it  in  their  own  Testa- 
ments, and  announced  the  book,  the  chapter,  and  the  number  of 
the  verse,  which  I  was  reading.  Astonished  at  this,  I  repeated 
the  experiment,  turned  backwards  and  forwai'ds  promiscuously, 
again  and  again  ;  but  in  no  case  were  they  at  fault.  In  every 
instance,  before,  or  at  least  as  soon  as,  I  had  finished  the  read- 
ing of  a  verse,  a  considerable  number  of  the  class,  often  a 
majority  of  them,  held  up  their  Testaments,  and  showed  or 
mentioned  book,  chapter,  and  verse.  It  took  them  no  longer 
to  find  the  verse  than  it  did  me  to  read  it.  I  then  tried  them  by 
beginning  in  the  middle  of  a  verse,  selecting  verses  whose 
division  was  such  that  each  clause  presented  a  substantive  idea. 
This  made  no  difference,  —  so  completely  had  they  committed 
to  memory  not  only  every  verse,  but  the  order  of  all,  and  the 
place  where  each  one  was  to  be  found. 

Amazed  at  this  command  of  the  Bible  by  children  so  young, 


396         ANNUAL  REPORTS  ON  EDUCATION. 

I  said  to  myself,  "  How  happy  if  their  ideas  and  sentiments  of 
duty  correspond  with  their  verbal  knowledge  of  the  great  source 
whence  they  derive  its  maxims  !  "  Accordingly,  I  requested  the 
teacher  to  examine  them  on  points  of  common  morals,  or  social, 
every-day  duties  and  obligations.  He  did  not  seem  fully  to 
comprehend  my  meaning,  and  therefore  requested  me  to  explaiu 
what  I  meant  by  a  practical  example.  I  then  asked  the  class 
what  they  understood  by  the  word  u  honesty,"  or  "  what  it  is 
to  be  honest."  After  a  little  delay,  one  of  the  class  replied, 
"  To  give  money  to  the  poor ;  "  and  to  this  definition  all  as- 
sented. I  then  inquired  what  they  understood  by  the  word 
"  conscience."  Several  replied,  "  It  is  the  thinking  principle." 
I  asked  if  all  agreed  to  that,  and  all  but  one  gave  token  of  as- 
sent. This  one,  —  a  remarkably  intelligent-looking  boy,  —  ob- 
serving that  I  was  not  satisfied  with  the  reply,  said,  "Conscience 
tells  us  what  to  do  ;  "  and,  when  I  rejoined,  "  Does  it  not  tell 
us  also  what  not  to  do  ?  "  he  assented.  I  requested  the  class  to 
give  me  an  instance  of  what  was  meant  by  "  lying."  All 
exclaimed,  as  with  one  voice,  "  Ananias  and  Sapphira ;  "  but 
beyond  this,  though  I  pressed  them  for  some  time,  they  could 
present  ne  combination  of  circumstances  which  would  answer 
the  description  of  lying. 

When,  however,  I  stated  cases  circumstantially,  as  whether, 
if  a  traveller  were  to  call  to  me  in  a  noisy  street,  or  when  I 
was  in  a  field,  at  some  distance  from  the  way-side,  to  ask  me 
the  direction  to  a  place,  and,  without  speaking,  I  should  point 
in  a  direction  opposite  to  the  true  one  ;  whether,  if  I  were 
standing  by,  heard  such  a  question  put,  and  saw  such  a  sign 
made,  without  interfering  ;  whether,  if  I  were  a  witness  in  a 
court  of  law,  and  should  tell  the  truth  literally  and  exactly, 
without  any  equivocation  or  reservation,  and  should  subse- 
quently perceive,  by  what  the  advocate  or  judge  might  say, 
that  I  had  been  misunderstood,  but  should  not  correct  the  mis- 
take because  it  was  in  favor  of  the  party  whom  I  wished  to 
prevail  in  the  cause,  —  when  I  asked  them  whether  these  would 
not  be  cases  of  lying,  they  appeared  perfectly  able  to  compre- 


REPORT   FOR    1843.  397 

bend  the  point  on  which  the  falsity  would  turn.  So  in  the 
case  of  Judas  kissing  Jesus,  they  understood  that  this  act  was 
a  lie,  but  did  not  know  that  it  was  perfidy  also,  nor  understand 
the  injury  which  such  an  act  must  inflict  upon  the  cause  of 
truth  generally,  by  casting  suspicion  upon  one  of  its  liveliest 
tokens.  The  children  had  been  admirably  trained  in  most 
respects  ;  but  their  minds  seemed  not  to  have  been  turned  in 
this  direction. 

In  another  school  where  the  same  general  conversation  was 
held,  and  where  the  case  of  Ananias  and  Sapphira  seemed  to 
exhaust  the  pupils'  knowledge  respecting  falsehood,  I  said  to 
the  teacher,  "But  your  children  know  that  liars,  nowadays, 
arc  not  struck  down  dead  as  a  punishment  for  lying.  What 
further  explanations  do  you  give  to  show  them  the  deformity 
and  mischievousness  of  lying,  and  the  beauty  and  utility  of 
truth  ?  "  —  "  You  remind  me,"  said  he,  "  of  a  case  that  actually 
occurred  in  my  school  a  few  days  ago.  I  detected  a  boy  in  a 
falsehood,  and  publicly  punished  him  for  it.  The  next  morning, 
a  schoolmate  of  his,  who  had  known  the  whole  transaction  and 
its  results,  came  to  me  and  said,  '  I  have  been  thinking.'  I 
asked  what  he  had  been  thinking.  He  said,  '  You  once 
told  us  that  God  was  the  same,  yesterday,  to-day,  and  forever. 
Now,  if  this  is  true,  why  did  not  God  kill  this  boy  for  lying, 
as  well  as  Ananias  and  Sapphira?'  I  was  not  able,"  said  the 
teacher,  "  to  answer  him." 

In  the  Prussian  (Christian)  schools,  only  two  systems  of  reli- 
gion prevail. — the  Protestant-Evangelical  and  the  Catholic.  The 
parents  have  an  option  between  these  ;  but  one  or  the  other  must 
be  taught  to  their  children.  If  the  parents  are  all  of  one  religious 
denomination,  the  teacher  generally  gives  the  religious  instruc- 
tion. Where  a  diversity  of  creeds  exists,  and  the  teacher  is 
Protestant,  he  usually  gives  religious  instruction  to  the  Protes- 
tant part  of  the  children  ;  and  a  Catholic  priest  attends  at  cer- 
tain hours,  to  give  insti-uction,  in  a  separate  apartment,  to  the 
Catholic  children.  A  similar  arrangement  prevails  in  regard  to 
the  Protestant  children,  where  the  teacher  of  a  mixed  school 


398  ANNUAL   REPORTS    ON    EDUCATION. 

is  Catholic.  At  fourteen,  —  the  common  termination  of  the 
school-going  age,  —  the  Protestant  children  usually  have  suffi- 
cient knowledge  of  the  Bible  to  be  confirmed,  —  that  is,  to 
become  members  of  the  church,  and,  of  course,  communicants 
at  the  Eucharist.  This  confirmation  and  membership  of  the 
church  depend  on  the  amount  of  their  Bible  knowledge,  not  on 
the  state  of  their  religious  affections.  The  priest  examines 
and  approves  ;  or,  if  he  finds  the  pupils  deficient  in  Bible  knowl- 
edge, they  are  remanded  to  their  former  school,  or  sent  to  a 
Bible  school.  In  a  Prussian  city,  I  was  taken  to  a  school  of 
about  twenty  boys  and  girls,  from  fourteen  to  sixteen  or  seven- 
teen years  of  age,  who  were  doing  nothing  but  reading  the 
Bible.  They  were  vagrants  from  other  places,  and  were  as 
vicious  and  perverse  a  looking  company  of  children  as  I  ever 
saw.  All  over  their  countenances,  in  characters  too  legible  to 
be  mistaken,  were  inscribed  the  records  of  malignity  and  evil 
passions.  They  had  not  obtained  the  amount  of  Bible  knowl- 
edge requisite  for  confirmation,  and  admission  into  the  church, 
and  were  therefore  sent  here  to  acquire  it.  The  day  for  a  new 
examination  was  near  by,  at  which  time  the  greater  part  of 
them  would  probably  be  received  into  the  church.  Such  re- 
ception is  indispensable,  because,  without  a  certificate  of  confir- 
mation from  the  priest,  it  would  be  nearly  or  quite  impossible 
for  any  one  to  obtain  a  place  as  a  servant,  apprentice,  or  clerk, 
or  even  to  get  married. 

The  consequence  of  all  this  is,  that  the  whole  community  are 
members  of  the  church.  The  gamester,  in  a  country  where 
gaming  is  a  national  vice  ;  the  drunkard,  the  thief,  the  liber- 
tine, the  murderer ;  alike  the  malefactors  who  are  in  prison 
under  the  sentence  of  the  law,  and  the  crafty  and  powerful  who 
by  force  or  fraud  have  eluded  its  judgments,  —  all  are  members 
of  the  church  of  Christ !  —  such  ascendency  has  faith  over  prac- 
tice in  the  eye  of  the  law,  so  much  more  important  is  the 
legal  name  by  which  the  tree  is  called  than  the  fruits  which  it 
bears  ! 

No  inconsiderable  number  of  the  teachers  in  the  Prussian 


REPORT  FOR   1843.  399 

schools,  gymnasia,  and  universities,  are  inwardly  hostile  to  the 
doctrines  they  are  required  to  teach.  I  asked  one  of  these  how 
he  could  teach  what  he  disbelieved,  and  whether  it  did  not  in- 
volve the  essence  of  falsehood.  His  reply  was,  "  It  is  a  lie  of 
necessity.  The  government  compels  us  to  do  this,  or  it  takes 
away  our  bread."  While  human  nature  remains  as  it  is,  is  not 
such  the  natural  consequence  of  a  compulsory  religion  ?  Though 
every  one  must  condemn  as  flagrantly  wrong  what  is  here  done 
under  the  plea  of  necessity,  yet  is  it  not  clear  that  the  govern- 
ment which  creates  this  supposed  necessity  is  a  hundred  times 
more  guilty  than  the  victim  who  yields  to  the  temptation? 
When  the  mass  of  a  people  are  ignorant,  they  easily  become 
the  passive  subjects  and  recipients  of  a  compulsory  religion, 
however  false  ;  but,  when  the  people  become  enlightened,  their 
tendency  is  to  recoil  from  a  compulsory  religion,  even  though 
it  be  true. 

The  enforcement  of  a  speculative  faith,  or,  at  least,  of  an 
acknowledgment  of  one,  upon  minds  that  discard  it,  is  doubt- 
less one  of  the  principal  reasons  of  the  rapid  spread  of  infidelity 
in  that  country.  This  setting  a  snare  to  the  conscience  by 
tempting  any  man  to  practise  what  he  condemns,  or  to  affirm 
what  he  disbelieves,  is  also  one  of  the  greatest  corrupters  of 
public  morals  ;  and  by  allowing  and  enforcing  two  different 
religious,  the  government  proclaims  its  own  absurdity,  for  both 
cannot  be  right.  Two  opposites  may  both  be  wrong ;  but, 
while  truth  remains  one  and  the  same,  it  must  be  obvious  to 
the  simplest  understanding  that  both  cannot  be  right.  What 
faith  or  trust  can  children  put  in  what  is  taught  to  them 
as  positively  and  certainly  true,  when  they  know  that  views 
diametrically  opposite  are  taught  with  equal  positiveness  and 
dogmatism,  and  by  the  same  authority,  to  their  play-fellows  ; 
when  they  know,  that,  if  one  part  of  the  instruction  is  loyal  to 
the  majesty  of  truth,  the  other  is  treasonable  to  the  same  ma- 
jesty? Would  not  this  be  the  case  if  a  parent  were  to  teach 
one  faith  to  a  part  of  his  children,  and  an  opposite  faith  to  the 
rest?  and  must  not  the  same  consequences  follow  where  a  gov- 


400  ANNUAL    REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

crnment,  claiming  to  be  paternal,  does  the  same  thing?  In 
the  same  schoolhouse,  under  the  same  roof,  I  have  passed  from 
one  room  to  another,  separated  only  by  a  partition-wall,  where 
different  religious,  different  and  irreconcilable  ideas  of  God 
and  of  his  government  and  providence,  of  our  own  nature  and 
duties,  and  of  the  means  of  salvation,  were  taught  to  the 
children  by  authority  of  law ;  and  where  a  Avhole  system  of 
rites,  books,  teachers,  officers,  had  been  provided  by  the  gov- 
ernment, to  enforce  upon  the  children,  as  equally  worthy  of 
their  acceptance,  these  hostile  views.  Everlasting,  immutable 
truth  —  not  merely  the  image,  but  the  essence  of  God ;  not 
merely  unchanging,  but,  in  its  nature,  unchangeable  and  im- 
mortal —  was  made  to  be  one  thing  on  one  side  of  a  door,  and 
another  thing  on  the  other  side  ;  was  made,  after  crossing  a 
threshold,  to  affirm  what  it  had  denied,  and  to  deny  what  it  had 
affirmed.  The  first  practical  notion  which  any  child  can  ob- 
tain from  such  an  exhibition — and  the  brightest  minds  will 
obtain  it  earliest  —  is  of  the  falsity  of  truth  itself,  or  that  there 
is  no  such  thing  as  truth  ;  and  that  morals  and  religion  are  only 
convenient  instruments,  in  the  hands  of  rulers,  for  controlling 
the  populace.  Such  a  conclusion  must  be  an  extinction  of  the 
central  idea  of  all  moral  and  religious  obligation. 

I  shall  never  forget  the  impression  made  upon  my  mind  by 
a  conversation  with  a  school-officer  of  great  intelligence  and 
high  authority,  — •  the  inspector  of  the  schools  of  a  large  circle 
of  territory,  —  to  whom  I  explained  the  neutrality  of  our  school- 
system  as  between  different  religious  sects.  He  expressed  the 
greatest  astonishment  at  the  fact,  and  thought  it  to  be  impossi- 
ble that  any  government  could  stand  which  did  not  select  some 
form  of  religion,  and  enforce  its  adoption,  through  the  schools 
and  the  pulpit,  upon  the  whole  community.  On  further  con- 
versation, I  found  him  to  be  a  thorough  Pantheist,  and  a  dis- 
believer in  the  divine  authority  of  the  book,  whose  use,  and 
the  inculcation  of  whose  doctrines  as  held  by  the  State,  he  was 
enjoining  upon  all  the  schools  under  his  charge. 

Wherein  does  the  teaching  of  two  hostile  religions,  by  au- 


REPORT   FOR    1843.  401 

thority  of  law,  differ  from  teaching  contradictory  theories  in 
science,  only  as  the  former  subject  should  be  approached  with 
more  caution  and  reverence  than  the  latter?  Suppose  some 
weak  but  proud  mortal,  having,  by  means  of  birth  or  any  other 
accident,  obtained  a  control  over  the  destinies  of  men,  should 
decree  that  half  the  children  in  his  kingdom  should  be  taught 
the  Ptolemaic  system  of  astronomy,  according  to  which  the 
sun  revolves  round  the  earth,  and  the  other  half,  the  Coperui- 
caii  system,  according  to  which  the  earth  revolves  round  the 
sun,  —  could  he  retain  the  respect  of  any  intelligent  subject, 
either  for  his  systems  or  for  himself?  Upon  portions  of  the 
vegetable  kingdom,  the  Creator  has  inscribed  certain  visible 
marks  or  tokens,  by  means  of  which  the  plants  that  bear  them 
may  at  once  be  recognized  as  belonging  to  a  poisonous  family. 
To  the  scientific  eye,  these  marks  are  equivalent  to  the  words, 
"  Beware  of  poison,"  written  on  the  plant  itself.  Suppose  a 
law  were  promulgated,  that  half  the  children  of  a  realm  should 
be  taught  that  all  plants  having  five  stamens  and  one  petal, 
and  whose  leaves  are  rough  in  texture,  and  of  a  livid  green  in 
color,  should  be  accounted  sanative,  and  be  adopted  into  the 
pharmacopoeia  of  the  physician  ;  and,  in  certain  prescribed  cases, 
should  be  administered  to  all  patients  by  their  medical  advis- 
ers. Aside  from  the  actual  and  immediate  havoc  of  health  and 
life  which  would  be  caused  by  a  public  teaching  and  common 
practice  founded  upon  such  laws,  would  not  the  clearest,  most 
powerful,  and  most  independent  minds  in  the  community  be 
tempted  to  treat  the  whole  subject  with  contempt  and  derision? 
Are  not  the  laws  of  the  Creator  as  certain,  as  infallible,  in  one 
of  his  kingdoms  as  in  another?  The  only  difference  is,  we 
know  the  laws  of  one  kingdom  better  than  we  do  those  of  an- 
other. It  is  a  difference,  not  in  the  certainty  of  the  Creator's 
laws,  but  in  the  amount  of  the  creature's  knowledge.  Where 
these  laws  are  already  known,  no  humau  authority,  no  sanction 
of  pains  and  penalties,  can  uphold  or  commend  them  like  their 
own  inherent  and  indestructible  truth.  Where  they  are  not 
yet  known,  especially  when  great  and  good  men  still  entertain 

26 


402  ANNUAL    REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

conflicting  views  respecting  them,  is  it  not  the  wisest  part 
of  wisdom  to  concentrate  whatever  of  talent,  of  virtue,  of  re- 
ligious motive,  there  may  be  in  the  community,  to  ascertain 
with  more  certainty  what  they  really  are  ?  And  is  not  a  higher 
education  of  the  intellect  and  conscience  of  the  rising  genera- 
tion one  of  the  most  promising  of  these  means? 

To  a  ,vast  extent,  abroad,  I  found  religion  to  be  used  for 
political  purposes,  —  not  to  enthrone  a  Deity  in  the  heavens, 
but  a  king  over  a  state,  —  not  to  secure  the  spontaneous  per- 
formance of  good  works  to  men,  but  the  blind  submission  of 
person  and  property  to  the  ruler.  It  will,  therefore,  be  readily 
understood,  that  I  have  returned  from  this  survey  of  foreign 
systems  with  a  more  exalted  appreciation  and  a  more  heart- 
felt attachment  for  our  own.  The  letter  and  spirit  of  our  law 
respect  the  right  of  conscience  in  each  individual.  Our  school- 
system  is  designed  to  promote  the  development  and  growth  of 
the  understanding,  to  cultivate  upright  and  exemplary  habits 
and  manners,  to  quicken  the  vision  of  conscience  in  its  dis- 
criminations between  right  and  wrong,  and  to  inculcate  the 
perfect  morality  of  the  gospel ;  while  it  reverently  forbears 
to  prescribe,  by  law,  the  belief  which  men  shall  profess  respect- 
ing their  Maker.  This  belief  it  Jeaves  to  the  right  of  private 
judgment,  and  the  sense  of  private  responsibility.  Least  of  all 
does  it  scandalize  truth  by  setting  up  diiferent  images  of  its 
one  and  indivisible  Being  and  Essence,  and  then  commanding 
either  old  or  young  to  bow  down  and  do  homage  to  its  discord- 
ant representations.  The  time  has  probably  gone  by,  in  all 
parts  of  Christendom,  when  the  dungeon,  the  rack,  and  the 
fagot  will  be  resorted  to  as  instruments  for  the  propagation 
of  supposed  truth,  or  the  suppression  of  supposed  heresy  ;  but, 
though  the  mode  may  be  different,  is  not  the  spirit  the  same, 
and  the  intrinsic  wrong  as  great,  when  any  one  man,  or  class 
of  men,  attempts  to  enforce  its  own  religious  views  upon  the 
children  of  another  man,  or  class  of  men,  by  penal  enactments, 
or  civil  disabilities,  or  social  privations  of  any  kind?  The 
form  of  the  oppression  may  be  changed,  in  accordance  with 


REPORT   FOR   1843.  403 

the  milder  spirit  of  the  age ;  but  the  innate  and  ineradicable 
injustice  remains  the  same. 

Whatever  may  be  the  especial  object  of  the  American  citizen 
iii  going  abroad,  still,  if  his  mind  is  imbued  with  the  true  spirit 
of  the  institutions  of  his  own  country,  he  cannot  fail,  in  travel- 
ling through  the  different  nations  of  Europe,  to  find  material 
for  the  most  profound  and  solemn  reflection.  There  is  no 
earthly  subject,  in  its  own  nature,  of  higher  intrinsic  dignity 
and  interest  than  a  contemplation  of  the  different  forms  into 
which  humanity  has  been  shaped  by  different  institutions. 
This  interest  deepens  when  we  compare  our  own  condition 
with  the  contemporaneous  condition  of  other  great  families  of 
mankind.  Tracing  back,  by  the  light  of  history  and  philosophy, 
these  respective  conditions  to  their  causes  in  some  period  of 
antiquity  more  or  less  remote,  we  behold  the  head-springs  of 
those  influences  which  have  given  such  diversity  to  the  char- 
acter and  fortunes  of  different  portions  of  the  race.  We  are 
enabled  not  only  to  see  the  grand  results  which  have  been 
wrought  out  by  certain  agencies,  acting  through  long  periods 
of  time,  but  we  are  brought  into  immediate  contact,  and  we 
commune,  as  it  were,  face  to  face,  with  those  great  principles 
which  bear  thje  future  destinies  of  mankind  in  their  bosom. 
Whatever  now  is,  whether  of  weal  or  of  woe,  is  the  effect  of 
causes  that  have  pre-existed  ;  in  like  manner,  what  is  to  be, 
whether  of  glory  or  of  debasement,  will  result  from  the  causes 
put  in  operation  by  ourselves  or  others.  The  past  is  a  unit, 
tixed,  irrevocable,  about  which  there  is  no  longer  either  option 
or  alternative  ;  but  the  future  presents  itself  to  us  as  an  infinite 
of  possibilities.  For  the  great  purposes  of  duty  and  happiness, 
to-morrow  is  in  the  control  of  the  weakest  of  men  ;  but  yester- 
day is  beyond  the  dominion  of  the  mightest  prince  or  potentate, 
—  it  is  no  longer  changeable  by  human  or  divine  power. 
The  future,  then,  is  our  field  of  action ;  the  past  is  only  valua- 
ble as  furnishing  lights  by  which  that  field  can  be  more  suc- 
cessfully entered  and  cultivated.  For  this  purpose,  we  study 


404  ANNUAL   REPORTS   ON  EDUCATION. 

the  history  of  particular  parts  of  the  globe,  of  particular  por- 
tions of  our  race,  —  of  Europe,  for  instance,  —  for  the  last  thou- 
sand or  two  thousand  years ;  we  learn  what  manner  of  men 
have  borne  sway ;  we  discern  the  motives  by  which  they  have 
been  actuated  ;  we  study  the  laws  they  have  made,  and  the  in- 
stitutions they  have  established,  for  shaping  and  moulding  their 
unformed  future.  We  go  to  Europe,  or,  by  other  means,  we 
examine  and  investigate  the  present  social,  intellectual,  and 
moral  condition  of  its  people  ;  and  here  we  have  the  product, 
the  grand  result,  of  men,  motives,  laws,  institutions,  all  gath- 
ered and  concentrated  into  one  point,  which  we  can  now  see, 
just  as  we  see  the  fabric  which  comes  from  a  piece  of  compli- 
cated machinery,  when  the  last  revolution  of  the  last  wheel 
rolls  it  into  our  hands  for  inspection. 

And  what  is  this  result  ?  In  a  world  which  God  has  created 
on  such  principles  of  wisdom  and  benevolence,  that  nothing 
is  wanting,  save  a  knowledge  of  his  commands  and  an  obe- 
dience to  them,  to  make  every  human  being  supremely  happy, 
what  amount  of  that  knowledge  is  possessed,  what  degree  of 
that  happiness  is  enjoyed?  It  is  no  adequate  representation 
of  the  fact,  to  say  that  not  any  thing  like  one-half  of  the  adult 
population  of  Europe  can  read  and  write  in  any  intelligible 
manner,  and  hence  are  shut  out  from  a  knowledge  of  all  his- 
tory, sacred  and  profane,  and  of  all  contemporary  events ; 
that  not  one-third  are  comfortably  housed  or  fed  or  clothed, 
according  to  the  very  lowest  standard  of  comfort  amongst  the 
laboring  classes  in  this  country ;  that  not  one  individual  in 
five  hundred  has  any  voice  in  the  enactment  of  the  laws  that 
bind  him,  or  in  the  choice  of  the  rulers  who  dispose  of  his 
property,  liberty,  and  life  ;  and  that,  excepting  in  a  few  narrow 
and  inconsiderable  spots,  the  inalienable  right  of  freedom  in 
religion,  and  liberty  to  worship  God  according  to  the  dictates 
of  conscience,  is  not  recognized  or  known ;  nay,  that  the 
claim  of  any  such  liberty  is  denounced  and  spurned  at,  and  its 
advocates  punished,  not  only  by  a  denial  of  the  right  itself,  but 
by  the  deprivation  of  all  human  rights  whatever :  all  these 


EEPORT   FOB    1343.  405 

facts,  deeply  as  they  affect  human  happiness,  greatly  as  they 
derogate  from  human  dignity,  present  no  living  picture  of 
Europe  as  it  now  exists.  AH  this  is  negation  only :  it  leaves 
wholly  untouched  the  side  of  positive,  boundless  suffering  and 
wrong.  In  the  Europe  of  the  nineteenth  century,  the  incom- 
putable wealth  that  flows  from  the  bounty  of  Heaven  during 
the  revolving  seasons  of  the  year,  and  is  elaborated  from  the 
earth  by  the  ceaseless  toil  of  millions  of  men  ;  that  wealth 
which  is  wrought  out  by  human  labor  and  ingenuity,  in  con- 
junction with  the  great  agencies  of  Nature,  —  fire,  Avater, 
wind,  and  steam,  —  and  whose  aggregates  are  amply  sufficient 
to  give  comfort  and  competence  to  every  human  being,  and  the 
joys  of  home  and  the  sacred  influences  of  the  domestic  circle 
to  every  family,  —  that  wealth,  by  force  of  unjust  laws  and 
institutions,  is  filched  from  the  producer,  and  gathered  into 
vast  masses,  to  give  power  and  luxury  and  aggrandizement 
to  a  few.  Of  production,  there  is  no  end;  of  distribution, 
there  is  no  beginning.  Nine  hundred  and  ninety-nine  children 
of  the  same  common  Father  suffer  from  destitution,  that  the 
thousandth  may  revel  in  superfluities.  A  thousand  cottages 
shrink  into  meanness  and  want  to  swell  the  dimensions  of  a 
single  palace.  The  tables  of  a  thousand  families  of  the  in- 
dustrious poor  waste  away  into  drought  and  barrenness,  that 
one  board  may  be  laden  with  surfeits.  As  yet,  the  great  truth 
has  scarcely  dawned  upon  the  mind  of  theorist  or  speculator, 
that  the  political  application  of  doing  as  we  would  be  done  by 
is  to  give  every  man  entire  equality  before  the  law,  and  then 
to  leave  his  fortunes  and  his  success  to  depend  upon  his  own 
exertions. 

That  there  must  be  governors,  or  rulers,  where  there  are 
communities  of  men,  is  so  self-evident  a  truth,  that  it  is  de- 
nied only  by  the  insane.  Yet,  under  this  pretext,  a  few  indi- 
viduals or  families  have  usurped  and  maintain  dominion  over 
almost  two  hundred  millions  of  men.  That  a  nation  must 
possess  the  means  of  defending  itself  against  aggressors,  or 
submit  to  be  vanquished,  despoiled,  and  enslaved,  has  been 


406  ANNUAL   REPORTS    ON   EDUCATION. 

equally  obvious.  Yet,  under  pretence  of  doing  this,  naval  and 
military  armaments  are  kept  up,  at  incalculable  expense  ;  and 
men  are  converted  into  the  soulless  machinery  of  war,  far 
more  to  uphold  thrones,  and  to  subjugate  all  independence  of 
thought  and  action  at  home,  than  to  repel  assaults  from  abroad. 
Religion  is  the  first  necessity  of  the  soul ;  but  because  every 
human  being,  though  he  were  heir  to  all  the  glories  and  pro- 
fusions of  the  universe,  must  still  be  a  wanderer  and  an  out- 
cast until  he  can  find  a  Supreme  Father  and  God  in  whom 
to  confide ;  because  of  this  instinctive  outreaching  of  the 
soul  towards  some  Almighty  Power,  —  crafty  and  cruel  men 
have  come  in,  and  have  set  up  idols  and  false  gods  for  its 
worship  ;  and  then,  claiming  to  be  the  favorites  and  ministers 
of  Omnipotence,  have  dispensed  the  awful  retributions  of 
eternity  against  all  questioners  of  their  authority,  and  bran- 
dished every  weapon  in  the  armory  of  Heaven,  not  merely  for 
the  slightest  offences  against  themselves,  but  for  the  noblest 
deeds  of  duty  towards  God,  and  of  benevolence  towards  men. 
Hence,  throughout  wide  regions  of  country,  man  is  no  longer 
man.  Formed  in  the  image  of  his  Maker,  the  last  vestiges  of 
that  image  are  nearly  obliterated.  He  no  longer  breathes  that 
breath  of  independent  and  conscious  life  that  first  animated  his 
frame  and  made  him  a  living  soul.  The  heavenly  spark  of 
intelligence  is  trodden  out  from  his  bosom.  In  some  countries 
which  I  have  visited,  there  are  whole  classes  of  men  and 
women  whose  organization  is  changing,  whose  whole  form, 
features,  countenance,  expression,  are  so  debased  and  bruti- 
fied  by  want  and  fear  and  ignorance  and  superstition,  that  the 
naturalist  would  almost  doubt  where,  among  living  races  of 
animals,  to  class  them.  Under  governments  where  supersti- 
tion and  ignorance  have  borne  most  sway,  the  altered  aspect 
of  humanity  is  assimilating  to  that  of  the  brute  ;  but,  where 
resistless  power  has  been  trampling  for  centuries  upon  a 
sterner  nature  and  a  stronger  will,  the  likeness  of  the  once 
human  face  is  approximating  to  that  of  a  fiend.  In  certain 
districts  of  large  cities,  —  those  of  London,  Manchester,  Glas- 


REPORT   FOR   1843.  407 

gow,  for  instance,  —  such  are  the  influences  that  surround  chil- 
dren from  the  day  they  are  brought  into  the  world,  and  such 
the  fatal  education  of  circumstances  and  example  to  which 
they  are  subjected,  that  we  may  say  they  are  born  in  order  to 
be  imprisoned,  transported,  or  hung,  with  as  exact  and  literal 
truth  as  we  can  say  that  corn  is  grown  to  be  eaten. 

Not  in  a  single  generation  could  either  the  cruelties  of  the 
oppressor,  or  the  sufferings  of  his  victim,  have  effected  these 
physical  and  mental  transformations.  It  has  taken  ages  and 
centuries  of  wrongs  to  bend  the  body  into  abjectness,  to  dwarf 
the  stature,  to  extinguish  the  light  of  the  eye,  and  to  incorpo- 
rate into  body  and  soul  the  air  and  movements  of  a  slave. 
And  the  weight  and  fulness  of  the  curse  is  this,  —  that  it  will 
require  other  ages  and  centuries  to  efface  these  brands  of  deg- 
radation, to  re-edify  the  frame,  to  rekindle  in  the  eye  the 
quenched  beam  of  intelligence,  to  restore  height  and  amplitude 
to  the  shrunken  brow,  and  to  reduce  the  overgrown  propensi- 
ties of  the  animal  nature  within  a  manageable  compass.  Not 
ouly  is  a  new  spirit  to  be  created,  but  a  new  physical  apparatus 
through  which  it  can  work.  This  is  the  worst,  —  the  scorpion 
sting  in  the  lash  of  despotism.  There  is  a  moral  and  a  physi- 
cal entailment  as  well  as  a  civil.  Posterity  is  cursed  in  the 
debasement  inflicted  upon  its  ancestors.  In  many  parts  of 
Europe,  the  laws  both  of  the  material  and  of  the  moral 
nature  have  been  so  long  outraged,  that  neither  the  third  nor 
the  fourth  generation  will  outlive  the  iniquities  done  to  their 
fathers. 

Again  :  the  population  of  a  country  may  be  so  divided  into 
the  extremes  of  high  and  low,  and  each  of  these  extremes  may 
have  diverged  so  widely  from  a  medium  or  standard  of  nature, 
that  there  are  none,  or  but  a  very  small  intermediate  body,  or 
middle  class  of  men,  left  in  the  nation.  The  high,  from  luxury 
and  its  enervations,  will  have  but  small  families,  and  will  be 
able  to  rear  but  few  of  the  children  that  are  born  to  them. 
The  intermediate  class,  whom  affluence  has  not  corrupted,  nor 
ignorance  blinded  to  the  perception  of  consequences,  will  be 


408  ANNUAL    REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

too  few  in  number,  and  too  cautious  about  contracting  those 
matrimonial  alliances  which  they  cannot  reputably  and  com- 
fortably sustain,  to  contribute  largely  to  the  continuation  of 
the  species.  But  the  low,  the  abandoned,  the  heedless,  those 
whom  no  foresight,  or  apprehension  of  consequences,  can  re- 
strain, —  these,  obedient  to  appetite  and  passion,  will  be  the 
fathers  and  the  mothers  of  the  next  generation.  And  no  truth 
can  be  more  certain  than  this :  that  after  the  poor,  the  igno- 
rant, the  vicious,  have  fallen  below  a  certain  point  of  degrada- 
tion, they  become  an  increasing  fund  of  pauperism  and  vice,  — 
a  pauper-engendering  hive,  a  vital,  self-enlarging,  reproductive 
mass  of  ignorance  and  crime.  And  thus,  from  parent  to  child, 
the  race  may  go  on  degenerating  iu  body  and  soul,  and  cast- 
ing off,  one  after  another,  the  lineaments  and  properties  of 
humanity,  until  the  human  fades  away,  and  is  lost  in  the  brutal 
or  demoniac  nature.  While  the  vicious  have  pecuniary  means, 
they  have  a  choice  of  vices  in  which  they  can  indulge  ;  but, 
though  stripped  of  means  to  the  last  farthing,  their  ability  to 
be  vicious,  and  all  the  fatal  consequences  to  society  of  that 
viciousness,  still  remain.  Nay,  it  is  then  that  their  vices  be- 
come most  virulent  and  fatal.  However  houseless  or  homeless, 
however  diseased  or  beggarly,  a  wretch  who  is  governed  only 
by  his  instincts  may  be,  marriage  is  still  open  to  him ;  or,  so 
far  as  the  condition  and  character  of  the  next  generation  are 
concerned,  the  same  consequences  may  happen  without  mar- 
riage. This,  also,  the  statesman  and  the  moralist  should  heed, 
that  however  adverse  to  the  welfare  of  human  society  may  be 
the  circumstances  under  which  a  fore-doomed  class  of  children 
are  born,  yet  the  doctrine  of  the  sanctity  of  human  life  pro- 
tects their  existence.  Public  hospitals,  private  charities,  step 
in  and  rescue  them  from  the  hand  of  death.  Hence  they 
swarm  into  life  by  myriads^  and  crowd  upwards  into  the  ranks 
of  society.  But  in  society  there  are  no  vacant  places  to  re- 
ceive them,  nor  unclaimed  bread  for  their  sustenance.  Though 
uninstructed  in  the  arts  of  industry,  though  wholly  untaught 
in  the  restraints  and  the  obligations  of  duty,  still  the  great  pri- 


REPORT   FOR   1843.  400 

mal  law  of  self-preservation  works  in  their  blood  as  vigorously 
as  in  the  blood  of  kings.  It  urges  them  on  to  procure  the 
means  of  gratification  ;  but,  having  no  resources  in  labor  or  in 
frugality,  they  betake  themselves  to  fraud,  violence,  incen- 
diarism, and  the  destruction  of  human  life,  as  naturally  as  an 
honest  man  engages  in  an  honest  employment.  Such,  literally, 
is  the  present  condition  of  large  portions  of  the  human  race  in 
some  countries  of  Europe.  In  wide,  rural  districts,  iu  moral 
jungles,  hidden  from  public  view  within  the  recesses  of  great 
cities,  those  who  are  next  to  be  born,  and  to  come  upon  the 
stage  of  action,  will  come,  fifty  to  one,  from  the  lowest  orders 
of  the  people,  —  lowest  in  intellect  and  morals,  and  in  the 
qualities  of  prudence,  foresight,  judgment,  temperance,  —  low- 
est in  health  and  vigor,  and  in  all  the  elements  of  a  good  men- 
tal and  physical  organization,  —  strong  only  in  the  fierce 
strength  of  the  animal  nature,  and  in  the  absence  of  all  rea- 
son and  conscience  to  restrain  its  ferocity.  Of  such  stock  and 
lineage  must  the  next  generation  be.  In  the  mean  time,  while 
these  calamities  are  developing  and  maturing,  a  few  individu- 
als —  some  of  whom  have  a  deep  stake  in  society,  others 
moved  by  nobler  considerations  of  benevolence  and  religion  — 
are  striving  to  discover  or  devise  the  means  for  warding  off 
these  impending  dangers.  Some  look  for  relief  in  a  change 
of  administration,  and  in  the  change  of  policy  it  will  insure. 
With  others,  compulsory  emigration  is  a  remedy,  —  a  remedy 
by  which  a  portion  of  the  household  is  to  be  expelled  from  the 
paternal  mansion  by  the  terrors  of  starvation.  There  are 
still  others  who  think  that  the  redundant  population  should  be 
reduced  to  the  existing  means  of  subsistence  ;  and  they  hint 
darkly  at  pestilence  and  famine  as  agents  for  sweeping  awa}- 
the  surplus  poor,  as  famishing  sailors  upon  a  wreck  hint 
darkly  at  the  casting  of  lots.  Smaller  in  numbers  than  any 
of  the  preceding  is  that  class  who  see  and  know,  that,  while 
the  prolific  causes  of  these  evils  are  suffered  to  exist,  all  the 
above  schemes,  though  executed  to  their  fullest  extent,  can 
only  be  palliatives  of  the  pain,  and  not  remedies  for  the 


410  AXNTJAL    REPORTS    ON   EDUCATION. 

disease ;  who  see  and  know  how  fallacious  and  nugatory  all 
such  measures  must  be  towards  the  re-creation  of  national 
character,  towards  the  laying  anew  of  the  social  foundations 
of  strength  and  purity.  They  see  and  know  that  no  external 
appliances  can  restore  soundness  to  a  fabric  where  the  dry- 
rot  of  corruption  has  penetrated  to  the  innermost  fibres  of 
its  structure.  The  only  remedy,  this  side  of  miracles, 
which  presents  itself  to  the  clear  vision  of  this  class,  is  in  a 
laborious  process  of  renovation,  in  a  thorough  physical,  men- 
tal, spiritual  culture  of  the  rising  generation,  reaching  to  its 
depths,  extending  to  its  circumference,  sustained  by  the  power 
and  resources  of  the  government,  and  carried  forward  irrespec- 
tive of  party  and  of  denomination.  But  a  combination  of 
vested  interests  has  hitherto  cut  off  this  resource,  and  hence 
they  stand,  appalled  and  aghast,  like  one  who  finds  too  late 
that  he  is  in  the  path  of  the  descending  avalanche.  Under 
circumstances  so  adverse  to  the  well-being  of  large  portions 
of  the  race,  the  best  that  eveu  hope  dares  to  whisper  is,  that, 
in  the  course  of  long  periods  yet  to  come,  the  degraded  pro- 
geny of  a  degraded  parentage  may  at  length  be  reclaimed, 
may  be  uplifted  to  the  level  whence  their  fearful  descent  be- 
gan. But,  if  this  restoration  is  ever  effected,  it  can  only  be  by 
such  almost  superhuman  exertions  as  will  overcome  the  mo- 
mentum they  have  acquired  in  the  fall,  and  by  vast  expendi- 
tures and  sacrifices  corresponding  to  the  derelictions  of  former 
times. 

It  was  from  a  condition  of  society  like  this,  or  from  one 
where  principles  and  agencies  were  at  work  tending  to  produce 
a  condition  of  society  like  this,  that  our  ancestors  fled.  They 
came  here  as  to  a  newly-formed  world.  In  many  respects,  the 
colonization  of  New  England  was  like  a  new  creation  of  the 
race.  History  cannot  deny  that  the  founders  of  that  colony 
had  faults.  Indeed,  the  almost  incredible  fact,  that,  as  soon  as 
they  escaped  from  persecution,  they  became  persecutors  them- 
selves ;  that,  while  the  wounds  were  still  unhealed  which  the 
irop  fetters  of  oppression  had  made  in  their  souls,  they  began 


REPOET   FOR    1843.  411 

to  forge  fetters  for  the  souls  of  others,  —  this  fact  would  seem 
mysterious  and  inexplicable,  did  we  not  see  in  it  so  vivid  an 
illustration  of  the  established  order  of  Nature  and  Providence, 
signalizing  to  the  world  the  power  of  a  vicious  education  over 
virtuous  men  ;  exemplifying  the  effect  of  tyrannical  institutions 
upon  human  character,  by  an  instance  so  conspicuous  and 
flagrant  that  it  should  be  remembered  to  the  end  of  time,  and 
should  forever  supersede  the  necessity  of  another  warning. 
But,  on  the  other  hand,  history  must  concede  to  the  founders 
of  this  colony  the  possession  of  exalted,  far-shining,  immortal 
virtues.  Not  the  least  among  the  blessings  which  they  brought 
were  health  and  a  robustness  of  constitution  that  no  luxury 
had  ever  enervated,  or  vicious  indulgences  ever  corrupted.  In 
all  that  company,  there  was  not  a  drop  of  blood  which  had 
been  tainted  by  vice,  nor  an  act  of  life  that  had  been  stained 
by  crime.  Arriving  here  at  a  period  when  winter  had  con- 
verted the  land  into  one  broad  desert,  the  inclemency  of  the 
season  and  the  extremity  of  their  toils  swept  away  all  the  less 
healthful  and  vigorous,  and  left  not  man  or  woman,  save  those 
whose  hardy  and  powerful  frames  the  perils  of  the  ocean,  and 
the  wintry  rigors  of  the  clime,  and  the  privations  of  a  house- 
less and  provisionless  coast,  had  assailed  in  vain.  In  physical 
energy  and  hardihood,  such  were  the  progenitors  of  New  Eng- 
land. It  was  said  above,  that  this  settlement  of  our  country 
resembled,  in  some  respects,  the  creation  anew  of  the  race  ; 
but,  had  Adam  and  Eve  been  created  under  circumstances  so 
adverse  to  life,  we  cannot  suppose  they  would  have  survived 
the  day  on  which  they  were  animated.  Yet  these  men  and 
women  were  the  first  parents,  the  Adam  and  Eve,  of  our 
republic.  Mighty  as  were  their  bodies,  their  spirits  were 
mightier  still.  Some  of  the  former  did  yield  to  privation  and 
peril  and  disease  ;  but,  in  that  whole  company,  not  a  heart  ever 
relented.  Stanch,  undaunted,  invincible,  they  held  fast  to 
what  they  believed  to  be  the  dictates  of  conscience  and  the 
oracles  of  God  ;  and,  in  the  great  moral  epic  which  celebrates 
the  story  of  their  trials  and  their  triumphs,  the  word  "  apos- 
tate "  is  nowhere  written. 


412  ANNUAL    REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

This  transferreuce  of  the  fortunes  of  our  race  from  the  Old  to 
the  New  World  was  a  gain  to  humanity  of  at  least  a  thousand 
years.  I  mean,  if  all  the  great  and  good  men  of  Europe,  from 
the  22d  of  December,  1620,  had  united  their  energies  to 
ameliorate  the  condition  of  the  human  family,  and  had  encoun- 
tered no  hostility,  either  from  civil  or  religious  despotism,  it 
would  have  taken  ten  centuries  to  bring  the  institutions  and 
the  population  of  Europe  to  a  point  where  the  great  experiment 
of  improving  the  condition  of  the  race  by  means  of  intellectual, 
moral,  and  religious  culture,  could  be  as  favorably  commenced 
as  it  was  commenced  on  the  day  when  the  Pilgrims  first  set 
foot  upon  the  Rock  of  Plymouth.  What  mighty  obstructions 
and  hinderances  to  human  progress  did  they  leave  behind  them  ! 
what  dynasties  of  powerful  men,  and  the  more  firmly-seated 
dynasties  of  false  opinions  !  But,  in  the  world  to  which  they 
came,  there  were  no  classes  upheld  by  law  in  feudal  privilege 
and  prerogative.  There  were  no  laws  of  hereditary  descent 
upholding  one  class  in  opulence  and  power,  irrespective  of 
merit  or  vigor,  and  degrading  other  classes  to  perpetual  indi- 
gence and  servility,  without  demerit  or  imbecility.  Here  was 
no  cramped  territory  whose  resources  were  insufficient  to  fur- 
nish a  healthful  competence  to  all ;  nor  any  crowded  popula- 
tion, struggling  so  earnestly  to  supply  their  cravings  for  daily 
necessities  that  all  the  nobler  wants  of  the  soul  were  silenced 
by  the  clamor  of  the  appetites.  No  predatory  barons  had  con- 
quered the  whole  land,  and  monopolized  it,  and,  by  a  course  of 
legislation  as  iniquitous  as  the  original  robbery  itself,  had  pre- 
destined its  descent  in  the  line  of  particular  families,  through 
all  coining  time,  so  that  not  one  in  hundreds  of  all  who  should 
be  born  into  the  State  could  own  a  rood  of  ground  which  he 
might  till  for  subsistence  while  living,  or  beneath  which  he 
could  have  a  right  of  burial  wheu  dead.* 

Our  Pilgrim  Fathers  also  possessed  intelligence,  —  not  merely 

*  The  population  of  England  is  16,000,000.  The  number  of  land-holders  in  fee 
is  estimated  by  the  Kadicals  at  30,000,  and  by  the  Tories  at  3(5,000.  A  mean  of 
33,000  would  give  one  land-owner  to  4S4  non-land-owners. 


REPORT   FOR    1843.  413 

common  learning  and  information  on  common  affairs,  but 
most  of  them  were  men  of  accomplished  education,  conversant 
with  the  world's  history,  profoundly  thoughtful,  and  as  well 
qualified  as  any  equally  numerous  community  that  had  ever 
existed  to  discuss  the  deepest  questions  of  State  or  Church,  of 
time  or  eternity.  Hence  we  are  not  the  descendants  of  an 
ignorant  horde,  or  pauper  colony,  driven  out  from  the  parent 
country  in  quest  of  food,  and  leaving  all  metropolitan  art,  intel- 
ligence, and  refinement  behind  them.  Besides,  almost  coeval 
witli  the  settlement  of  the  colony,  they  founded  a  college,  and 
established  common  schools.  In  the  first  clearings  of  the 
forest,  by  the  side  of  the  first  dwellings  which  they  erected  for 
a  shelter,  they  built  the  schoolhouse  ;  and  of  the  produce  of 
the  first  crops  planted  for  their  precarious  subsistence,  they 
apportioned  a  share  for  the  maintenance  of  teachers  and  pro- 
fessors. This  they  did,  that  the  altar-lights  of  knowledge  and 
piety  which  they  had  here  kindled  might  never  go  out.  This 
they  did,  hoping  that  each  generation  would  feed  the  flame  to 
illumine  the  path  of  its  successors,  —  a  flame  which  should  not 
be  suffered  to  expire,  but  should  shine  on  forever  to  enlighten 
and  gladden  every  soul  that  should  here  be  called  into  exist- 
ence. 

I  repeat  that  the  transference  of  the  fortunes  of  the  race  to 
the  New  World,  under  such  auspices,  was  a  gain  to  humanity 
of  at  least  a  thousand  years.  By  that  removal,  we  were  at 
once  placed  at  a  distance  of  three  thousand  miles  from  any  spot 
where  the  Inquisition  had  ever  tortured,  or  the  fagot  of  perse- 
cution had  ever  blazed.  By  that  removal,  the  chains  of  feu- 
dalism were  shaken  off.  The  false  principle  of  artificial  orders 
and  castes  in  society  was  annulled.  The  monopolies  of  char- 
tered companies  and  guilds  were  abolished.  Proscriptions  by 
men,  who  knew  but  one  thing,  of  all  knowledge  they  did  not 
themselves  possess,  no  longer  bound  the  free  soul  ia  its  quest 
of  truth.  Rapacious  hordes  of  vicious  and  impoverished  classes 
no  longer  prowled  through  society,  plundering  its  wealth  and 
jeoparding  the  life  of  its  members.  There  were  no  besotted 


414  ANNUAL    REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

races,  occupying  the  vanishing  point  of  humanity,  to  be  re- 
claimed. A  free,  unbounded  career  for  the  development  of  the 
faculties,  and  the  pursuit  of  knowledge  and  happiness,  was 
opened  for  all.  Ample  aud  open  as  was  the  territory  around 
them,  their  spiritual  domain  was  more  ample  and  open  still. 
On  the  earth,  there  was  no  arbitrary  power  to  forbid  the  estab- 
lishment of  righteous  and  humane  institutions  and  laws  ;  and, 
as  they  looked  upward,  the  air  was  not  filled  with  demon- 
shapes  of  superstition  and  fear,  interdicting  their  access  to 
heaven.  Opportunity  was  given  to  discard  whatever  old  errors 
should  remain,  aud  to  adopt  whatever  new  truths  either  the 
course  of  Nature  or  the  providence  of  God  might  reveal. 
Whatever  of  degeneracy  was  to  come  upon  themselves  or  upon 
their  descendants  in  later  times,  was  to  come,  not  from 
hereditary  transmission,  not  from  nature  or  necessity,  but 
from  the  culpable  dereliction  or  allowance  of  themselves  or 
their  posterity. 

Surely  never  were  the  circumstances  of  a  nation's  birth  so 
propitious  to  all  that  is  pure  in  motive,  and  great  in  achieve- 
ment, arid  redundant  in  the  means  of  universal  happiness. 
Never  before  was  a  land  so  consecrated  to  knowledge  aud  vir- 
tue. Never  were  children  and  children's  children  so  dedicated 
to  God  and  to  humanity  as  when  in  those  forest-solitudes  — 
that  temple  of  the  wide  earth  and  the  o'erarching  heavens,  girt 
round  with  the  terrors  of  ocean  and  wilderness,  afar  from  the 
pomp  of  cathedral  and  court,  in  the  presence  only  of  the  con- 
scious spirits  of  the  creatures  who  made,  and  of  the  Creator 
who  accepted  their  vows — we,  their  descendants,  were  devoted 
to  the  cause  of  human  freedom,  to  duty,  to  justice,  to  charity 
to  intelligence,  to  religion,  by  those  holy  men. 

It  is  in  no  boastful  or  vain-glorious  spirit  that  I  refer  to  this 
heroic  period  of  our  country's  history.  It  is  in  no  invidious 
mood  that  I  contrast  the  leading  features  of  our  civil  polity 
and  our  social  condition  with  those  of  the  transatlantic  nations 
of  Christendom.  Rather  must  I  confess  that  the  contemplation 
of  these  historic  events  brings  more  humiliation  than  pride. 


REPORT   FOR    1843.  415 

It  demands  of  us  whether  we  have  retained  our  vantage-ground 
of  a  thousand  years.  It  forces  upon  the  conscience  the  solemn 
question,  whether  we  have  been  faithful  to  duly.  Stewards  of 
a  more  precious  treasure  than  was  ever  before  committed  to 
mortal  hands,  are  AVC  prepared  to  exhibit  our  lives  and  our 
history  as  the  record  of  our  stewardship?  Ou  the  contrary,  do 
we  not  rather  cling  to  the  trust,  and  vaunt  the  confidence 
wherewith  we  have  been  honored,  without  inquiring  whether 
the  value  of  the  deposit  is  not  daily  diminishing  in  our  hands? 
Subtract  the  superiority  which,  under  our  more  propitious  cir- 
cumstances, we  ought  to  possess,  and  how  much  will  remain  as 
the  aliment  of  pride?  It  is  not  enough  for  us  to  say,  that  we 
are  exempt  from  the  wretchedness  of  the  masses,  and  from  the 
corruptions  of  the  courts,  of  other  lands.  With  our  institutions 
and  resources,  these  should  have  been  incommunicable  evils,  — 
evils  which  it  would  have  been  alike  unmeritorious  to  avoid 
and  unpardonable  to  permit.  It  is  no  justification  for  us  to 
adduce  the  vast,  the  unexampled  increase  of  our  population. 
The  question  is  not,  how  many  millions  we  have,  but  what  are 
their  character,  conduct,  and  attributes?  We  can  claim  neither 
reward  nor  approval  for  the  exuberance  of  our  natural  re- 
sources, or  the  magnificence  of  our  civil  power.  The  true 
inquiry  is,  in  what  manner  that  power  has  been  used :  how 
have  those  resources  been  expended?  They  were  convertible 
into  universal  elevation  and  happiness :  have  they  been  so 
converted  ?  Neither  a  righteous  posterity  nor  a  righteous 
Heaven  will  adjudicate  upon  our  innocence  or  guilt  on  the 
same  principles  or  according  to  the  same  standards  as  those  by 
which  other  nations  shall  be  judged.  A  necessity  for  defence 
convicts  us  of  delinquency ;  for  had  our  deeds  corresponded 
with  our  privileges,  had  duty  equalled  opportunity,  we  should 
have  stood  as  a  shining  mark  and  exemplar  before  the  world, 
visible  as  an  inscription  written  in  stars  upon  the  blue  arch 
of  the  firmament.  The  question  is  not,  whether  we  have  ruled 
others,  but  whether  we  have  ruled  ourselves.  The  accusations 
which  we  must  answer  before  the  impartial  tribunals  of  earth 
and  heaven  are  such  as  these :  Have  we,  by  self-denial,  by 


416  ANNUAL    REPORTS    ON   EDUCATION. 

abstinence  from  pernicious  luxuries,  by  beneficent  labor,  by 
obedience  to  the  physical  and  organic  laws  of  OUT  nature, 
retained  that  measure  of  health  and  longevity  to  which,  but  for 
our  o\vu  acts  of  disiaherisou,  we  had  been  rightful  heirs? 
Where  temptations  are  few,  vice  should  be  so  rare  as  to  become 
moustrous ;  where  Art  and  Nature  lavish  wealth,  a  pauper 
should  be  a  prodigy :  but  have  we  prevented  the  growth 
of  vice  and  pauperism  amongst  us,  by  seeking  out  every  aban- 
doned child  within  our  borders,  as  the  good  shepherd  seeks 
after  the  lambs  lost  from  his  flock,  and  by  training  all  to  habits 
of  industry,  frugality,  temperance,  and  an  exemplary  life? 
Have  we  remembered,  that,  if  every  citizen  has  a  right  to  vote 
when  he  becomes  a  man,  then  the  right  of  every  child  to  that 
degree  of  knowledge  which  shall  qualify  him  to  vote  is  a 
thousand  times  as  strong?  Have  the  more  fortunate  classes 
amongst  us,  —  the  men  of  greater  wealth,  of  superior  knowl- 
edge, of  more  commanding  influence,  —  have  they  periodically 
arrested  their  own  onward  march  of  improvement,  and  sounded 
the  trumpet,  and  sent  back  guides  and  succors  to  briny  up  the 
rear  of  society  f  Have  we  insulated  ourselves,  as  by  a  wall 
of  fire,  from  the  corruptions  and  follies  engendered  in  European 
courts,  and  practised  only  by  those  who  abhor  the  name  of 
republic?  Have  we  caused  the  light  of  our  institutions  so  to 
shine  before  the  world  that  the  advocates  of  liberty  in  all  parts 
of  the  earth  can  boldly  point  to  our  frame  of  government  as  the 
model  of  those  which  are  ydt  to  bless  mankind?  Can  we 
answer  these  questions  as  the  myriad  sufferers  under  oppres- 
sion in  other  lands  would  have  us  answer  them?  If  not,  then 
we  have  uot  done  to  others  as  we  would  that  others,  were  cir- 
cumstances reversed,  should  do  unto  us. 

In  the  mines  of  Siberia,  at  Olmutz,  at  Spielberg,  —  in  all  the 
dungeons  of  the  Old  World  where  the  strong  champions  of 
freedom  are  now  pining  in  captivity  beneath  the  remorseless 
power  of  the  tyrant,  —  the  morning  sun  does  not  send  a  glim- 
mering ray  into  their  cells,  nor  does  night  draw  a  thicker  veil 
of  darkness  between  them  and  the  world,  but  the  lone  prisoner 
lifts  his  iron-laden  arms  to  heaven  in  prayer,  that  we,  the  de- 


REPORT   FOR    1843.  417 

positaries  of  freedom  and  of  human  hopes,  may  be  faithful  to 
our  sacred  trust ;  while,  on  the  other  hand,  the  pensioned  ad- 
vocates of  despotism  stand,  with  listening  ear,  to  catch  the  first 
sound  of  lawless  violence  that  is  wafted  from  our  shores,  to 
note  the  first  breach  of  faith  or  act  of  perfidy  amongst  us,  and 
to  convert  them  into  arguments  against  liberty  and  the  rights 
of  in  an.  There  is  not  a  shout  sent  up  by  an  insane  mob  ou 
this  side  of  the  Atlantic,  but  it  is  echoed  by  a  thousand  presses 
and  by  ten  thousand  tongues  along  every  mountain  and  valley 
on  the  other.  There  is  not  a  conflagration  kindled  here  by 
the  ruthless  hand  of  violence,  but  its  flame  glares  over  all 
Europe,  from  horizon  to  zenith.  On  each  occurrence  of  a  flagi- 
tious scene,  whether  it  be  an  act  of  turbulence  and  devastation 
or  a  deed  of  perfidy  or  breach  of  faith,  monarchs  point  them 
out  as  fruits  of  the  growth,  and  omens  of  the  fate,  of  repub- 
lics, and  claim  for  themselves  and  their  heirs  a  further  exten- 
sion of  the  lease  of  despotism. 

The  experience  of  the  ages  that  are  past,  the  hopes  of  the 
ages  that  are  yet  to  come,  unite  their  voices  in  an  appeal  to 
us :  they  implore  us  to  think  more  of  the  character  of  our 
people  than  of  its  numbers  ;  to  look  upon  our  vast  natural 
resources,  not  as  tempters  to  ostentation  and  pride,  but  as  means 
to  be  converted,  by  the  refining  alchemy  of  education,  into  men- 
tal and  spiritual  treasures  ;  they  supplicate  us  to  seek  for  what- 
ever complacency  or  self-satisfaction  we  are  disposed  to  indulge, 
not  in  the  extent  of  our  territory  or  in  the  products  of  our  soil, 
but  in  the  expansion  and  perpetuation  of  the  means  of  human 
happiness ;  they  beseech  us  to  exchange  the  luxuries  of  sense 
for  the  joys  of  charity,  and  thus  give  to  the  world  the  example 
of  a  nation  whose  wisdom  increases  with  its  prosperity,  and 
whose  virtues  are  equal  to  its  power.  For  these  ends,  they 
enjoin  upon  us  a  more  earnest,  a  more  universal,  a  more  reli- 
gious devotion  of  our  exertions  and  resources  to  the  culture  of 
the  youthful  mind  and  heart  of  the  nation.  Their  gathered 
voices  assert  the  eternal  truth,  that,  Ix  A  REPUBLIC,  IGNORANCE 
is  A  CRIME  ;  AND  THAT  PRIVATE  IMMORALITY  is  NOT  LESS  AN 

27 


418  ANNUAL   REPOETS    ON   EDUCATION. 

OPPROBRIUM   TO    THE    STATE    THAN  IT    IS   GUILT   IN  THE  PERPE- 
TRATOR. 

In  conclusion,  the  Board  will  allow  me  to  express  my  grati- 
tude for  the  opportunity  they  have  afforded  me  of  investigating 
that  class  of  institutions  in  other  countries  to  whose  prosperity 
in  our  own  I  feel  so  deep  an  attachment.  I  need  not  ask  a 
body  of  gentlemen  from  whom  I  have  uniformly  experienced 
such  candor  and  kindness,  to  distinguish,  in  this  report,  be- 
tween those  sentiments  and  views  which  I  have  advanced  as 
my  own,  and  those  of  other  persons,  which  I  have  recorded  as 
subjects  of  interesting  or  useful  information.  I  am  aware  that 
it  may  be  said,  that  six  months  are  too  short  a  period  to  author- 
ize any  one  to  visit  countries  so  numerous  and  so  remote,  and 
to  speak  of  institutions  so  difficult  to  be  understood  ;  but  to 
this  it  may  be  answered,  that  I  was  not  wholly  unprepared  for 
the  investigation  beforehand ;  and  that  the  time,  though  short 
at  best,  was  prolonged  by  diligence.  The  better  to  accomplish 
my  purpose,  many  of  the  great  thoroughfares,  and  most  of  the 
attractive  objects,  which  the  throng  of  travellers  in  pursuit  of 
mere  personal  gratification  commonly  selects,  were  left.  Al- 
ways heedful  of  my  mission,  I  kept  my  mind  in  perpetual  con- 
tact with  the  great  interests  of  mankind  ;  and  after  seeing 
those  institutions  in  other  countries  out  of  which  human  char- 
acter arises,  —  as  vegetation  rises  out  of  the  soil,  —  I  have 
come  back  to  my  native  State  more  ardently  attached  to  her 
institutions  than  ever  before,  and  animated  with  a  more  fer- 
vent, an  undying  desire  to  see  her  noble  capabilities  of  use- 
fulness and  of  happiness  developed  and  cultivated.  To  be  able 
to  return  to  my  post  of  labor  at  the  appointed  time,  I  have 
permitted  no  pain  or  peril  to  retard  my  progress  ;  and,  if  the 
observations  which  I  have  made  and  recorded  shall  produce 
those  impressions  of  obligation  to  our  country  and  our  kind 
upon  other  minds  which  they  have  made  upon  my  own,  the 
remembrance  alike  of  the  pain  and  the  peril  will  be  sweet. 


REPORT   FOR    1845. 


GENTLEMEN,  — 

....  THE  extraordinary  facts  exhibited  in  my  last  Report, 
respecting  the  manner  of  apportioning  school-money  among  the 
districts,  have  turned  public  attention  to  that  important  sub- 
ject.* Those  facts  have  already  induced  some  towns  to  make 
very  material  modifications  in  the  manner  of  distributing  their 
money ;  and  they  promise  to  do  the  same  thing  in  many  more. 
The  great  doctrine  which  it  is  desirable  to  maintain,  and  to 
carry  out,  in  reference  to  this  subject,  is,  equality  of  school-priv- 
ileges for  all  the  children  of  the  town,  whether  they  belong  to  a 
poor  district  or  a  rich  on,e,  a  small  district  or  a  large  one. 

A  general  interest  has  been  awakened  iu  some  towns  upon 
which  a  deep  sleep  had  fallen  before.  During  no  year,  since 
my  original  appointment,  have  my  advice  and  assistance  been 
so  frequently  requested  respecting  the  best  methods  of  arran- 
ging and  improving  our  school-system. 

Nor  is  the  movement  confined  to  our  own  Commonwealth. 
Several  States  in  the  south  and  west  seem  to  be  awaking  from 
their  lethargy,  and  inquiring  into  the  detail  of  means  necessary 
to  be  adopted  for  the  general  education  of  their  people.  Within 
the  space  of  a  single  month,  during  the  last  autumn,  I  received 
inquiries  from  a  dozen  distinguished  men,  belonging  to  a  single 
State,  respecting  the  organic  structure  of  our  system,  its  general 

*  The  details  of  this  unequal  distribution  have  not  been  republished,  as  they  are 
not  of  present  interest. 

419 


420  ANNUAL   REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

administration,  and  its  internal  arrangements  and  management. 
In  the  mean  time,  the  great  State  of  New  York,  by  means  of 
her  county  superintendents,  her  State  Normal  School,  and  oth- 
erwise, is  carrying  forward  the  work  of  popular  education 
more  rapidly  than  any  other  State  in  the  Union,  or  any  country 
in  the  woild.  Within  the  last  year,  the  State  of  Rhode  Island 
has  entirely  renovated  her  school-system.  Under  the  auspices 
of  that  distinguished  and  able  friend  of  common  schools, 
Henry  Barnard,  Esq.,  she  is  preparing  to  take  her  place  among 
the  foremost  of  the  States.  Within  the  last  few  weeks  also,  the 
State  of  Vermont  has  re-organized  her  school-system,  by  passing 
a  law  which  provides  for  the  appointment  of  town,  county,  and 
State  superintendents,  prescribing  the  course  of  duty  of  each 
class  of  officers  in  regard  to  the  examination  of  teachers,  the  visi- 
tation of  schools,  and  the  general  administration  of  the  system. 

These  indubitable  evidences  of  progress  are  not  only  a  re- 
ward for  past  exertions,  but  an  incentive  to  future  efforts.  But 
let  not  complacency  in  successes  already  obtained  tempt  to  the 
relaxation  of  a  single  fibre  in  our  endeavors  for  future  advance- 
ment. What  has  been  gained  must  be  converted  into  means 
for  further  acquisition.  The  faithful  steward,  being  intrusted 
with  five  talents,  therewith  gets  other  five  talents. 

Our  common  schools  are  a  system  of  unsurpassable  grandeur 
and  efficiency.  Their  influences  reach,  with  more  or  less  direct- 
ness and  intensity,  all  the  children  belonging  to  the  State,  — 
children  who  are  soon  to  be  the  State.  They  act  upon  these 
children  at  the  most  impressible  period  of  their  existence,  — 
imparting  qualities  of  mind  and  heart  which  will  be  magnified 
by  diffusion,  and  deepened  by  time,  until  they  will  be  evolved 
into  national  character,  —  into  weal  or  woe,  into  renown  or  ig- 
nominy, —  and,  at  last,  will  stamp  their  ineffaceable  seal  upon 
our  history.  The  natural  philosopher  looks  at  the  silky  envel- 
opment which  an  insect  has  woven  for  itself;  he  marks  its 
structure ;  he  recognizes  the  laws  of  life  which  arc  silently  at 
work  within  it ;  and  he  knows  that,  in  a  few  days  or  weeks, 
that  covering  will  burst,  and  from  it  will  be  evolved  a  thing 


REPORT   FOR    1845.  421 

of  beauty  and  vivacity,  lovely  in  the  eyes  of  all,  or  an  agent 
of  destruction,  fit  to  be  a  minister  in  executing  God's  vengeance 
against  an  offending  people.  With  a  profounder  insight  into 
the  laws  of  development  and  growth,  and  with  an  eye  that 
embraces  an  ampler  field  of  time  in  its  vision,  the  philosopher 
of  humanity  looks  at  the  institutions  which  are  moulding  the 
youthful  capacities  of  a  nation  ;  he  calculates  their  energy  and 
direction ;  and  he  is  then  able  to  foresee  and  to  foretell,  that,  if 
its  course  be  not  changed,  the  coming  generation  will  be  blessed 
with  the  rewards  of  parental  forecast,  or  afflicted  with  the  retri- 
butions of  parental  neglect.  Happy  are  they,  who,  knowing 
on  what  conditions  God  has  made  the  welfare  of  nations  to 
depend,  observe  and  perform  them  with  fidelity. 

Improvement  in  schoolhouse  architecture  —  including  in  the 
phrase  all  comfortable  and  ample  accommodations  for  the 
schools  —  is  only  an  improvement  in  the  perishing  body  iu 
which  they  dwell.  A  more  perfect  organization  of  the  schools 
themselves,  by  a  wisely-graduated  classification  of  schools  aud 
scholars,  and  by  the  assignment  of  such  territorial  limits  as  will 
best  combine  individual  convenience  with  associated  strength, 
is  only  an  endowment  of  that  perishing  body  with  a  superior 
mechanism  of  organs  and  limbs.  The  more  bounteous  pecu- 
niary liberality  with  which  our  schools,  from  year  to  year,  are 
maintained,  is  only  an  addition  to  the  nutriment  by  which  the 
same  body  is  fed,  giving  enlargement  and  energy  to  its  capa- 
bilities, whether  of  good  or  of  evil,  and  empowering  it  to  move 
onward  more  swiftly  in  its  course,  whether  that  course  is  lead- 
ing to  prosperity  or  to  ruin. 

The  great,  the  all-important,  the  only  important  question 
still  remains  :  By  what  spirit  are  our  schools  animated  ?  Do 
they  cultivate  the  higher  faculties  in  the  nature  of  childhood, — 
its  conscience,  its  benevolence,  a  reverence  for  whatever  is  true 
and  sacred?  or  are  they  only  developing,  upon  a  grander  scale, 
the  lower  instincts  aud  selfish  tendencies  of  the  race, — the 
desires  which  prompt  men  to  seek,  and  the  powers  which  enable 
them  to  secure,  sensual  ends,  —  wealth,  luxury,  preferment,  — 


422  ANNUAL    REPORTS    ON   EDUCATION. 

irrespective  of  the  well-being  of  others?  Knowing,  as  we  do, 
that  the  foundations  of  national  greatness  can  be  laid  only  in 
the  industry,  the  integrity,  and  the  spiritual  elevation  of  the 
people,  are  we  equally  sure  that  our  schools  are  forming  the 
character  of  the  rising  generation  upon  the  everlasting  princi- 
ples of  duty  and  humanity?  or.  on  the  other  hand,  are  they 
only  stimulating  the  powers  which  lead  to  a  base  pride  of  in- 
tellect, which  prompt  to  the  ostentation  instead  of  the  reality 
of  virtue,  and  which  give  augury  that  life  is  to  be  spent  only 
in  selfish  competitions  between  those  who  should  be  brethren? 
Above  all  others,  must  the  children  of  a  republic  be  fitted  for 
society  as  well  as  for  themselves.  As  each  citizen  is  to  par- 
ticipate in  the  power  of  governing  others,  it  is  an  essential  pre- 
liminary that  he  should  be  imbued  with  a  feeling  for  the  wants, 
and  a  sense  of  the  rights,  of  those  whom  he  is  to  govern ;  be- 
cause the  power  of  governing  others,  if  guided  by  no  higher 
motive  than  our  own  gratification,  is  the  distinctive  attribute  of 
oppression  ;  an  attribute  whose  nature  and  whose  wickedness 
are  the  same,  whether  exercised  by  one  who  calls  himself  a 
republican,  or  by  one  born  an  irresponsible  despot.  In  a  gov- 
ernment like  ours,  each  individual  must  think  of  the  welfare 
of  the  State,  as  well  as  of  the  welfare  of  his  own  family,  and, 
therefore,  of  the  children  of  others  as  well  as  his  own.  It 
becomes,  then,  a  momentous  question,  whether  the  children  in 
our  schools  are  educated  in  reference  to  themselves  and  their 
private  interests  only,  or  Avith  a  regard  to  the  great  social  duties 
and  prerogatives  that  await  them  in  after-life.  Are  they  so 
educated,  that,  when  they  grow  up,  they  will  make  better  phi- 
lanthropists and  Christians,  or  only  grander  savages?  For, 
however  loftily  the  intellect  of  man  may  have  been  gifted, 
however  skilfully  it  may  have  been  trained,  if  it  be  not  guided 
by  a  sense  of  justice,  a  love  of  mankind,  and  a  devotion  to 
duty,  its  possessor  is  only  a  more  splendid,  as  he  is  a  more 
dangerous,  barbarian. 

We  have  had  admirable  essays  and  lectures  on  the  subject 
of  morality  in  our  schools.     In  perusing  the  reports  of  school- 


EEPORT   FOR    1845.  423 

committees  from  year  to  year,  nothing  has  given  me  so  much 
pleasure  as  the  prominence  which  they  have  assigned  to  the 
subject  of  moral  education,  and  the  sincerity,  the  earnestness, 
and  the  persistence  with  which  they  have  vindicated  its  claims 
to  be  regarded  as  an  indispensable  part  of  all  common-school 
instruction.  Considered  as  general  speculation,  nothing  could 
be  better ;  and  yet  no  one  will  deny  that  the  want  of  a  corre- 
sponding action  on  this  subject  still  beclouds  the  prospects  of 
the  schools,  and  ofttimes  causes  us  to  tremble  for  the  fate  of 
those  who  are  passing  through  them.  Practically,  the  duty 
of  cultivating  the  moral  nature  of  childhood  has  been  neglected, 
and  is  still  neglected.  Profound  ethical  treatises  are  written 
for  the  guidance  of  men.  after  the  habits  and  passions  of  ninety- 
nine  in  every  hundred  of  those  men  have  become  too  deep- 
rooted  and  inveterate  to  be  removed  by  secondary  causes. 
Volumes  are  published  on  the  nicest  questions  of  casuistry,  — 
questions  which  probably  will  never  arise  in  the  experience  of 
more  than  one  in  a  thousand  of  the  community,  —  while  specific 
directions  and  practical  aids  in  regard  to  the  training  of  chil- 
dren in  those  every-day  domestic  and  social  duties  on  which 
their  own  welfare  and  the  happiness  of  society  depend  are 
comparatively  unknown.  How  shall  this  great  desideratum  be 
supplied?  How  shall  the  rising  generation  be  brought  under 
purer  moral  influences,  by  way  of  guaranty  and  suretyship, 
that,  when  they  become  men,  they  will  surpass  their  predeces- 
sors, both  in  the  soundness  of  their  speculations  and  in  the 
rectitude  of  their  practice?  Were  children  born  with  perfect 
natures,  we  might  expect  that  they  would  gradually  purify 
themselves  from  the  vices  and  corruptions  which  are  now  al- 
most enforced  upon  them  by  the  examples  of  the  world.  But 
the  same  nature  by  whicli  the  parents  sunk  into  error  and  sin 
pre-adapts  the  children  to  follow  in  the  course  of  ancestral  de- 
generacy. Still,  are  there  not  moral  means  for  the  renovation 
of  mankind  which  have  never  yet  been  applied?  Are  there 
not  resources  whose  vastness  and  richness  have  not  yet  been 
explored?  Of  all  neglected  and  forgotten  duties,  in  all  ages  of 


424  ANNUAL   REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

the  world,  the  spiritual  culture  of  children  has  been  most  neg- 
lected and  forgotten.  In  all  things  else,  art  and  science  have 
triumphed.  In  all  things  else,  principles  have  been  investi- 
gated, and  instruments  devised  and  constructed,  to  apply  those 
principles  in  practice.  The  tree  has  been  taken  in  the  germ, 
and  its  growth  fashioned  to  the  wants  or  the  tastes  of  man. 
By  the  skill  of  the  cultivator,  the  wild  grain  and  the  wild  fruit 
have  been  taken  in  their  seed,  and  have  had  their  dwarfishuess 
expanded  into  luxuriance,  and  their  bitter  and  sometimes  poi- 
sonous qualities  ameliorated  into  richness  of  flavor  and  nutri- 
tion. The  wild  animal,  and  even  the  beast  of  prey,  if  domesti- 
cated when  young,  and  from  the  lair,  have  been  tamed  and 
trained  to  the  service  of  man,  —  the  wild  horse  and  the  buffalo 
changed  into  the  most  valuable  of  domestic  animals,  and  the 
prowling  wolf  into  the  faithful  dog.  But  man  has  not  yet  ap- 
plied his  highest  wisdom  and  care  to  the  young  of  his  own 
species.  They  have  been  comparatively  neglected  until  their 
passions  had  taken  deep  root,  and  their  ductile  feelings  had 
hardened  into  the  iron  inflexibility  of  habit  ;  and  then  how 
often  have  the  mightiest  agencies  of  human  power  and  terror 
been  expended  upon  them  in  vain  !  Governments  do  not  see  the 
future  criminal  or  pauper  in  the  neglected  child,  and  therefore 
they  sit  calmly  by,  until  roused  from  their  stupor  by  the  cry  of 
hunger  or  the  spectacle  of  crime.  Then  they  erect  the  alms- 
house,  the  prison,  and  the  gibbet,  to  arrest  or  mitigate  the 
evils  which  timely  caution  might  have  prevented.  The  courts 
and  the  ministers  of  justice  sit  by  until  the  petty  delinquencies 
of  youth  glare  out  in  the  enormities  of  adult  crime ;  and  then 
they  doom  to  the  prison  or  the  gallows  those  enemies  to  society, 
who,  under  wise  and  well-applied  influences,  might  have  been 
supports  and  ornaments  of  the  social  fabric.  For  sixteen  cen- 
turies, the  anointed  ministers  of  the  gospel  of  Christ  were  gen- 
erally regardless  of  the  condition  of  youth.  And  the  same 
remark  holds  true  in  regard  to  the  last  two  centuries,  with  the 
exception  of  three  or  four  only  of  all  the  Christian  nations  ;  and 
by  far  the  greater  part,  even  of  these,  must  be  excepted  from  the 


REPORT   FOR    1845.  425 

exception.  The  messengers  of  Him  who  took  little  children  in 
his  arms  and  blessed  them  have  suffered  juvenile  waywardness 
or  perversity  to  mature  into  adult  incorrigibleness  and  impeni- 
tency  ;  and  then  they  have  invoked  the  aid  of  Heaven  to  subdue 
that  ferociousness  of  the  passions  which  even  a  worldly  foresight 
would  have  checked.  How  often  has  Heaven  turued  a  deaf  ear 
to  their  prayers,  as  if  to  rebuke  the  neglect  and  the  blindness 
which  had  given  occasion  for  them !  Who  will  deny,  that,  if 
one  tithe  of  the  talent  and  culture  which  have  been  expended 
in  legislative  halls,  in  defining  offences,  and  in  devising  and  de- 
nouncing punishments  for  them  ;  or  of  the  study  and  knowledge 
which  have  been  spent  in  judicial  courts,  in  trying  and  in  sen- 
tencing criminals ;  or  of  the  eloquence  and  the  piety  which 
have  preached  repentance  and  the  remission  of  sins  to  adult 
men  and  women,  —  had  been  consecrated  to  the  instruction  and 
training  of  the  young,  the  civilization  of  mankind  would  have 
been  adorned  by  virtues  and  charities  and  Christian  graces  to 
which  it  is  now  a  stranger  ? 

What  an  appalling  fact  it  is  to  every  contemplative  mind, 
that  even  wars  and  famines  and  pestilences  —  terrible  calami- 
ties as  they  are  acknowledged  to  be  —  have  been  welcomed  as 
blessings  and  mercies,  because  they  swept  away,  by  thousands 
and  tens  of  thousands,  the  pests  which  ignorance  and  guilt  had 
accumulated  !  But  the  efficiency  or  sufficiency  of  these  com- 
prehensive remedies  is  daily  diminishing.  A  large  class  of  men 
seem  to  have  lost  that  moral  sense  by  which  the  liberty  and 
life  of  innocent  men  are  regarded  as  of  more  value  than  the 
liberty  and  life  of  criminals.  There  is  not  a  government  in 
Christendom  which  is  not  growing  weaker  every  day,  so  far  as 
its  strength  lies  in  an  appeal  to  physical  force.  The  criminal 
code  of  most  nations  is  daily  shorn  of  some  of  its  terrors. 
Where,  as  with  us,  the  concurrence  of  so  many  minds  is  a  pre- 
requisite, the  conviction  of  the  guilty  is  often  a  matter  of  diffi- 
culty ;  and  every  guilty  man  who  escapes  is  a  missionary, 
going  through  society,  and  preaching  the  immunity  of  guilt 
wherever  he  goes.  War  will  never  a^ain  be  waged  to  dis- 


426  ANNUAL   REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

burden  the  crowded  prisons,  or  to  relieve  the  Aveary  executioner. 
The  arts  of  civilization  have  so  multiplied  the  harvests  of  the 
earth,  that  a  general  famine  will  not  again  lend  its  aid  to  free 
the  community  of  its  surplus  members.  Society  at  large  has 
emerged  from  that  barbarian  and  semi-barbarian  state  where 
pestilence  formerly  had  its  birth,  and  committed  its  ravages. 
These  great  outlets  and  sluice-ways,  which,  in  former  times, 
relieved  nations  of  the  dregs  and  refuse  of  their  population, 
being  now  closed,  whatever  want  or  crime  we  engender,  or 
suffer  to  exist,  we  must  live  with.  If  improvidence  begets 
hunger,  that  hunger  will  break  into  our  garners.  If  animal 
instincts  are  suffered  to  grow  into  licentious  passions,  those 
passions  will  find  their  way  to  our  most  secret  chambers.  We 
have  no  armed  guard  which  can  save  our  warehouses,  our 
market-places,  and  our  depositories  of  silver  and  gold,  from 
spoliation  by  the  hands  of  a  mob.  When  the  perjured  witness 
or  the  forsworn  juryman  invades  the  temple  of  justice,  the  evil 
becomes  too  subtle  for  the  police  to  seize.  It  is  beyond  legis- 
lative or  judicial  or  executive  power  to  redeem  the  sanctu- 
aries of  religion  from  hypocrisy  and  uncharitableness.  In  a 
word,  the  freedom  of  our  institutions  gives  full  play  to  all  the 
passions  of  the  human  heart.  The  objects  which  excite  and 
inflame  those  passions  abound  ;  and,  as  a  fact,  nearly  or  quite 
universal,  there  is  intelligence  sufficient  to  point  out  some  sure 
way,  lawful  or  unlawful,  by  which  those  passions  can  be  grati- 
fied. Whatever  children,  then,  we  suffer  to  grow  up  amongst 
us,  we  must  live  with  as  men ;  and  our  children  must  be  their 
contemporaries.  They  are  to  be  our  copartners  in  the  relations 
of  life,  our  equals  at  the  polls,  our  rulers  in  legislative  halls  ; 
the  awarders  of  justice  in  our  courts.  However  intolerable  at 
home,  they  cannot  be  banished  to  any  foreign  laud ;  however 
worthless,  they  will  not  be  sent  to  die  in  camps,  or  to  be  slain 
in  battle  ;  however  flagitious,  but  few  of  them  will  be  seques- 
tered from  society  by  imprisonment,  or  doomed  to  expiate 
their  offences  with  their  lives. 

In  the  history  of  the  world,  that  period  which  opened  with 


REPORT   FOR    1845.  427 

the  war  of  the  American  Revolution,  and  with  the  adoption  of 
the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  forms  a  new  era.  Those 
events,  it  is  true,  did  not  change  human  nature  ;  but  they 
placed  that  nature  in  circumstances  so  different  from  any  it  had 
ever  before  occupied,  that  we  must  expect  a  new  series  of  de- 
velopments in  human  character  and  conduct.  Theoretically, 
and,  to  a  great  extent,  practically,  the  nation  passed  at  once, 
from  being  governed  by  others,  to  self-government.  Hereditary 
misrule  was  abolished  ;  but  power  and  opportunity  for  personal 
misrule  were  given  in  its  stead.  In  the  hour  of  exultation  at 
the  achievement  of  liberty,  it  was  not  considered  that  the  evils 
of  license  maybe  more  formidable  than  the  evils  of  oppression, 
because  a  man  may  sink  himself  to  a  profounder  depth  of 
degradation  than  it  is  in  the  power  of  any  other  mortal  to  sink 
him,  and  because  the  slave  of  the  vilest  tyrant  is  less  debased 
than  the  thrall  of  his  own  passions.  Restraints  of  physical 
force  were  cast  off;  but  no  adequate  measures  were  taken  to 
supply  their  place  with  the  restraints  of  moral  force.  In  the 
absence  of  the  latter,  the  former,  degrading  as  they  are,  are 
still  desirable,  —  as  a  strait-jacket  for  the  maniac  is  better  than 
the  liberty  by  which  he  would  inflict  wounds  or  death  upon 
himself.  The  question  now  arises,  —  and  it  is  a  question  on 
whose  decision  the  worth  or  worthlessuess  of  our  free  institu- 
tions is  suspended,  —  whether  some  more  powerful  agency  can- 
not be  put  in  requisition  to  impart  a  higher  moral  tone  to  the 
public  mind  ;  to  enthrone  the  great  ideas  of  justice,  truth,  be- 
nevolence, and  reverence,  in  the  breasts  of  the  people,  and  give 
them  a  more  authoritative  sway  over  conduct  than  they  have 
ever  yet  possessed.  Of  course,  so  great  an  object  can  be 
reached  only  by  gradual  approaches.  Revolutions  which 
change  only  the  surface  of  society  can  be  effected  in  a  day ; 
but  revolutions  working  down  among  the  primordial  elements 
of  human  character,  taking  away  ascendency  from  faculties 
which  have  long  had  control  over  the  conduct  of  men,  and 
transferring  it  to  faculties  which  have  long  been  in  subjection, 
—  such  revolutions  cannot  be  accomplished  by  one  convulsive 


428  ANNUAL   REPORTS   ON  EDUCATION. 

effort,  though  every  fibre  in  the  nation  should  be  strained  to  the 
endeavor.  Time  is  an  essential  element  in  their  consumma- 
tion ;  nor  can  they  be  effected  without  an  extensive  apparatus 
of  means,  efficiently  worked.  Yet  such  revolutions  have  taken 
place,  —  as  when  nations  emerged  from  the  barbarian  into  the 
classic  and  chivalrous  or  romautic  ages,  or  when  they  passed 
from  these  into  the  commercial  and  philosophic  periods.  By 
a  brief  retrospect  of  the  condition  of  the  more  civilized  nations 
of  ancient  and  of  modern  times,  it  can  be  easily  shown  that 
such  a  chauge  has  already  taken  place  on  the  subject  of  educa- 
tion itself.  It  is  the  mission  of  our  age  to  carry  this  cause  one 
step  farther  onward  in  its  progress  of  development. 

Among  the  ancients,  physical  education  was  deemed  of 
paramount  importauce.  A  preparation  of  the  masses  for  war 
was  the  grand,  the  almost  exclusive,  object  of  national  concern. 
War  being  carried  on,  and  battles  decided,  mainly  by  muscular 
strength  and  agility ;  by  the  distance  and  accuracy  with  which 
the  javelin  could  be  hurled,  or  the  vigor  and  dexterity  with 
which  the  falchion  could  be  wielded,  —  the  desire  of  physical 
celerity  and  force  predominated  among  men.  It  was  not  the 
cultivation  of  the  great  heart  of  the  nation,  it  was  not  even 
the  development  of  the  intellect  of  the  masses,  but  it  was  the 
iuvigoration  of  the  frame,  the  growth  and  the  strengthening  of 
the  limbs,  that  constituted  the  object  of  national  policy  and  am- 
bition. Bodily  hardihood,  the  power  of  physical  endurance, 
the  ability  to  make  long  marches  uufatigued,  and  to  tight  hand- 
to-haud,  for  the  longest  period,  uuterrified,  were  the  qualities 
which  won  the  spoils  and  the  plaudits  of  victory,  and  kindled 
to  enthusiasm  the  aspii'ations  of  the  emulous  youth.  Who  can 
/ail  to  see  that  the  tendency  of  all  this  was,  not  only  to  weaken 
the  intellectual  nature,  and  to  narrow  its  range  of  action,  but  to 
degrade  and  demoralize  the  spiritual  affections?  The  man  was 
sacrificed  to  the  animal ;  his  soul  was  deemed  of  less  value 
than  his  sinews.  As  the  nobler  qualities  of  his  nature  sunk  to 
the  level  of  brute  force,  it  happened,  naturally,  that  the  horse 
became  as  valuable  as  his  rider ;  and  the  elephant  that  went 


REPORT   FOR    1845.  429 

out  to  battle  was  of  more  consequence  than  the  dozen  warriors 
whom  he  bore  in  the  tower  upon  his  back.  During  the  middle 
ages,  and  until  the  introduction  of  fire-arms,  —  which,  to  a  very 
great  extent,  neutralized  the  inequalities  of  physical  strength,  — 
the  great  barbarian  idea,  that  the  body  of  man  is  the  only  part 
of  him  worth  cultivating,  retained  unquestioned  ascendency  in 
regard  to  the  masses  of  the  people.  The  soul  was  not  con- 
sciously excluded  from  culture ;  for  it  was  not  sufficiently 
thought  of,  as  the  object  of  culture,  to  raise  the  question.  Even 
down  to  the  present  century,  the  rulers  and  aristocracy  of  Eng- 
land have  always  encouraged  athletic  sports  among  the  people 
—  wrestling,  running,  leaping,  boxing  —  as  a  part  of  the  na- 
tional policy,  because,  as  it  was  said,  these  exercises  tended 
to  invigorate  the  breed,  and  thus  to  make  better  soldiers  and 
sailors  ;  the  verv  language  which  was  used  betraying  the  sen- 
timent, that  it  was  the  animal,  and  not  the  spiritual,  part  of  man 
which  was  the  object  of  national  coucei-u.  Nor  even  in  our 
own  times,  nor  in  our  own  country,  have  philosophy  and  Chris- 
tianity dispelled  this  fatal  idea,  —  an  idea  which  is  proper  to 
the  savage  and  the  heathen  only,  and  which  we  have  inherited 
from  them.  In  all  the  nations  of  Europe,  the  regulations  of 
military  schools  in  regard  to  training  the  body  for  vigor  and 
robustness,  and  the  capability  of  endurance,  are  entirely  differ- 
ent from  those  of  the  classical,  medical,  legal,  or  theological 
schools  ;  and  in  the  military  academy  of  our  own  government, 
at  West  Point,  the  cadets  are  inured  to  exposure,  and  their 
bodies  hardened  by  camp-duty ;  while  in  our  colleges  and 
higher  schools  there  are  no  regulations  which  have  the  health 
of  the  student  for  their  object.  On  the  contrary,  so  far  as  the 
body  is  concerned,  the  latter  classes  of  institutions  provide  for 
all  the  natural  tendencies  to  ease  and  inactivity  as  carefully  as 
though  paleness  and  languor,  muscular  enervation  and  debility, 
were  held  to  be  constituents  in  national  beauty. 

The  introduction  of  the  Baconian  philosophy  wrought  a  great 
revolution  in  the  education  of  mankind.  Since  that  epoch,  the 
cultivation  of  the  intellect  has  received  more  general  attention 


430  ANNUAL   REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION*. 

than  ever  before ;  and,  just  in  proportion  as  the  intellect  has 
been  developed,  it  has  seen  more  cleai'ly  and  appreciated 
more  fully  the  advantages  of  its  own  development.  In  Prussia 
and  a  few  of  the  smaller  States  of  Continental  Europe,  the 
action  of  the  intellect,  for  reasons  too  obvious  to  be  mentioned, 
has  taken  more  of  a  speculative  turn.  In  Great  Britain,  it  has 
been  turned  more  towards  practical  or  utilitarian  objects  ;  and, 
in  the  United  States,  it  has  been  pre-eminently  so  turned.  The 
immense  natural  resources  of  our  country  would  have  stimu- 
lated to  activity  a  less  enterprising  and  a  less  energetic  race 
than  the  Anglo-Saxon.  But  such  glittering  prizes,  placed 
within  reach  of  such  fervid  natures  and  such  capacious  desires, 
turned  every  man  into  a  competitor  and  an  aspirant.  The  exu- 
berance that  overspread  the  almost  interminable  valleys  of  the 
West  drew  forth  hosts  of  colonists  to  gather  their  varied  har- 
vests. The  tide  of  emigration  rolled  on,  and  it  still  continues 
to  roll,  with  a  volume  and  a  celerity  never  before  known  in 
any  part  of  the  world,  or  in  any  period  of  history.  Unlike  all 
other  nations,  we  have  had  no  fixed,  but  a  rapidly-advancing 
frontier.  The  geographical  information  of  yesterday  has  be- 
come obsolete  to-day.  The  outposts  of  civilization  have  moved 
forward  with  such  gigantic  strides,  that  their  marches  are 
reckoned,  not  by  leagues,  but  by  degrees  of  longitude  ;  and 
cities  containing  thirty  or  fifty  thousand  souls  have  sprung  up 
before  the  relics  of  the  primeval  forests  had  decayed  on  the 
soil  they  had  so  lately  shaded.  In  the  space  of  half  a  century, 
vast  wildernesses  have  been  organized  into  Territories,  aud 
these  Territories  erected  into  States,  to  take  their  place  hi  the 
great  family  of  the  confederacy,  aud  to  be  heard  by  their  rep- 
resentatives in  the  council-halls  of  the  nation.  But  scarcely 
had  the  immigrant  and  the  adventurer  surveyed  the  richness 
of  vegetation  which  covered  the  surface  of  the  earth,  before 
they  discovered  au  equal  vastness  of  mineral  wealth  beneath 
it,  —  wealth  which  had  been  laid  up,  of  old,  in  subterranean 
chambers,  no  man  yet  knows  how  capacious.  Thus  every 
man,  however  poor  his  parentage,  became  the  heir-apparent 


REPORT   FOR   1845.  431 

of  a  rich  inheritance.  And  while  millions  were  thus  appropri- 
ating fortunes  to  themselves  out  of  the  great  treasure-house  of 
the  West,  other  millions  on  the  Atlantic  seaboard,  with  equal 
enterprise  and  equal  avidity,  were  amassing  the  means  of  re- 
finement and  luxury.  In  one  section,  where  Nature  had  adapted 
the  soil  to  the  production  of  new  and  valuable  staples,  the 
planter  seized  the  opportunity,  — literally  a  golden  one,  —  aad 
soon  filled  the  markets  of  the  world  with  some  of  the  cheapest 
and  the  most  indispensable  necessaries  of  life.  la  another  sec- 
tion, foreign  commerce  invited  attention  ;  and  the  hardy  and 
fearless  inhabitants  went  forth  to  the  uttermost  parts  of  the 
earth  in  quest  of  gain.  They  drew  wealth  from  the  bosom  of 
every  ocean  that  spans  the  globe  ;  they  visited  every  country, 
and  searched  out  every  port  on  its  circumference,  where  wind 
and  water  could  carry  them,  and  brought  home,  for  sustenance 
or  for  superfluity,  the  natural  and  artificial  productions  of  every 
people  and  of  every  zoue.  Meantime,  science  and  invention 
applied  themselves  to  the  mechanic  arts.  They  found  that  Na- 
ture, in  all  her  recesses,  had  hidden  stores  of  power,  surpassing 
the  accumulated  strength  of  the  whole  human  race,  though  all 
its  vigor  could  be  concentrated  in  a  single  arm.  They  found 
that  whoever  would  rightly  apply  to  Nature,  by  a  performance 
of  the  true  scientific  and  mechanical  conditions,  for  the  privi- 
lege of  using  her  agencies,  should  forthwith  be  invested  with 
a  power  such  as  no  Babylonian  or  Egyptian  king,  with  all  his 
myriads  of  slaves,  could  ever  command.  With  the  aid  of  a 
little  hand-machinery,  at  the  beginning,  water  and  steam  have 
been  taught  to  construct  machines  ;  and  out  of  their  matchless 
perfection,  when  guided  by  a  few  intelligent  minds,  have  come 
the  endless  variety,  the  prodigality  and  the  cheapness,  of  mod- 
ern manufactures.  In  the  Northern  States,  too,  one  universal 
habit  of  personal  industry,  not  confined  to  the  middle-aged  and 
the  vigorous  alone,  but  enlisting  the  services  of  all,  —  the  old, 
the  young,  the  decrepit,  the  bed-ridden,  each  according  to  his 
strength,  —  has  never  ceased  to  coin  labor  into  gold  ;  and  from 
the  confluence  of  these  numberless  streams,  though  individually 


432         ANNUAL  REPORTS  ON  EDUCATION. 

small,  the  great  ocean  of  common  comfort  and  competence  has 
been  unfailingly  replenished. 

Gathered  together  from  these  numerous  and  prolific  sources, 
individual  opulence  has  increased  ;  and  the  sum  total  or  valua- 
tion of  the  nation's  capital  has  doubled  and  redoubled  with  a 
rapidity  to  which  the  history  of  every  other  nation  that  has 
ever  existed  must  acknowledge  itself  to  be  a  stranger.  This 
easy  accumulation  of  wealth  has  inflamed  the  laudable  desire 
of  competence  into  a  culpable  ambition  for  superfluous  riches. 
To  convert  natural  resources  into  the  means  of  voluptuous 
enjoyments,  to  turn  mineral  wealth  into  metallic  currency,  to 
invent  more  productive  machinery,  to  open  new  channels  of 
intercommunication  between  the  States,  and  to  lengthen  the 
prodigious  inventory  of  capital  invested  in  commerce,  has  spurred 
the  energies  and  quickened  the  talent  of  a  people,  every  one 
of  whom  is  at  liberty  to  choose  his  own  employment,  and  to 
change  it,  when  chosen,  for  any  other  that  promises  to  be  more 
lucrative. 

Nor  is  this  the  only  side  on  which  hope  has  been  stimulated 
and  ambition  aroused.  Others  of  the  most  craving  instincts  of 
human  nature  have  been  called  into  fervid  activity.  Political 
ambition,  the  love  of  power,  —  whether  it  consists  in  the  base 
passion  of  exercising  authority  over  the  will  of  others,  or  in 
the  more  expansive  and  generous  desire  of  occupying  a  con- 
spicuous place  among  our  fellows  by  their  consent,  —  these  mo- 
tives have  acted  upon  a  strong  natural  instinct  in  the  hearts  of 
all.  The  chief  magistrate  and  the  legislators  of  the  nation,  the 
chief  magistrate  and  the  legislators  of  the  States,  the  numerous 
county,  town,  parochial,  and  district  officers,  are.  with  but  few 
exceptions,  elective  ;  and  therefore  the  possession  of  all  such 
offices  implies  the  confidence  and  the  regard,  of  a  majority  at 
least,  of  their  respective  constituencies.  So,  too,  of  a  great  pro- 
portion of  the  militia  offices.  In  addition  to  all  these,  there  ai*e 
voluntary,  civil,  social,  philanthropic,  and  corporate  organiza- 
tions, each  presided  over,  and  its  affairs  administered,  by  officers 
of  its  own  election.  Probably  there  are,  at  the  present  hour,  in 


REPOET    FOR    1845.  433 

the  United  States,  as  many  persons  holding  offices,  bestowed 
upon  them  by  the  votes  of  others,  and  therefore  indicative  of 
some  degree  of  respect  and  estimation,  as  existed  through  all 
the  centuries  of  the  Roman  Republic  when  its  dominion  was 
co-extensive  with  the  known  world.  Doubtless  there  are  more 
such  elective  offices  at  this  time,  among  the  twenty  millions  of 
this  country,  than  among  the  two  hundred  millions  of  Europe, 
and  far  more  than  in  all  the  world  besides.  Many  of  these 
offices  are  sources  of  emolument  as  well  as  of  power,  and  hence 
they  present  to  competitors  the  double  motive  of  a  desire  of 
gain  and  a  love  of  approbation.  If  most  of  these  innumerable 
fountains  of  honor  are  too  small  to  slake  the  thirst  of  aspirants, 
they  are  sufficient  to  excite  it.  They  create  desires  that  are 
often  unappeasable,  —  desires  that  embroil  towns,  states,  and  the 
nation  itself,  in  the  fiercest  contentions  of  party. 

Now,  it  is  too  obvious  to  need  remark,  that  the  main  ten- 
dency of  institutions  and  of  a  state  of  society  like  those  here 
depicted  is  to  cultivate  the  intellect  and  to  inflame  the  pas- 
sions, rather  than  to  teach  humility  and  lowliness  to  the  heart. 
Our  civil  and  social  condition  holds  out  splendid  rewards  for 
the  competitions  of  talent,  rather  than  motives  for  the  practice 
of  virtue.  It  sharpens  the  perceptive  faculties  in  comparing 
different  objects  of  desire,  it  exercises  the  judgment  in  arran- 
ging means  for  the  production  of  ends,  it  gives  a  grasp  of 
thought  and  a  power  of  combination  which  nothing  else  could 
so  effectively  impart ;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  it  tends  not 
merely  to  the  neglect  of  the  moral  nature,  but  to  an  invasion 
of  its  rights,  to  a  disregard  of  its  laws,  and,  in  cases  of  conflict, 
to  the  silencing  of  its  remonstrances  and  the  denial  of  its  sov- 
ereignty. 

And  has  not  experience  proved  what  reason  might  have  pre- 
dicted? Within  the  last  half-century,  has  not  speculation,  to 
a  fearful  extent,  taken  the  place  of  honest  industry?  Has  not 
the  glare  of  wealth  so  dazzled  the  public  eye  as  often  to  blind 
it  to  the  fraudulent  means  by  which  the  wealth  itself  had  been 
procured?  Have  not  men  been  honored  for  the  offices  of  dig- 
28 


434  ANNUAL    REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

nity  and  patronage  they  have  held,  rather  than  for  the  ever- 
during  qualities  of  probity,  fidelity,  and  intelligence,  which 
alone  are  meritorious  considerations  for  places  of  honor  and 
power?  In  the  moral  price-current  of  the  nation,  has  not 
intellect  been  rising,  while  virtue  has  been  sinking,  in  value? 
Though  the  nation  as  a  nation,  and  a  very  great  majority  of 
the  States  composing  it,  have  performed  all  their  pecuniary 
obligations,  and  preserved  their  reputation  unsullied  ;  yet  have 
there  not  been  great  communities,  acting  through  legislators 
whom  they  themselves  had  chosen,  that  have  been  guilty  of 
such  enormous  breaches  of  plighted  faith  as  would  cause  the 
expulsion  of  a  robber  from  his  brotherhood  of  bandits? 

And  who  will  say,  even  of  the  most  favored  portions  of  our 
country,  that  their  advancement  in  moral  excellence,  in  probity, 
in  purity,  and  in  the  practical  exemplification  of  the  virtues  of 
a  Christian  life,  has  kept  pace  with  their  progress  in  outward 
conveniences  and  embellishments  ?  Can  virtue  recount  as 
many  triumphs  in  the  moral  world  as  intellect  has  won  in  the 
material?  Can  our  advances  towards  perfection  in  the  culti- 
vation of  private  and  domestic  virtues,  and  in  the  feeling  of 
brotherhood  and  kindness  towards  all  the  members  of  our 
households,  bear  comparison  with  the  improvements  in  our 
dwellings,  our  furniture,  or  our  equipages?  Have  our  charities 
for  the  poor,  the  debased,  the  ignorant,  been  multiplied  in 
proportion  to  our  revenues?  Have  we  subdued  low  vices,  low 
indulgences,  and  selfish  feelings?  and  have  we  fertilized  the 
waste  places  in  the  human  heart  as  extensively  as  we  have 
converted  the  wilderness  into  plenteous  harvest-fields,  or  en- 
listed the  running  waters  in  our  service?  In  fine,  have  the 
mightier  and  swifter  agencies  which  we  have  created  or  ap- 
plied in  the  material  world  any  parallel,  in  new  spiritual 
instrumentalities,  by  which  truth  can  be  more  rapidly  diffused, 
by  which  the  high  places  of  iniquity  can  be  brought  low,  or  its 
crooked  ways  made  straight? 

Must  it  not  be  acknowledged,  that,  morally  speaking,  we 
stand  in  arrears  to  the  age  in  which  we  live?  and  must  not 


REPORT   FOR    1845.  435 

i 

some   new  measures  be   adopted,  by  which,  as  philanthropists 
and  Christians,  we  can  redeem  our  forfeited  obligations  ? 

While,  then,  the  legislator  continues  to  denounce  his  penal- 
ties against  such  wicked  desires  as  break  out  iuto  actual  trans- 
gression, and  while  the  judge  continues  to  puuish  the  small 
portion  of  offences  that  can  be  proved  in  court,  the  friends  of 
education  must  do  whatever  can  be  done  to  diminish  the 
terrible  necessity  of  the  penal  law  and  the  judicial  condem- 
nation. 

In  view  of  these  considerations,  I  propose  to  speak,  in  the 
residue  of  this  Report,  of  School-motives,  and  of  some  means 
for  avoiding  and  extirpating  School-vices. 

SCHOOL-MOTIVES   AND   SCHOOL-VICES. 

In  the  order  of  events,  the  first  thing  which  demands  atten- 
tion is  the  choice  of  school-committee-men.  We  need  school- 
committee-men  who  will  scrutinize  as  diligently  the  moral 
character  of  the  proposed  teacher,  and  his  ability  to  impart 
moral  instruction,  as  they  do  his  literary  attainments  and  his 
ability  to  impart  knowledge.  This  official  prerequisite  in 
every  member  of  our  school-committees  is  not  only  necessary 
on  account  of  the  general  influence  which  his  character  will 
exert  upon  children,  but  on  account  of  the  particular  duties  the 
law  requires  him  to  perform.  How  would  consisteucy  be  out- 
raged, what  a  brand  would  be  affixed  by  the  genei'al  verdict  of 
the  community  upon  the  character  of  a  town  which  should 
elect  as  school-committee-men,  to  decide  upon  the  literary 
qualifications  of  the  instructors  of  their  children,  those  who 
could  neither  read  nor  write  !  And  yet  is  it  not  obvious  that 
an  immoral  man  is  as  little  qualified  to  pronounce  upon  moral 
character  as  an  illiterate  man  is  to  decide  upon  the  sufficiency 
of  literary  qualifications? 

The  general  exemption  of  the  teachers  of  Massachusetts  from 
immoral  habits  is  a  fact  to  which  the  committees  cheerfully 
and  confidently  testify ;  and  it  is  one  which  my  acquaintance 


436  ANNUAL    REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

with  them  enables  me  to  confirm.  But  freedom  from  actual 
vice  is  not  sufficient.  In  the  character  of  one  who  is  to  train 
up  children,  a  positive  determination  towards  good,  evinced 
by  his  life  as  well  as  by  his  language,  is  an  essential  attribute. 
No  talent  can  atone  for  want  of  principle,  no  brilliancy  of 
genius  compensate  for  one  stain  upon  the  character.  The 
perceptions  of  a  teacher  between  right  and  wrong  should  be  as 
unclouded  by  interest  or  passion  as  the  lot  of  humanity  will 
allow ;  and  his  conscience  should  be  trained  to  an  affinity  for 
truth,  and  an  abhorrence  of  falsehood,  as  quick  and  as  sure  as 
the  elective  attractions  and  repulsions  of  chemistry.  Knowl- 
edge is  power,  talent  is  power ;  but  they  are  powers  which 
may  be  enlisted  on  the  side  of  evil  as  well  as  of  good.  Nature 
bestows  talent,  living  among  men  confers  some  knowledge, 
and  mere  instinct  is  sufficient  to  make  known  to  the  appetites 
and  passions  their  related  objects  ;  and,  therefore,  unless  a  moral 
sovereign  and  lawgiver  be  enthroned  in  the  breast,  whose  eye 
can  watch  and  whose  arm  can  defend,  these  appetites  and  pas- 
sions will  be  to  all  the  sanctuaries  of  liberty,  of  reputation,  of 
life,  and  of  chastity,  what  wolves  are  to  the  sheepfold.  If  tal- 
ent were  sufficient,  why  are  not  the  greatest  men  the  best  men 
also?  If  knowledge  were  sufficient,  why  does  it  not  always 
become  the  handmaid  of  virtue?  or  why  does  much  learning 
ever  make  men  mad?  Not  nearer  to  the  day  of  its  destruc- 
tion is  a  community  without  knowledge  than  a  community 
which  relies  upon  knowledge  alone  as  sufficient  to  preserve  it. 
According  to  the  present  constitution  of  the  human  mind,  and 
of  the  world  in  which  we  are  placed,  knowledge  is  a  necessity 
in  the  pursuit  of  happiness  ;  but  morality  is  a  preliminary 
necessity,  elder-born  and  eternal.  We  can  conceive  of  a  state 
of  existence  where  we  could  be  happy  without  knowledge ; 
but  it  is  not  in  the  power  of  any  human  imagination  to  pic- 
ture to  itself  a  form  of  life  where  we  could  be  happy  without 
virtue. 

Generally  speaking,  I  believe  there  is  a  commendable  desire, 
on  the  part  of  teachers,  to  impart  moral  instruction  ;  but  there 


REPORT   FOR    1845.  437 

are  obstacles  in  the  way  of  doing  it ;  and,  for  various  causes, 
the  ability  or  the  opportunity  does  not  equal  the  exigencies  of 
the  case.  Some  of  these  causes  I  proceed  to  notice. 

The  manner  in  which  school-examinations  have  heretofore 
been  conducted  has  tended  to  make  the  moral  progress  of  the 
children  secondary  to  their  literary  attainments. 

Perhaps  there  is  something  in  the  nature  of  the  case  con- 
ducing to  a  result  so  lamentable  ;  if  so,  it  should  be  sedu- 
lously guarded  against  by  a  preventive  foresight.  The  scholars 
are  ambitious  to  win  the  approval  of  the  committee ;  but  in 
what  way  are  they  to  satisfy  the  committee  that  they  deserve 
this  approval?  Let  us  glance,  for  a  moment,  at  the  course  of 
proceedings  as  it  usually  takes  place  in  some  of  the  best  of  our 
schools.  The  committee  visit  the  school  soon  after  its  com- 
mencement, as  they  are  required  to  do  by  law.  Their  object 
is  to  ascertain  the  condition  of  the  school,  as  it  stands  at  the 
time,  in  regard  to  the  studies  pursued.  For  this  purpose,  the 
classes  are  called  upon  to  spell,  and  the  percentage  of  misspelled 
words  is  noted  ;  to  read,  and  the  facility  and  intelligence  with 
which  they  read  are  attended  to ;  to  exhibit  their  writing-books, 
and  the  neatness  and  legibility  of  their  hand-writing  are  ob- 
served ;  to  answer  questions  in  geography  and  grammar  ;  to 
work  sums  or  draw  maps  upon  the  black-board  :  and  their  pro- 
ficiency and  accuracy  in  these  several  studies  are  noted  down, 
at  least  in  the  memory,  if  not  in  a  book.  Occasionally,  during 
the  term,  a  committee-man  may  call  in  to  watch  the  progress 
of  the  school ;  but,  at  its  close,  a  more  formal  and  thorough 
examination  is  made  necessary,  both  by  the  law  of  the  land 
and  by  public  expectation.  The  committee  appear ;  the  classes 
again  spell ;  and  the  diminution  in  the  percentage  of  errors, 
as  compared  with  what  it  was  at  the  opening  of  the  school,  is 
recorded.  They  read,  and  define  words  ;  and  the  more  living 
and  natural  expression  of  the  voice,  the  greater  ease  and  ele- 
gance in  the  elocutionary  part  of  the  exercise,  together  with 
their  enlarged  understanding  of  the  scope  and  drift  of  the  piece 
selected,  and  their  ability  to  explain  its  historical,  biographical, 


438  ANNUAL   REPORTS    ON  EDUCATION. 

or  scientific  allusions,  —  all  these  arc  susceptible,  to  some  ex- 
tent, of  a  numerical  notation,  and  can  be  reported  to  persons 
not  present  at  the  exercise.  The  classes  are  called  to  the 
black-board,  and,  by  a  swift  process,  the  answers  to  difficult 
arithmetical  questions  are  evolved ;  or,  on  requiring  a  map  of 
a  particular  country  to  be  drawn,  a  miniature  representation  of 
it,  with  its  boundaries,  its  mountains,  its  rivers,  and  its  cities, 
starts  into  being  before  their  eyes.  Indeed,  if  the  class  be  large, 
and  has  been  competently  trained,  then,  by  assigning  a  differ- 
ent part  of  the  globe  to  each  member  of  it,  in  ten  minutes 
a  very  respectable  atlas  of  the  world  will  be  depicted  upon 
the  walls  of  the  schoolroom,  to  the  honor  of  the  pupils  and 
the  delight  of  all  spectators.  The  committee  and  the  parents 
participate  in  the  general  joy,  and  both  teachers  and  scholars 
receive  the  meed  of  praise.  The  teacher  wins  or  confirms  an 
enviable  reputation  ;  the  district  solicits  his  acceptance  of  the 
school  for  another  term  ;  other  districts  hear  of  his  success,  and 
become  competitors  for  his  services  ;  and,  as  a  natural  con- 
sequence of  the  competition,  he  obtains  both  increased  honor 
and  emolument. 

But  suppose,  at  the  time  when  the  school  began,  low,  per- 
verse, and  ungentlemanly  habits  and  manners  prevailed  among 
the  pupils,  which  the  teacher,  by  the  dignity  and  impressive- 
ness  of  his  own  example,  and  by  the  energy  and  kindness  of 
his  expostulations,  has  extirpated,  and  has  substituted  decency 
and  propriety  and  manliness  for  them.  Suppose  profaneness 
polluted  the  lips  of  the  children,  and  he  has  made  them  see  the 
beauty  and  the  truth  of  the  saying,  that  a  Christian  should 
be  afraid  to  swear,  and  a  gentleman  should  be  ashamed  to. 
Suppose  falsehood  overt,  or  falsehood  in  some  of  its  thousand 
forms  of  equivocation,  deception,  or  suppression,  had  cankered 
the  vitals  of  the  school,  and  threatened  to  consume  all  the 
honesty  and  ingenuousness  of  the  young  heart,  but  the  teacher 
has  made  it  a  loathing  and  an  abomination,  and  has  inspired 
his  school  with  some  adequate  conception  of  the  moral  beauty 
and  the  moral  necessity  of  truth.  Suppose  a  love  of  parents, 


REPORT   FOR   1845.  439 

of  brothers  and  sisters,  and  a  compassion  for  the  poor  and  the 
unfortunate,  have  been  warmed  into  being,  and  nourished  into 
strength,  in  bosoms  where  they  did  not  exist  before.  Suppose 
a  reciprocation  of  kind  offices  among  schoolmates  has  been 
substituted  for  alienation  or  hostility,  or  that  some  ancient 
and  long-descended  feud  has  been  harmonized  by  his  pacific 
counsels.  Every  school  of  children,  as  much  as  every  commu- 
nity of  men,  has  a  public  opinion,  which,  though  an  unwritten, 
is  a  self-executing  law  among  the  pupils,  and  descends  from 
one  school-generation  to  another :  suppose  this  public  opinion 
of  the  school  has  been  brought  over  from  the  side  of  insubordi- 
nation to  voluntary  acquiescence,  and  from  trickery  to  open 
dealing ;  suppose  all  or  any  of  these  blessed  results  to  have 
been  effected  by  the  teacher :  how  are  they  to  be  brought  for- 
ward for  exhibition  at  the  closing  examination  of  the  school? 
No  general  answers  to  general  questions,  no  volubility  in  the 
rehearsal  of  moral  precepts,  can  display  them.  They  cannot 
be  exhibited  on  the  black-board,  but  they  are  graven  upon  the 
heart.  They  cannot  be  recorded  in  the  school-register,  but 
they  are  Avritten  in  the  Book  of  Life.  All  attempts  at  display, 
indeed,  will  refute  and  corrupt  the  whole :  for  there  is  no  more 
offensive  vice  than  the  ostentation  of  virtue ;  and  the  most 
disgusting  of  all  hypocrisies  is  a  humility  ambitious  of  display. 
True  virtue  is  lowly  and  retiring,  and  finds  its  highest  grati- 
fications in  its  inward  and  silent  delights  ;  but  the  moment 
that  a  sentiment  of  pride,  on  account  of  its  supposed  possession, 
is  consciously  allowed,  or  an  impulse  to  boastfulness  indulged, 
then  virtue  falls  from  its  high  and  pure  estate,  and  can  no 
longer  be  numbered  with  the  angels  of  light. 

And  yet  is  not  such  a  change,  or  any  thing  approximating  to 
such  a  change,  in  the  moral  character  and  conduct  of  scholars, 
as  I  have  here  attempted  to  describe,  worth  infinitely  more 
than  if  the  teacher,  by  a  miracle  of  art,  could  transfer  into 
their  minds  all  the  knowledge  of  all  the  philosophers  who  have 
ever  lived? 

Now,  an  unhappy  consequence   of  the  prevalent   course  of 


440  ANNUAL   REPORTS   ON  EDUCATION. 

things  is,  that  the  teacher  who  withdraws  some  part  of  his 
time  and  attention  from  the  intellectual  training  of  his  pupils, 
and  devotes  it  to  their  moral  culture,  may  be  unable  to  exhibit 
so  great  a  degree  of  proficiency  in  the  studies  pursued  at  the 
end  of  a  short  term,  or  even  of  a  single  year,  as  one  who  for- 
gets the  existence  of  a  moral  nature  in  his  charge,  and  devotes 
himself  exclusively  to  their  intellectual  progress.  Whatever 
time  the  faithful  moral  teacher  spends  in  cherishing  sentiment? 
of  honor,  truth,  generosity,  and  magnanimity,  the  unfaithful 
one  will  spend  in  polishing  and  perfecting  the  recitations  in 
grammar,  geography,  or  some  other  study.  The  former  will 
use  no  motive,  however  efficacious,  if  its  ultimate  tendencies 
are  injurious  ;  the  latter  will  make  all  motives  equally  welcome, 
provided  they  conduce  to  his  immediate  end.  The  object  of 
the  one  teacher  is  remote,  consisting  in  the  welfare  of  the 
children  in  after-life  ;  that  of  the  other  is  immediate,  consisting 
in  the  reputation,  and  the  pecuniary  value  of  the  reputation, 
that  will  redound  to  himself  at  the  end  of  his  engagement. 
And  hence  it  clearly  follows,  that  if  the  committee  attend  only, 
or  attend  mainly,  to  the  proficiency  made  by  the  children  in 
their  accustomed  studies,  then  a  direct  and  palpable  temptation 
is  held  out  to  the  teacher  to  attend  only,  or  to  attend  mainly, 
to  this  inferior  part  of  his  duty ;  because,  by  so  doing,  he  will 
win  a  higher  degree  of  success  and  a  higher  reputation  for 
skill,  his  future  services  will  be  in  greater  demand,  and  he  will 
not  only  enjoy  his  fame  as  fame,  but  be  able  also  to  coin  it 
into  money.  Here,  then,  there  seems  to  be  a  disastrous  alli- 
ance of  worldly  motives ;  and  they  unite  to  weigh  down  the 
teacher  who  aspires  to  lofty  and  noble  views  in  the  discharge 
of  his  duty. 

Is  not  a  change  in  this  part  of  our  school-system  imperatively 
demanded?  Is  not  here  a  point  where  positive  improvement 
may  forthwith  begin  ?  Ought  it  not  to  become  an  axiom  and 
a  proverb,  that  no  amount  of  mere  knowledge  in  a  school  shall 
ever  be  accepted  as  an  equivalent  for  an  uninstructed  con- 
science ;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  that  the  formation  of  good 


REPORT   FOR    1845.  441 

habits  shall  be  an  acceptable  apology  for  inferiority  in  attain- 
ments? Let  committees,  then,  look  vigilantly  ;  let  them  inquire 
anxiously,  day  by  day,  into  the  effect  produced  by  the  teacher 
upon  the  conduct,  the  manners,  the  disposition  of  his  pupils  ; 
and  let  censure  rather  than  commendation  be  awarded  to  the 
teacher  who  has  carried  forward  his  pupils  ever  so  rapidly  in 
mere  knowledge,  if  he  has  neglected  the  culture  of  the  affec- 
tions, or  purchased  proficiency  in  school-studies  by  means 
which  put  the  moral  nature  in  jeopardy.  How  unworthy  the 
sacred  office  of  a  teacher,  if  he  incites  his  pupils  to  effort,  only 
by  displaying  before  them  a  brilliant  prospect  of  worldly  honors 
and  distinctions,  or  the  power  and  the  pride  of  wealth,  while  he 
neglects  to  cherish  the  love  of  man  iu  their  bosoms,  or  to  dis- 
play before  them  daily  the  evidences  of  the  goodness  and  the 
wisdom  of  God  !  I  care  not  how  promptly  the  classes  may  re- 
spond in  the  schoolroom,  if  I  hear  profaneness  or  obscenity  in 
the  play-ground.  I  care  not  how  many  text-books  they  have 
mastered,  if  they  have  not  mastered  the  passions  of  jealousy 
and  strife  and  uucharitableness.  It  is  not  indispensable  to  the 
happiness  of  children  that  they  should  know  the  length  of  all 
the  great  rivers,  or  the  height  of  all  the  great  mountains,  upon 
the  globe  ;  but  it  is  indispensable  to  their  happiness  that  they 
should  love  one  another,  and  do  as  they  would  be  done  unto. 
A  life  spent  in  obscurity  and  supported  by  daily  toil  may  be 
full  of  blessings ;  but  no  worldly  honors  however  high,  or 
wealth  however  boundless,  can  atone  for  one  dereliction  from 
duty  in  acquiring  them.- 

But  the  great  agent  in  carrying  the  benign  work  of  reform 
into  our  schools  must  be  the  teacher  himself.  No  fulness  in 
the  qualifications  of  others  can  be  the  supplement  of  any  mate- 
rial deficiency  in  him. 

Essential  requisites  in  a  teacher's  character  are  a  love  of 
children  and  a  love  of  his  work.  He  must  not  be  a  hireling. 
It  is  right  that  he  should  have  a  regard  for  his  compensation  ; 
but,  his  compensation  being  provided  for,  it  should  be  forgot- 
ten. To  exclude  the  feeling  of  monotony  and  irksomeness,  he 


442  ANNUAL   REPORTS    ON   EDUCATION. 

must  look  upon  his  work  as  ever  a  new  one  ;  for  such  it  really 
is.  The  school-teacher  is  not,  as  it  sometimes  seems  to  be  sup- 
posed, placed  upon  a  perpetually-revolving  wheel,  and  carried 
through  a  daily  or  yearly  round  of  the  same  labors  and  duties. 
Such  a  view  of  his  office  is  essentially  a  low  and  false  one. 
What  if  he  does  turn  over  the  leaves  of  the  same  book  from 
day  to  day,  and  hear  the  same  lessons  recited  from  year  to 
year?  What  if  he  is  required  to  explain  the  same  principles, 
and  to  reiterate  the  same  illustrations,  until  his  path  in  the 
accustomed  exercises  of  the  school-room  is  as  worn  and  beaten 
as  the  one  by  which,  morning  and  night,  he  travels  to  and  from 
it?  Still,  in  the  truest  and  highest  sense,  his  labor  is  always  a 
new  one  ;  because  the  subject  upon  which  he  operates  is  con- 
stantly changing.  Every  day  he  is  developing  new  faculties, 
or  carrying  forward  the  old  through  new  stages  of  their  course. 
Though  the  books  which  he  uses,  and  the  instructions  which 
he  imparts,  may  be  the  same,  yet  his  real  work  consists  in 
his  taking  up  class  after  class,  and  conducting  them  onward 
through  new  portions  of  their  progress.  The  charge  committed 
to  his  care  is  weak,  ignorant,  immature,  and  constitutionally 
subject  to  error.  He  imparts  vigor ;  he  supplies  knowledge  ; 
he  ripens  judgment ;  he  establishes  principle ;  and  he  then 
sends  them  on  their  way  to  fulfil  the  great  duties  of  earth,  and 
to  be  more  and  more  prepared  for  another  life.  But,  so  soon 
as  he  has  fulfilled  his  duty  to  one  company  of  the  ever  onward- 
moving  procession  of  young  life,  another  company  steps  in  to 
occupy  the  place  of  the  former.  Their  .need  of  guidance,  their 
capacities  of  improvement,  are  as  great  as  those  which  have 
gone  before  them.  They,  too,  are  bound  on  the  same  perilous 
journey  of  life,  and  for  the  same  goal  of  an  immortal  existence. 
He  is  to  guide  their  steps  aright :  he  is  to  see,  that,  before  they 
pass  from  under  his  hands,  they  have  some  adequate  concep- 
tion of  the  great  objects  at  which  they  are  to  aim,  of  the  glori- 
ous destiny  at  which  they  may  arrive ;  and  that  they  are 
endued  with  the  energy  and  the  perseverance  which  will  make 
their  triumph  certain.  As  soon  as  this  labor  is  done  to  one 


REPORT   FOR    1845.  443 

company,  he  bids  them  a  hasty  farewell,  that  he  may  turn 
with  glad  welcome  to  hail  another,  more  lately  arrived  upon 
the  confines  of  existence,  who  ask  his  guidance  as  they  are 
crossing  the  narrow  isthmus  of  time,  on  their  way  to  eternity. 
Such  is  the  teacher's  duty,  —  to  welcome  each  new  group,  to 
prepare  them  for  the  journey  of  life,  and  to  speed  them  on  their 
way  ;  and  again  to  welcome,  to  prepare,  and  to  speed  :  and, 
I  repeat  it,  it  is,  and  forever  must  be,  a  new  work,  Avhile  new 
beings  emerge  into  existence,  to  receive  benefit  and  blessing 
from  him,  to  be  rescued  from  what  is  wrong,  to  be  conse- 
crated to  what  is  right.  No  teacher,  therefore,  who  regards 
his  duties  in  the  light  of  reason  and  religion,  can  look  upon 
them  as  repulsive  or  monotonous  or  irksome.  The  angel 
that  unlocks  the  gate  of  heaven  might  as  well  become  weary 
of  the  service,  though,  with  every  opening  of  the  door,  a  new 
spirit  is  ushered  into  the  mansions  of  bliss. 

Let  the  teacher,  then,  who  cannot  draw  exhaustless  energies 
from  a  contemplation  of  the  nature  of  his  calling ;  let  the 
teacher  whose  heart  is  not  exhilarated  as  he  looks  round  upon 
the  groups  of  children  committed  to  his  care  ;  let  the  teacher 
who  can  ever  consciously  speak  of  the  "  tedium  of  school- 
keeping,"  or  the  "  irksome  task  of  instruction,"  either  renovate 
his  spirit,  or  abandon  his  occupation.  The  repining  teacher 
may  be  useful  in  some  other  sphere  :  he  may  be  fit  to  work 
upon  the  perishable  materials  of  wood  or  iron  or  stone  ;  but  he 
is  unfit  to  work  upon  the  imperishable  mind. 

The  teacher  should  enter  the  schoolroom  as  the  friend  and 
benefactor  of  his  scholars.  He  is  supposed  to  possess  more 
knowledge  than  they,  by  the  utmost  diligence  and  stretch  of 
faculty,  can  receive  from  him  ;  but  yet  no  fact  is  more  certain, 
or  law  more  universal,  than  that  they  will  make  no  valuable 
and  abiding  acquisition  without  their  own  consent  and  co-oper- 
ation. The  teacher  can  neither  transfuse  knowledge  by  any 
process  of  decanting,  nor  inject  it  by  any  force,  into  the  mind 
of  a  child  ;  but  the  law  of  the  relation  subsisting  between  them 
is,  that  he  must  have  the  child's  conscious  assent  and  concur- 


444  ANNUAL    REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

rence  before  he  can  impart  it.  He  cannot  impart,  unless  the 
child  consents  to  receive.  What,  then,  is  the  state  of  mind  most 
receptive  of  knowledge,  and  most  co-operative  in  acquiring  it? 
Surely,  it  is  a  state  of  confidence,  of  trustfulness,  of  respect,  of 
affection.  Hence  it  follows  that  the  first  great  duty  of  a  teacher 
is  to  awaken  these  sentiments  in  the  breasts  of  his  pupils. 
For  this  end,  he  can  do  more  the  first  half-day  he  enters  the 
schoolroom  than  in  any  week  afterwards.  But  if  a  teacher 
presents  himself  before  his  pupils  with  a  haughty  or  a  con- 
temptuous air,  if  he  introduces  himself  by  beginning  to  speak 
of  his  power  and  his  authority,  he  will  soon  create  the  occasion 
for  using  them.  The  pupils  themselves  are  first  to  be  pre- 
pared,—  to  be  put  into  an  apt  condition  for  the  work  that  is 
to  follow.  If  we  take  a  survey  of  any  department  of  nature  or 
of  art,  illustrations  and  analogies  will  crowd  upon  the  mind  in 
confirmation  of  the  universal  truth,  that,  if  we  would  exert  an 
influence  upon  any  object,  we  must  first  bring  it  into  a  con- 
dition receptive  of  that  influence.  Does  not  the  farmer  break 
up  the  soil,  and  open  it  to  the  sun,  before  he  commits  the  seed 
to  its  bosom  in  expectation  of  a  harvest?  Have  not  celebrated 
artists  owed  their  fame  as  much  to  the  careful  preparation  of 
their  materials  as  to  the  skill  with  which  they  afterwards  com- 
bined them?  By  the  softening  agencies  of  fire  or  steam,  the  me- 
chanic overcomes  the  rigidity  or  iuflexiblcuess  of  his  materials, 
before  he  attempts  to  mould  or  bend  them  to  his  purpose  ; 
yet  the  chemical  changes  effected  by  heat,  through  the  inner- 
most particles  of  the  bar  of  iron  which  the  smith  wishes  to 
fashion  anew  upon  his  anvil,  are  not  deeper  or  more  transmut- 
ing than  the  spiritual  changes  wrought  upon  the  inmost  emo- 
tions of  a  child's  soul  by  a  demeanor  of  dignity,  and  by  looks 
and  tones  of  affection,  on  the  part  of  the  teacher.  When  the 
all-bountiful  Giver  of  the  seasons  wills  to  overspread  our  hem- 
isphere with  vegetable  beauty  and  luxuriance,  he  does  not 
scatter  abroad  his  treasures  of  snow  and  of  hail,  nor  bind  the 
rivers  in  the  death-like  embraces  of  frost ;  but  he  causes  the 
sun  to  draw  near,  and  the  genial  rain  to  descend  ;  he  scatters 


REPORT   FOR    1845.  445 

the  infinite  drops  of  dew  over  the  earth,  and  summons  the 
warming  winds  from  the  chambers  of  the  south.  Whatever  is 
to  be  done,  whether  in  the  works  of  Nature  or  of  Art,  the  mate- 
rial which  is  to  be  wrought  upon  mast  first  be  adapted  to  the 
work. 

All  teachers  look  upon  books  and  apparatus  as  indispensa- 
ble to  the  highest  progress  of  a  school ;  and  hence  the  sending 
of  a  child  to  school  with  a  demand  that  he  should  be  taught, 
but  without  the  common  instrumentalities  for  teaching  him, 
they  justly  regard  as  a  Pharaoh-like  requisition.  Yet  how 
much  more  indispensable  are  a  desire  and  a  purpose  to  learn, 
in  the  breast  of  a  child,  than  a  book  in  his  hand  !  A  spelling- 
book,  a  geography,  and  so  forth,  are  very  desirable  ;  but  a  dis- 
position to  use  them  is  indispensable.  Parents  must  supply  the 
books  ;  but  teachers  —  with  the  help  of  the  parents  where  they 
can  have  it,  and,  as  far  as  possible,  without  that  help  where 
they  cannot  have  it  —  must  supply  the  disposition.  Let  this 
be  done,  and  we  may  safely  affirm  that  the  laws  of  Nature  are 
not  more  certain,  than  that  the  child  will  learn ;  for  it  is  a  law 
of  Nature  that  he  will.* 

*  In  the  number  of  "  The  Bibliotheca  Sacra  "  for  February,  1846,  pp.  110-11,  we 
find  the  following  observations  from  the  pen  of  the  Rev.  Xoah  Porter,  Jr.,  of  Spring- 
field, Mass.  They  are  so  valuable  in  themselves,  and  tend  so  strongly  tofortify  the 
views  we  have  expressed,  that  we  cannot  forbear  to  copy  them. 

"  You  cannot  drive  a  boy  to  study.  Least  of  all  can  you  drive  study  into  him. 
The  attention  must  it  .-elf  awake  and  pant  with  eagerness  for  knowledge.  The  affec- 
tions must  lay  hold  of  it  with  a  grasp  that  nothing  can  unlock;  and  the  man  must 
appropriate  it,  turning  it  into  the  very  substance  of  the  mind.  You  cannot  force 
open  the  attention  as  you  must  the  jaw  that  is  locked,  nor  bind  on  enthusiasm,  nor 
infuse  the  results  that  come,  if  they  come  at  all,  from  the  personal  activity  of  the 
scholar.  The  appliances  of  masters  and  text-books  and  illustrations  and  rules  and 
supervision,  and  tlie  most  perfect  system  of  gradations,  one  and  all  of  them,  are  in 
vain,  unless  you  can  find  or  make  a  generous  enthusiasm  and  a  wakeful  spirit.  Still 
less  at  college  will  the  scholar  carry  forward  the  work,  however  well  begun  at. 
school,  unless,  with  his  growing  capacity  to  labor  and  to  learn,  there  grow  likewise 
the  desire  to  labor  and  'o  loam.  Still  less,  af'er  he  leaves  the  university,  will  there 
be  the  overmastering  desire  to  be  the  thorough  and  finished  man,  unless  there  be 
an  iron  energy  and  a  burning  enthusiasm.  To  success  in  acquiring,  then,  there  is 
needed  a  strong  and  active  spirit.  Indeed,  without  it,  study  becomes  a  mechanical 
process,  books  overmaster  the  mind  that  should  master  them,  the  love  of  learning 
is  a  morbid  habit,  an  unnatural  craving,  and  the  highest  attainments  of  scholarship 
are  as  useless  and  as  unnatural  as  a  monstrous  lion,  or  a  heart  that  palpitates  when 
it  should  beat." 


446  ANNUAL    REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

If  securing  the  good  will  of  scholars  is  preliminary  to  their 
attainment  of  knowledge,  far  more  important  is  it  to  the  culti- 
vation of  their  moral  sentiments  and  to  the  growth  of  good 
habits.  It  is  an  invariable  law  of  Nature  in  regard  to  the 
young  mind,  that  the  affections  are  developed  before  the  judg- 
ment. How  woful  and  desolate  would  be  the  condition  of  a 
child,  if  it  could  never  love  its  mother  until  it  had  arrived  at 
an  age  capable  of  mastering  such  a  process  of  reasoning  as 
should  convince  it  that  she  was  deserving  of  its  love  !  Happily, 
this  law  of  instinctive  love  prevails  until  an  age  when  the  rea- 
soning powers  can  be  developed,  and  the  conscience  enlight- 
ened. Then,  and  not  till  then,  can  a  child  make  his  affections 
intelligently  obedient  to  his  duties.  All  the  circumstances  and 
conditions,  therefore,  which  attend  the  first  introduction  of  a 
teacher  to  his  pupils,  should  conciliate  regard,  and  predispose 
to  a  mutual  good  understanding. 

Is  it  not  too  obvious  to  need  exposition,  that  the  principles 
of  duty  can  be  superinduced  upon  a  state  of  affection  and  sym- 
pathy more  easily  than  upon  one  of  antipathy  and  distrust?  Is 
it  not  so  self-evident  as  to  make  the  idea  of  confirmation  ab- 
surd, that  a  teacher  who  possesses  the  love  and  confidence  of 
his  pupils  will  reclaim  them  from  error,  or  establish  them  in 
good  principles,  more  readily  than  if  he  were  obliged  to  break 
through  a  rampart  of  hostile  feelings,  and  carry  the  citadel  of 
the  judgment  and  conscience  by  assault,  and  thus  to  found  his 
ultimate  authority  upon  the  right  of  conquest,  instead  of  hav- 
ing the  gates  thrown  open  to  him  with  welcome  and  gratulation, 
and  being  received  and  hailed  as  a  friend  and  deliverer?  Every 
pupil  who  loves  his  teacher  will  feel  that  love  soliciting  him  to 
obedience,  just  as  certainly  as  every  true  disciple  finds  the  love 
of  Christ  "  constraining"  him  to  good  works.  Every  teacher 
animated  by  the  spirit  which  is  alone  worthy  of  a  teacher  will 
enter  into  possession  of  his  school,  "not  by  constraint,  but 
willingly  ;  not  for  filthy  lucre,  but  of  a  ready  mind ;  "  not  as 
being  a  "  lord"  over  his  pupils,  but  as  being  an  "  ensample" 
to  them. 


REPORT   FOR    1845.  447 

The  idea  that  there  are  two  antagonist  powers  in  the  school- 
room, each  struggling  for  mastery  over  the  other,  —  like  the 
rival  houses  of  York  and  Lancaster,  contending  for  the  Eng- 
lish throne,  —  will  be  as  fatal  to  the  prosperity  of  a  school  as 
is  a  civil  war  to  the  prosperity  of  a  country.  But  primary  and 
essential  is  the  idea,  that  there  is  one  sacred,  all-pervading  law, 
to  which  teacher  and  pupil  are  alike  subject,  —  the  law  of  duty 
and  affection.  All  the  rules  of  the  schoolroom  are  but  corolla- 
ries or  consequences  from  this  paramount  law.  If  the  authority 
and  power  of  a  teacher  are  not  offensively  set  forth,  they  will 
rarely  be  questioned.  If  instead  of  flattering  a  despicable 
pride  by  a  proclamation  of  his  own  supremacy,  if  instead  of 
arrogating  sovereignty  to  his  own  personal  will,  all  his  words 
and  actions  proceed  upon  the  supposition  that  there  is  one 
serene  and  majestic  power  to  which  all  are  alike  bound  to  ren- 
der allegiance  and  to  pay  homage,  —  a  law  by  which  the  judge 
is  to  be  judged,  and  the  ruler  ruled,  —  and,  above  all,  if  the 
teacher  shows  himself  to  be  a  living  and  shining  example  of  the 
doctrine  he  inculcates,  the  number  of  pupils  will  be  few  indeed 
who  will  ever  bring  the  question  of  authority  to  a  practical 
issue.  When  have  soldiers  ever  undergone  such  privation  of 
the  necessaries  of  life  as  when  their  commander  was  known  to 
stint  himself  to  the  same  meagre  allowance?  When  have  they 
ever  performed  such  forced  marches  as  when  they  saw  their 
leader  moving  in  the  van  of  the  column  ?  or  made  so  valorous 
an  assault  as  when  they  saw  his  plume  waving  at  the  head  of 
the  charge?  Or,  to  draw  examples  from  the  highest  source, 
does  not  the  apostle  say  that  the  goodness  of  God  leadeth  us 
to  repentance?  and  the  Saviour's  emblem  was  that  of  a  true 
shepherd,  who  does  not  drive,  but  leads  forth  his  flock.  How- 
ever it  may  be  with  sheep,  we  know,  that,  with  children  as  with 
men,  the  difference  is  unimaginably  great  between  leading 
and  driving. 

It  was  intimated  above,  that,  if  the  proper  influences  con- 
stantly radiate  from  the  teacher  and  pervade  the  schoolroom, 
the  cases  of  insurgency  again.st  him  will  be  rare.  Such  cases, 


448  ANNUAL   REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

however,  may  occur ;  and,  when  they  do  occur,  they  suggest 
their  owu  remedy.  If  the  taleut  and  skill  of  the  teacher  are 
not  sufficient  to  arouse  the  indolence  or  restrain  the  wayward- 
ness of  the  pupil ;  if  his  commanding  dignity  and  benevolence 
cannot  change  perverseness  into  docility,  or  melt  down  obsti- 
nacy into  submission  ;  in  fine,  if  the  teacher's  mind  cannot 
overmaster  the  pupil's  mind  in  its  then  present  condition,  and 
if  the  teacher's  heart  be  not  of  such  superior  moral  power  as  to 
overcome,  and  assimilate  to  itself,  the  heart  of  the  pupil,  —  there 
is  still  one  resource  left :  the  teacher's  physical  power  is  supe- 
rior to  the  pupil's  physical  power  (for  the  teacher  has  a  legal 
right  to  summon  all  necessary  assistance  to  his  aid)  ;  and,  with 
this  superiority,  he  must  begin  the  work  of  reform.  Order 
must  be  maintained  :  this  is  the  primal  law.  The  superiority 
of  the  heart ;  the  superiority  of  the  head ;  the  superiority  of 
the  arm,  —  this  is  the  order  of  the  means  to  secure  an  observ- 
ance of  the  law.  As  soon  as  possible,  however,  the  teacher 
must- ascend  from  the  low  superiority  of  muscular  force  to  the 
higher  and  spiritual  ones  ;  and  he  must  forever  cultivate  the 
higher,  that  they  may  the  sooner  supersede  the  lower. 

I  think  one  cannot  have  been  long  accustomed  to  visiting 
schools,  without  being  able  to  determine  almost  at  a  glance,  on 
entering  a  schoolroom,  what  the  relation  is  which  exists  be- 
tween the  teacher  and  his  scholars.  If  as  soon  as  the  teacher 
turns  his  back  upon  the  scholars,  in  order  to  approach  and  to 
salute  his  guests,  the  whole  muscular  system  of  the  school 
seems  to  snap  the  fetters  in  which  it  had  been  bound,  and  to 
break  out  into  mischievous  activity,  but  as  soon  as  the  teacher 
reverts  his  face  all  is  again  subdued  and  hushed  into  deathlike 
stillness  ;  if,  as  the  teacher  moves  about  among  his  scholars 
and  gives  his  directions,  they  exhibit  a  deference  that  almost 
runs  into  timidity,  but,  as  soon  as  he  has  passed  by,  they 
make  grimaces  behind  him,  or  fillip  spit-balls  at  his  back  ;  if, 
as  he  turns  from  time  to  time  towards  different  parts  of  the 
room,  that  portion  of  the  school  which  is  under  his  eye  is  con- 
strainedly quiet  and  submissive,  while  that  portion  which  he 


REPORT   FOR   1845.  449 

does  not  see  starts  out  into  a  hundred  disorders,  as  wild 
beasts  rush  forth  when  the  light  of  day  is  withdrawn,  —  if  such 
be  the  general  aspect  of  the  school,  then  an  intelligent  spectator 
becomes  as  certain  at  the  end  of  five  minutes  as  he  would  be 
at  the  end  of  a  week  that  the  teacher  holds  his  place  only  by 
the  law  of  force.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  if  the  scholars  seem 
almost  unconscious  of  the  teacher's  presence  ;  if  they  are  unob- 
servant in  what  part  of  the  room  he  stands,  or  in  which  direc- 
tion he  may  be  looking  ;  if  he  can  step  out  at  the  door  to  speak 
to  a  visitor,  or  into  a  recitation-room  to  inspect  a  class,  and  i-e- 
main  absent  for  five  or  ten  minutes  without  there  being  any 
buzz  or  whirring  in  the  schoolroom,  —  then  one  may  feel  the 
delightful  assurance  that  such  a  school  is  under  the  sway  of  a 
serene  and  majestic  authority,  —  the  authority  of  the  great 
law  of  duty  and  love.  I  have  seen  many  schools  of  each  class 
iii  Massachusetts ;  and  I  feel  warranted  in  saying,  that,  in 
point  of  numbers,  the  latter  class  is  rapidly  gaining  upon  the 
former. 

There  is  a  small  class  of  schools  intermediate  between  the 
two  above  described,  where  the  teacher,  through  a  false  ambi- 
tion of  having  it  said  that  he  can  govern  by  moral  suasion, 
or  through  fear  of  losing  his  place,  or  from  some  equally  un- 
worthy motive,  seeks  to  govern  without  resort  to  corporal  pun- 
ishment, but  still  has  not  the  skill  that  can  interest  children  in 
their  studies,  nor  the  spiritual  ascendency  that  can  control  their 
waywardness.  But  no  low  motive  can  ever  perform  the  office 
of  a  high  one.  The  laws  of  Nature  will  not  be  circumvented. 
High  influences  without  can  only  come  from  high  principles 
within.  If  a  teacher  would  govern  by  intellectual  and  moral 
power,  he  must  possess  intellectual  and  moral  power ;  and  no 
spurious  or  counterfeit  similitudes  of  them  can  borrow  or  steal 
their  efficacy.  There  is  great  beauty  iu  the  Romish  supersti- 
tion, that  the  moment  consecrated  water  is  sold  it  is  desecrated. 
It  loses  its  quality  of  holiness  by  the  unhallowed  motive  that 
transfers  it.  The  spirit  of  the  sentiment  applies  to  the  preseut 
case.  The  teacher  who  would  govern  by  the  law  of  love  must 

29 


450  ANNUAL   REPORTS    ON   EDUCATION. 

have  faith  in  the  law  of  love.  In  the  absence  of  this,  he  will 
be  compelled  to  resort  to  coaxing  or  wheedling  or  hiring  chil- 
dren to  be  good,  which  is  like  the  sin  of  laying  a  false  offering 
upon  the  altar  of  the  Lord. 

Immediately  on  opening  a  school,  an  important  question 
arises  as  to  the  expediency  or  inexpediency  of  promulgating  a 
code  of  laws  for  its  government.  It  is  the  practice  of  some 
teachers  to  announce  orally,  during  the  first  day  or  half-day  of 
the  school,  the  rules  whose  observance  they  shall  require,  and 
whose  infraction  they  shall  punish.  Others  prepare  Avritten 
statutes,  sanctioned  by  specific  penalties,  which  they  post  up  in 
some  conspicuous  place  in  the  schoolroom,  so  as  to  give  a  warn- 
ing to  transgressors,  and  to  provide  themselves  with  a  ready 
answer  should  the  plea  of  ignorance  be  urged  by  any  offender. 
Other  teachers  anticipate  the  commission  of  no  offence,  but  wait 
until  one  occurs  before  they  expound  its  demerits  or  prescribe 
its  consequences. 

It  seems  to  me  that  very  serious  objections  lie  against  the 
promulgation  of  a  code  of  laws,  either  oral  or  written,  in  ad- 
vance or  at  the  commencement  of  the  school.  If  this  be  done, 
the  scholars  instantly  adopt  the  well-known  principle  of  legal 
construction,  that  what  is  not  included  is  excluded ;  and  hence 
that  every  thing  is  permitted  which  is  not  prohibited.  But  as 
he  is  a  bad  citizen  who  has  no  higher  rule  of  action  than  the 
law  of  the  land,  so  is  he  a  bad  scholar  who  has  no  other 
restraint  against  wrong-doing  than  the  prohibitions  of  the 
teacher.  No  code  ever  framed  by  the  ingenuity  of  man,  how- 
ever voluminous  or  detailed  it  may  have  been,  ever  enumerated 
a  tithe  of  the  acts  which  an  enlightened  conscience  will  con- 
demn ;  and  no  language  was  ever  so  exact  and  perspicuous  as 
to  be  proof  against  sophistry  and  tergiversation.  The  jurisdic- 
tion of  the  conscience  is  infinitely  more  comprehensive  than 
that  of  the  statute-book.  7s  it  right  f  and  not,  Is  it  ^vritten  ?  is 
the  question  to  be  propounded  in  the  forum  of  conscience. 
Each  scholar  brings  a  conscience  to  school.  If  it  has  not  been 
previously  enlightened  on  any  given  point  of  duty,  then  there 


REPORT   FOR    1845.  451 

is  no  punishable  blame  in  the  breach  of  that  duty ;  if  it  has 
been  previously  enlightened,  then  the  tribunal  is  already  open 
before  which  the  culprit  should  be  arraigned. 

Besides,  as  most  of  our  schools  consist  of  scholars  differing 
very  much  from  each  other  in  regard  to  age  and  intelligence, 
the  rules  applicable  to  one  portion  of  them  may  be  very  unsuit- 
able to  another ;  and  yet,  if  relaxed  or  suspended  in  one  case, 
the  idea  of  their  permanency  and  immutability  will  be  destroyed, 
and  with  that  all  their  moral  efficacy  ceases.  So  there  may  be 
cases  where  peculiar  circumstances  will  take  an  action  out  of 
the  spirit  of  a  rule,  while  they  leave  it  within  the  letter.  Sup- 
pose, for  instance,  in  consideration  of  the  many  mischiefs 
which  follow  in  the  train  of  whispering  and  other  modes  of 
communication  between  scholars,  they  are  peremptorily  and 
altogether  forbidden ;  and  suppose  that,  the  next  day,  a  child 
exhibits  symptoms  of  extreme  distress,  or  of  fainting,  or  is 
exposed  to  some  danger  which  requires  instant  warning,  shall 
the  general  rule  be  observed  at  the  expense  of  any  conse- 
quences? or,  if  violated,  shall  it  be  punished? 

Doubtless,  too,  it  has  happened,  and  not  very  unfrequently, 
that  the  idea  of  the  offence  was  originally  suggested  by  the 
prohibition  ;  and  thus  the  law  has  led  to  its  own  infraction,  as, 
with  ignorant  and  superstitious  persons,  predictions  often  pro- 
cure their  own  fulfilment.* 

But  there  is  a  great  variety  of  duties  to  be  performed  in  a 
schoolroom,  as  well  as  of  offences  to  be  avoided.  Would  it  not 
be  more  appropriate  to  go  into  a  detail  of  these  duties,  and 
expound  their  reasons  and  their  rewards,  rather  than  to  set 
forth  an  array  of  offences  with  their  penalties  ?  And  are  there 
no  methods  by  which  the  teacher  can  commend  the  duties 
beforehand  to  the  good-will  of  the  scholars  ;  ingratiate  them,  as 

*  The  story  of  the  Catholic  priest  and  the  hostler  is  not  inapposite.  When  a 
hostler  had  finished  making  confession  of  his  sins,  the  priest  inquired  of  him  if  he 
had  ever  greased  the  teeth  of  his  customers'  horses  to  prevent  them  from  eating 
their  oats.  The  hostler  not  only  replied  in  the  negative,  but  said  he  had  never 
heard  of  such  a  thing.  The  next  time  he  went  to  the  confessional,  the  first 
offence  which  he  had  to  acknowledge  was,  that  he  had  been  greasing  the  teeth  of 
his  customers'  horses. 


452  ANNUAL   REPORTS    ON  EDUCATION. 

it  were,  into  the  mind  of  the  school,  and  thus  exclude  much 
that  is  bad  by  a  pre-occupancy  of  the  ground  with  what  is 
good  ?  I  would  commend  a  course  by  which  not  only  have 
some  excellent  schools  sustained  their  character  for  excellence, 
but  by  which  some  indifferent  schools  have  been  made  excel- 
lent. It  is  that  of  employing  the  first  'hour,  or  perhaps  more, 
of  the  first  day  of  a  term,  in  a  familiar  and  colloquial  exposi- 
tion of  the  objects  of  the  school,  and  the  means  which  it  is 
indispensable  to  observe  for  the  accomplishment  of  those  ob- 
jects. Certainly  all  the  older  children,  in  all  schools  above  the 
rank  of  the  primary,  are  capable  of  understanding  something, 
both  of  the  advantages  and  the  pleasures  of  knowledge  ;  of  the 
connection  between  present  conduct  and  future  respectability  ; 
of  the  different  emotions  which  arise  in  the  mind  after  the  per- 
formance of  a  good  and  of  an  evil  action,  and  of  the  inherent 
tendencies  both  of  virtuous  and  of  vicious  habits  to  accelerate 
their  course  towards  happiness  or  misery.  Excepting  the 
comparatively  few  cases  of  implicit  faith,  a  child  will  not  be 
deterred  from  wrong,  unless  he  sees  it  to  be  wrong,  any  more 
than  he  will  shrink  back  from  a  precipice  from  whose  brink 
he  is  about  to  step,  if  ignorant  of  its  existence.  If  the  moral 
precipice  were  made  as  visible  as  the  natural  can  be,  might  we 
not  hope  that  fewer  victims  would  be  precipitated  into  the 
abyss  of  ruin? 

A  vast  deal  of  the  success  of  a  school  depends  upon  the  first 
impression  made  by  the  teacher  upon  it.  And  by  a  well-con- 
ducted conversation  with  the  scholars  at  its  commencement, 
and  before  any  prejudices  against  its  requirements  have  sprung 
up,  or  any  temptations  to  disobedience  have  been  presented,  the 
good-will  of  many,  to  say  the  least,  may  be  propitiated.  There 
are  some  points,  indeed,  absolutely  essential  to  the  prosperity  of 
a  school,  respecting  which  the  teacher  is  in  the  hands  of  the 
scholars,  —  wholly  dependent  upon  their  co-operation,  —  such 
as  the  punctuality  and  regularity  of  their  attendance,  and,  not 
unfrequently,  their  beiug  provided  with  text-books  and  other 
instruments  of  learning.  And,  in  regard  to  other  points  falling 


REPORT   FOR    1845.  453 

more  directly  within  the  teacher's  control,  his  only  hope  of 
reaching  the  highest  success  depends  upon  securing  their  assist- 
ance. A  few  hours,  therefore,  at  the  beginning  of  a  school, 
and  an  occasional  one  afterwards,  as  the  age  and  capacities  of 
the  scholars  may  require,  may  be  most  beneficially  spent  in  a 
familiar  exposition  of  the  great  purposes  for  which  the  school 
has  been  opened,  and  of  the  means  and  observances  by  which 
alone  its  highest  prosperity  can  be  secured.  A  teacher  can 
hardly  enter  a  school  of  children,  collected  from  various  fami- 
lies, and  subjected  to  various  home-influences,  without  finding 
some,  at  least,  who  have  an  essentially  false  view  of  the  object 
for  which  they  have  attended.  He  must  throw  light  forward 
to  show  them  the  true  nature  of  that  object.  Among  the  topics 
introduced  by  him,  in  his  first  friendly  discourse  to  the  youthful 
group  collected  around  him,  may  be  the  duty  of  cultivating 
the  spirit  of  honor,  and  of  kindness  to  each  other ;  a  desire  for 
each  other's  improvement  as  well  as  for  their  own  ;  and  a  de- 
termination generously  to  assist  their  companions  in  improving 
the  advantages  of  the  school.  Let  him  deprecate  the  meanness 
that  would  try  to  put  off  blame  upon  another  for  the  sake  of 
shielding  one's  self;  that  would  even  risk  the  concealment 
of  a  fault  for  which  another  might  be  unjustly  blamed  or  sus- 
pected ;  that  would  triumph  in  any  success  which  would  give 
pain  to  the  innocent ;  and  let  him  fill  their  bosoms  with  a  noble 
scorn  of  deception  and  falsehood.  Let  him  make  his  company 
of  hearers  perceive  that  knowledge  should  only  be  trusted  to 
those  who  will  use  it  conscientiously ;  and  this  he  can  do  by 
a  graphical  description  of  some  immoral  great  man,  who  has 
used  power  and  knowledge  for  selfish  and  wicked  purposes. 
Let  him  convince  them  that  he  intends  to  bring  into  the  school- 
room none  but  the  highest  motives,  and  that  it  is  alike  their 
duty  and  interest  to  bring  into  the  schoolroom  none  but  the 
highest  motives.  Let  more  or  less  of  these  topics  be  introduced 
again,  —  particularly  on  the  accession  of  new  members  to  the 
school,  and  before  time  has  been  allowed  them  for  practising  or 
inventing  any  adroit  measures  of  defiance  or  deception.  If  new 


454         ANNUAL  REPORTS  ON  EDUCATION. 

children,  when  they  come  into  a  school,  find  its  tone  a  high 
one,  and  its  habits  generous  and  manly,  they  will,  almost 
invariably,  be  assimilated  to  the  prevalent  sentiment.  Extraor- 
dinary cases  of  perversity  may,  indeed,  occur ;  but  if  the  new 
pupils  see  that  the  denizens  of  the  school  make  it  a  matter  of 
honor  to  govern  themselves,  instead  of  being  governed  by  a  set 
of  arbitrary  rules  ;  if  they  see  such  confidence  existing  between 
teacher  and  pupils,  that  each  is  ready  to  trust  the  other,  and 
that  the  interests  of  both  sides  are  the  same,  instead  of  clashing 
like  those  of  enemies,  —  they  will  be  ashamed  to  stand  out  as 
exceptions,  as  ugly,  misshapen  creatures,  in  a  company  where 
all  others  are  beautiful. 

One  of  the  highest  and  most  valuable  objects  to  which  the 
influences  of  a  school  can  be  made  conducive  consists  in  train- 
ing our  children  to  self-government.  The  doctrine  of  no-gov- 
ernment, even  if  all  forms  of  violence  did  not  meet  the  first 
day  to  celebrate  its  introduction  by  a  jubilee,  would  forfeit  all 
the  power  that  originates  in  concert  and  union.  So  tremen- 
dous, too,  are  the  evils  of  anarchy  and  lawlessness,  that  a 
government  by  mere  force,  however  arbitrary  and  cruel,  has 
been  held  preferable  to  no-government.  But  self-government, 
self-control,  a  voluntary  compliance  with  the  laws  of  reason 
and  duty,  have  been  justly  considered  as  the  highest  point  of 
excellence  attainable  by  a  human  being.  No  one,  however, 
can  consciously  obey  the  laws  of  reason  and  duty  until  he 
understands  them :  hence  the  preliminary  necessity  of  their 
being  clearly  explained,  of  their  being  made  to  stand  out,  broad, 
lofty,  and  as  conspicuous  as  a  mountain  against  a  clear  sky. 
There  may  be  blind  obedience  without  a  knowledge  of  the 
law,  but  only  of  the  will  of  the  lawgiver;  but  the  first  step 
towards  rational  obedience  is  a  knowledge  of  the  rule  to  be 
obeyed,  and  of  the  reasons  on  which  it  is  founded. 

The  above  doctrine  acquires  extraordinary  force  in  view  of 
our  political  institutions,  founded,  as  they  are,  upon  the  great 
idea  of  the  capacity  of  man  for  self-government,  —  an  idea  so 
long  denounced  by  the  State  as  treasonable,  and  by  the  Church 


REPORT   FOR   1845.  455 

as  heretical.  In  order  that  men  may  be  prepared  for  self-gov- 
ernment, their  apprenticeship  must  commence  in  childhood. 
The  great  moral  attribute  of  self-government  cannot  be  born 
and  matured  in  a  day ;  and,  if  school-children  are  not  trained 
to  it,  we  only  prepare  ourselves  for  disappointment  if  we 
expect  it  from  grown  men.  Everybody  acknowledges  the 
justness  of  the  declaration,  that  a  foreign  people,  born  and 
bred  and  dwarfed  under  the  despotisms  of  the  Old  World,  can- 
not be  transformed  into  the  full  stature  of  American  citizens 
merely  by  a  voyage  across  the  Atlantic,  or  by  subscribing  the 
oath  of  naturalization.  If  they  retain  the  servility  in  which 
they  have  been  trained,  some  self-appointed  lord  or  priest  on 
this  side  of  the  water  will  succeed  to  the  authority  of  the 
master  whom  they  have  left  behind  them.  If,  on  the  other 
hand,  they  identify  liberty  with  an  absence  from  restraint  and 
an  immunity  from  punishment,  then  they  are  liable  to  become 
intoxicated  and  delirious  with  the  highly-stimulating  properties 
of  the  air  of  freedom ;  and  thus,  in  either  case,  they  remain 
unfitted,  until  they  have  become  morally  acclimated  to  our 
institutions,  to  exercise  the  rights  of  a  freeman.  But  can  it 
make  any  substantial  difference  whether  a  man  is  suddenly 
translated  into  all  the  independence  and  prerogatives  of  an 
American  citizen,  from  the  bondage  of  an  Irish  lord  or  an 
English  manufacturer,  or  from  the  equally  rigorous  bondage 
of  a  parent,  guardian,  or  school-teacher?  He  who  has  been  a 
serf  until  the  day  before  he  is  twenty-one  years  of  age  cannot 
be  an  independent  citizen  the  day  after  ;  and  it  makes  no  differ- 
ence whether  he  has  been  a  serf  in  Austria  or  in  America.  As 
the  fitting  apprenticeship  for  despotism  consists  in  being  trained 
to  despotism,  so  the  fitting  apprenticeship  for  self-government 
consists  in  being  trained  to  self-government ;  and  the  law  of 
force  and  authority  is  as  appropriate  a  preparation  for  the  sub- 
jects of  an  arbitrary  power  as  liberty  and  self-imposed  law  are 
for  developing  and  maturing  those  sentiments  of  self-respect, 
of  honor,  and  of  dignity,  which  belong  to  a  truly  republican 
citizen.  Were  we  hereafter  to  govern  irresponsibly,  then  our 


456  ANNUAL   REPOKT3   ON   EDUCATION. 

being  forced  to  yield  implicit  obedience  to  an  irresponsible 
governor  would  prepare  us  to  play  the  tyrant  in  our  turn  ;  but 
if  we  are  to  govern  by  virtue  of  a  law  which  embraces  all, 
which  overlays  all,  which  includes  the  governor  as  well  as  the 
governed,  then  lessons  of  obedience  should  be  inculcated  upon 
childhood  in  reference  to  that  sacred  law.  If  there  are  no  two 
things  wider  asunder  than  freedom  and  slavery,  then  must  the 
course  of  training  which  fits  children  for  these  two  opposite 
conditions  of  life  be  as  diverse  as  the  points  to  which  they 
lead.  Now,  for  the  high  purpose  of  training  an  American 
child  to  become  an  American  citizen,  —  a  constituent  part  of  a 
self-governing  people,  — is  it  not  obvious  that,  in  all  cases,  the 
law  by  which  he  is  to  be  bound  should  be  made  intelligible  to 
him?  and,  as  soon  as  his  capacity  will  permit,  that  the  reasons 
on  which  it  is  founded  should  be  made  as  intelligible  as  the 
law  itself? 

This  view  of  the  subject  does  not  trench  one  hair's-breadth 
upon  the  great  doctrine  of  order  and  subordination.  It  only 
contests  the  claim  to  arbitrary  power  on  the  one  side,  and  its 
correlative,  blind  submission,  on  the  other :  it  discards  these 
as  substitutes  for  moral  power  and  voluntary  obedience,  and 
there  it  stops.  The  great  question  is,  to  whom  or  to  what 
the  obedience  or  subordination  is  due.  It  is  primarily  due  to 
the  law,  —  to  the  law  written  upon  the  heart,  —  to  the  law  of 
God.  The  teacher  is  the  representative  and  the  interpreter  of 
that  law.  He  is  clothed  with  power  to  punish  its  violations  ; 
but  this  comprehends  only  the  smallest  part  of  his  duty.  As 
far  as  possible,  he  is  .to  prevent  violations  of  it  by  rectifying 
that  state  of  mind  out  of  which  violations  come.  Nor  is  it 
enough  that  the  law  be  obeyed.  As  far  as  possible,  he  is  to 
see  that  it  is  obeyed  from  right  motives.  As  a  moral  act,  blind 
obedience  is  without  value.  As  a  moral  act,  also,  obedience 
through  fear  is  without  value  ;  and  not  only  so,  but,  as  soon 
as  the  fear  is  removed,  the  restrained  impulses  will  break  out, 
and  demand  the  arrears  of  indulgence  as  a  long-delayed  debt. 
To  prevent  misunderstanding,  however,  I  wish  to  define  the 


EEPORT   FOR    1845.  457 

term  "  fear,"  as  here  used.  It  is  here  used  to  signify  a  dread  of 
bodily  pain  or  injury,  or  of  personal  loss.  In  reference  to  the 
Divine  Being,  the  term  is  used  in  a  widely  different  sense. 
That  fear  of  the  Lord  which  "is  the  beginning  of  wisdom" 
includes  the  emotion  of  awe  and  reverence.  It  is  not  a  servile, 
but  a  filial  fear.  It  is  a  sentiment  which  an  enlightened  con- 
science can  never  experience  towards  an  unworthy  object ;  and 
which,  therefore,  an  unworthy  object  can  never  inspire.  But 
the  mere  dread  of  personal  harm,  as  the  consequence  of  wrong- 
doing, is  not  curative :  it  is  not  restorative.  It  may  warn,  it 
may  arrest,  it  may  check,  the  outward  commission  of  wrong ; 
and  its  use  for  these  purposes,  to  any  extent  which  circum- 
stances may  require,  is  legitimate.  But,  with  the  prevention 
of  wrong,  its  functions  end.  Though  it  may  make  an  offender 
cease  to  do  ill,  it  can  never,  by  its  own  efficacy,  make  him 
love  to  do  well ;  as  poison  may  arrest  a  disease,  though  it 
cannot  restore  a  patient  to  health.  By  suppressing  outbreaks, 
by  restraining  waywardness,  fear  may  prepare  the  way  for  the 
introduction  of  higher  motives  of  action  ;  but,  if  the  aid  of  these 
higher  motives  be  not  then  invoked,  the  ground  of  justification 
for  using  the  fear  is  taken  away.  A  reform  in  character  may 
be  begun  by  fear ;  but,  if  it  ends  in  fear,  it  will  prove  to  be  no 
reform.  When  the  spendthrift  finds  he  is  approaching  the  last 
dollar  of  his  patrimony,  and  gaunt  hunger  and  want  begin  to 
stare  him  in  the  face,  he  is  admonished  to  desist ;  and,  under 
the  terror  of  these  impending  evils,  he  arrests  his  course  of  riot 
and  dissipation.  But  this  terror  does  not  inspire  him  with  the 
least  love  of  temperance  and  industry.  A  habit  of  diligence 
and  sobriety  must  come,  if  it  comes  at  all,  from  the  working  of 
other  motives  within  him.  Without  the  restraint  of  higher 
motives,  should  another  inheritance  unexpectedly  descend  to 
him,  he  would  return  to  his  "  wallowing  in  the  mire."  The 
bond-servants  of  fear  always  do  as  little  as  they  can  ;  because 
they  do  nothing  for  the  love  of  the  thing  done,  but  only  to 
avoid  some  painful  consequences  if  it  be  not  done.  Work, 
whether  of  the  hand  or  of  the  mind,  which  is  not  performed 


458  ANNUAL    REPORTS    ON   EDUCATION. 

from  a  love  of  it,  is  never  performed  with  that  zest  or  alacrity 
which  the  love  of  it  inspires.  An  external  act  of  duty  miiv  be 
done  ;  but  it  is  done,  not  from  a  willing,  but  from  a  repugnant, 
not  from  a  dutiful,  but  from  a  rebellious  heart.  The  mind 
will  disown  what  the  hand  performs  ;  while  each  movement 
and  each  moment  will  deepen  disgust  towards  it.  This  is  so 
clear,  even  to  the  intellect,  that  some  of  the  more  sagacious 
slave-drivers  at  the  South  are  substituting  motives  of  personal 
profit,  of  appetite,  and  the  love  of  tawdriuess,  for  the  scourge. 
They  have  been  led  to  this,  not  from  compassion,  but  from  cu- 
pidity. They  find  the  sum  total  of  profits  at  the  end  of  the 
year  to  be  greater  under  the  use  of  pleasurable  motives  than 
under  the  use  of  painful  ones.  Formerly  (and,  to  a  great 
extent,  even  at  present)  they  used  the  motive  of  bodily  fear 
and  smart, — the  motive  by  which  the  tyrant  maintains  his 
power,  by  which  the  savage  enforces  obedience  to  his  will, 
by  which  the  brute  secures  its  prey.  But  the  eyes  of  some  of 
them  have  been  opened  to  see  the  neighboring  motives,  as  they 
lie  arranged  along  the  great  scale,  from  the  brutish  to  the  an- 
gelic ;  and  they  now  avail  themselves  of  the  love  of  appetite, 
the  love  of  approbation,  the  desire  of  being  bedizened  with 
gaudy  colors,  and  so  forth,  as  more  efficient  agencies  than  pain. 
Doubtless  the  quantity  of  their  work  will  be  increased,  and  its 
quality  improved,  as  their  masters  ascend  higher  and  higher 
in  the  scale  of  motive-powers.  Teachers  should  be  children 
of  light,  and  they  should  not  permit  the  children  of  Mam- 
mon to  be  wiser  in  their  generation  than  they.  It  should 
never  be  forgotten  that  the  highest  duty  of  a  teacher  is  to  pro- 
duce the  greatest  quantity  and  the  purest  quality  of  moral 
action. 

Fear,  then,  is  no  more  to  be  proscribed  from  the  teacher's 
list  of  motives  than  arseuic  and  henbane  from  the  inateria 
medico,  of  the  physician  ;  but  the  teacher  or  parent  who  uses 
nothing  but  fear  commits  a  far  greater  error  than  the  physician 
who  uses  nothing  but  poison.  Let  all  wise  and  good  men  unite 
their  efforts  so  to  improve  both  the  moral  and  the  physical 


REPORT   FOR    1845.  459 

health  of  the  community,  as  gradually  and  regularly  to  dimin- 
ish, and  finally  to  supersede,  the  necessity  of  either. 

The  maxim  embodied  in  the  law  of  the  land,  and  sustained 
by  the  good  sense  of  all  communities,  that  the  teacher  stands 
in  loco  parentis,  that  is,  in  the  parent's  place  or  stead,  has  been 
a  thousand  times  repeated.  By  virtue  of  this  relation,  he  is 
authorized  to  do,  for  all  the  purposes  within  his  jurisdiction, 
what  the  parent  might  rightfully  do  under  like  circumstances. 
But  he  stands  in  the  parent's  place,  for  love  as  well  as  for  power, 
for  duty  as  well  as  for  authority.  If  a  father  has  any  right  to 
punish  a  child  whose  reason  he  has  never  attempted  to  enlight- 
en, whose  conscience  he  has  never  sought  to  develop,  it  is  a 
right  founded  upon  the  previous  commission,  on  his  part,  of 
the  highest  wrong.  If  preventives  and  milder  remedies  have 
not  been  used  to  avert  the  ultimate  necessity  of  violent  applica- 
tions, then  the  parent,  in  regard  to  every  offence  which  demands 
the  application  of  violence,  is  an  accessory  before  the  fact,  a 
suborner  to  the  crime,  and  justly  incurs  the  largest  share  of  its 
guilt.  If  the  rights  of  the  teacher  as  to  the  exercise  of  power 
are  commensurate  with  the  rights  of  the  parent,  so  are  the 
teacher's  duties  also,  in  regard  to  the  motives  from  which  he 
acts,  commensurate  with  parental  duties. 

A  question  connected  with  this  subject  has  been  often  dis- 
cussed ;  and  the  practice  is  different  in  different  parts  of  the 
State.  It  is,  whether  refractory  and  disobedient  scholars  should 
be  dismissed  from  the  school,  or  retained  in  it  and  subdued. 
If  a  teacher  stands  in  the  place  of  the  parent,  why  should  he 
dismiss  any  scholar  from  his  school  (unless  temporarily),  any 
more  than  a  parent  should  expel  a  child  from  his  household? 
There  is  no  Botany  Bay  to  which  such  a  child  can  be  banished. 
Instead  of  crossing  the  ocean  to  another  hemisphere,  he  remains 
at  home.  For  all  purposes  of  evil,  he  continues  in  the  midst 
of  the  very  children  from  among  whom  he  was  cast  out ;  and, 
when  he  associates  with  them  out  of  school,  there  is  no  one 
present  to  abate  or  neutralize  his  pernicious  influences.  If  the 
expelled  pupil  be  driven  from  the  district  where  he  belongs  into 


460  ANNUAL   REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

another,  in  order  to  prevent  his  contaminations  at  home,  what 
better  can  be  expected  from  the  people  of  the  place  to  which  he 
is  sent  than  a  reciprocation  of  the  deed,  by  their  sending  one 
of  their  outcasts  to  supply  his  place,  and  thus  opening  a  com- 
merce of  evil  upon  free-trade  principles?  Nothing  is  gained 
while  the  evil  purpose  remains  in  the  heart.  Reformation  is 
the  great  desideratum  ;  and  can  any  lover  of  his  country  hesi- 
tate between  the  alternatives  of  forcible  subjugation  and  victo- 
rious contumacy?  In  extreme  cases,  however,  the  school- 
committee  have  an  undoubted  legal  right  to  expel  a  scholar 
from  school. 

But,  in  those  cases  where  the  clangerousness  of  the  symptoms 
will  no  longer  permit  delay,  there  is  an  immense  difference  in 
the  modes  of  treating  a  malady.  We  know  that  a  mere  pre- 
tender to  medical  or  surgical  knowledge  will  aggravate  the 
puncture  of  a  pin  into  a  mortification,  fatal  to  life  ;  while,  by 
anodyne  and  restorative,  the  skilful  practitioner  will  cure  the 
gangrene  itself.  So,  in  the  case  of  a  distempered  will,  it  may 
be  inflamed  and  exasperated,  by  fiery  and  passionate  appliances, 
into  incorrigibleness  and  misanthropy ;  or,  on  the  other  hand, 
it  may  be  restored  to  soundness  and  docility  by  reproofs  or 
chastisements  administered  in  wisdom  and  love. 

But  after  the  school  has  commenced,  when  classes  have  been 
formed,  and  the  routine  of  exercises  begun,  it  is  then  that 
opportunities,  without  number  and  without  end,  will  present 
themselves  for  inspiring  sentiments  and  cultivating  habits  of 
order,  of  decorum,  of  honor,  of  justice,  and  of  truth  ;  or,  on  the 
other  hand,  of  engendering  a  brood  of  base  and  dissocial  feel- 
ings, —  unkindness,  evasion,  hypocrisy,  dishonesty,  and  false- 
hood. Nay,  the  teacher  may  be  entirely  honest  and  sincere 
himself;  and  yet,  from  having  his  mind  too  intently  and  exclu- 
sively fixed  upon  the  intellectual  progress  of  his  pupils,  he  may 
be  regardless  of  the  moral  impulses  which  secure  that  progress, 
and  of  the  emotions  which  attend  it.  Every  true  teacher  will 
consider  the  train  of  feeling,  not  less  than  the  train  of  thought, 
which  is  evolved  by  the  exercises  of  the  schoolroom. 


REPORT   FOR    1845.  461 

Here  opens  a  most  important  and  difficult  subject.  So  far  as 
I  know,  it  has  never  been  comprehensively  or  minutely  treated 
by  any  writer.  It  is  impossible  for  me  to  do  it  justice.  I  enter 
upon  it  with  undissembled  diffidence  ;  yet  such  is  its  intrinsic 
importance,  and  so  often,  when  visiting  schools,  have  I  seen 
exemplifications  of  wrong  where  I  was  sure  the  teacher  in- 
tended only  what  was  right,  that  I  can  no  longer  forbear  to 
attempt  an  elucidation  of  its  merits.  May  others  be  led  to 
investigate  and  expound  it,  until  it  assumes  a  prominence  and 
commands  an  attention  corresponding  to  its  magnitude  ! 

After  the  provisional  classification  of  a  school,  the  first  busi- 
ness ordinarily  consists  in  setting  lessons  and  hearing  recita- 
tions. In  all  schools  having  any  claim  to  respectability,  im- 
perfect recitations  incur  some  unpleasant  consequences.  In 
some,  it  is  only  a  forfeiture  of  the  teacher's  approval ;  in  some, 
it  is  a  record  of  failure  ;  in  some,  after  a  fixed  number  of  fail- 
ures, it  is  corporal  punishment,  the  infliction  of  which  cancels 
the  old  score,  aud  opens  the  books  for  a  new  account.  In  all 
decent  schools,  an  imperfect  recitation  is  a  thing  which  the 
pupils  deprecate  ;  but  the  means  of  preventing  it,  or  of  avoiding 
the  appearance  of  it,  arc  various. 

In  the  first  place,  the  teacher  can  insure  any  number  of  im- 
perfect recitations  by  giving  too  long  or  too  difficult  lessons,  — 
lessons  beyond  the  ability  of  the  scholars  to  learn ;  and  thus 
a  mere  mistake  in  judgment,  on  the  part  of  the  teacher,  may 
lead  to  discouragement  or  fraud  on  the  part  of  the  pupils.  Les- 
sons should  be  such  that  they  can  be  competently  mastered  by 
all  the  scholars  in  the  class,  unless  in  cases  of  remarkable  dul- 
ness.  Some  of  the  less  forward  or  less  bright  may  require  a 
little  extra  assistance,  which  should  be  freely  rendered  to 
them ;  but,  if  there  be  any  members  of  the  class  who  cannot 
make  themselves  tolerably  well  acquainted  with  the  lessons, 
they  should  be  removed  to  a  lower  class.  Habitually  to  break 
down  at  a  recitation  has  a  most  disastrous  influence  on  the 
character  of  a  child.  It  depresses  the  spirits,  takes  away  all 
the  animation  and  strength  derived  from  hope,  and  utterly 


462  ANNUAL    REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

destroys  the  ideal  of  intellectual  accuracy,  which  is  next  iu 
importance  to  moral  accuracy,  —  on  which,  indeed,  moral  ac- 
curacy often  depends.  It  is  still  worse  when  the  whole  class 
fails.  Shame  never  belongs  to  multitudes.  It  is  a  feeling 
which  arises  when  we  contrast  our  own  deficiency  or  miscon- 
duct with  the  opposite  qualities  in  others  ;  but  where  all  are 
equally  deficient,  or  equally  wrong,  there  is  no  opportunity  for 
such  a  contrast.  Common  deficiency  at  the  recitation  begets 
a  mingled  feeling  of  contempt  for  the  study,  and  recklessness 
of  reputation,  which  is  fatal  to  all  advancement.  It  may  begin 
by  merely  disheartening  the  pupil ;  but  it  will  soon  become  dis- 
gust towards  the  study,  and  aversion  from  the  teacher.  Few 
things  are  of  more  baneful  tendency  than  to  have  a  scholar  or  a 
class  leave  the  recitation-stand,  after  a  half-hour  of  blundering 
and  darkness,  with  no  sense  of  shame  or  regret  at  the  dishonor. 
Few  things  are  of  more  evil  augury  than  for  children  to  be- 
come so  inured,  by  frequency,  to  having  marks  of  discredit 
entered  against  their  names,  that  they  grow  indifferent  and  cal- 
lous to  a  recorded  censure.  Such  children  lose  all  that  delicacy 
of  feeling,  that  fine  sensitiveness  to  honor,  which  are  strong 
outposts  of  virtuous  principle.  Day  after  day,  to  have  a  dis- 
honorable mark  set  upon  the  body,  or  the  hand,  or  on  the  name, 
without  any  feeling  of  regret,  or  effort  at  amendment,  is  as  de- 
plorable for  a  boy  or  a  girl  as  it  would  be  for  a  man  or  a 
woman  to  receive,  without  shame  and  without  compunction,  a 
tenth  or  a  twentieth  sentence  to  the  house  of  correction  or  jail. 
The  former,  indeed,  foretokens  the  latter. 

But  suppose  the  character  of  the  lesson  to  be  rightly  adjusted 
to  the  capacity  of  the  learner,  still  a  brood  of  temptations  lurk 
around.  In  the  first  place,  there  is  the  device  of  getting  one 
part  of  the  lesson  better  than  the  rest,  under  the  expectation 
of  being  questioned  on  that  part.  How  often  has  this  beeu 
done  !  In  some  of  the  studies,  it  is  to  be  forestalled  and  ex- 
cluded by  the  method,  before  described,  of  putting  each  ques- 
tion to  the  whole  class,  waiting  a  sufficient  time  for  each  pupil 
to  think  out  the  answer  in  his  own  rniud,  and  then  calling  upon 


REPORT   FOR   1845.  463 

some  one  by  name  to  answer  it.  The  naming  of  the  scholar 
to  give  the  answer  should  be  in  no  set  order,  but  promiscuous. 
This  method  especially  applies  to  grammar,  to  oral  spelling, 
to  oral  recitations  in  geography,  and  to  mental  arithmetic.  In 
written  arithmetic,  a  question  for  solution  may  be  propounded, 
and  one  pupil  required  to  state  the  first  step  in  the  process,  and 
then  another  pupil  in  another  part  of  the  class  the  second  step, 
and  so  on,  until  the  explanation  is  completed.  Where  there  is, 
as  there  should  be  in  every  schoolroom,  a  sufficient  extent  of 
blackboard  to  allow  the  whole  class  to  stand  before  it  at  once, 
a  separate  question  may  be  given  to  each  member  of  the  class, 
to  be  wrought  upon  it.  Occasionally,  when  the  solution  is 
half  completed,  the  pupils  may  be  transposed,  and  each  one 
required  to  examine  and  complete  his  neighbor's  work. 

Such  are  some  of  the  methods  —  to  be  constantly  varied  and 
interchanged  —  by  which  Ihe  temptation  to  deal  treacherously 
with  the  lesson  may  be  met  and  defeated.  And  yet  the  teacher 
should  make  no  avowal  that  he  entertains  suspicious  against 
any  individual,  and  designs  to  baffle  his  plans  for  deception. 
He  uses  these  means  only  for  banishing  temptation  where  it 
exists,  and  for  shutting  the  door  against  it  where  its  invasion 
is  threatened.  Temptation  may  be  analyzed  into  two  elements, 
—  desire  and  opportunity.  Take  away  the  desu*e,  and  the 
opportunity  can  work  no  harm  ;  take  away  the  opportunity, 
and  the  desire  is  baffled.  The  former  course  is  the  better, 
when  it  can  be  taken ;  but  here  the  latter  is  recommended  as 
one  of  the  means  of  accomplishing  the  former. 

It  sometimes  happens  that  scholars  experiment  upon  the 
numbers,  or  terms,  of  an  arithmetical  question.  In  proportion, 
for  instance,  if  they  have  no  knowledge  of  the  principle  which 
should  guide  them,  they  may  try  the  effect  of  multiplying  two 
of  the  numbers  together,  and  dividing  the  product  by  the  third ; 
but,  if  that  does  not  yield  the  right  answer,  they  may  transpose 
the  order,  and  try  again  ;  and  in  the  end,  having  exhausted  all 
the  errors,  they  will  obtain  the  truth.  But  it  is  only  by  a  com- 
parison of  their  result  with  the  answer  in  the  book  that  they 


464  ANNUAL   REPORTS    ON    EDUCATION. 

will  know  tliat  they  have  arrived  at  the  truth.  They  will  not 
know  on  what  principle  the  true  answer  was  obtained  ;  and, 
on  attempting  a  solution  of  the  next  question,  they  will  be  as 
ignorant  as  ever,  and  be  again  obliged  to  go  through  with  the 
same  experimental  process.  In  order  to  prevent  this  appeal  to 
chance,  instead  of  an  appeal  to  principle,  the  class  may  be 
occasionally  required  to  lay  aside  their  slates,  and  to  work  out 
all  the  questions  contained  in  a  lesson  on  paper.  Here  they 
will  not  be  able  to  obliterate  what  they  have  done,  as  they  can 
do  on  the  slate  ;  and,  therefore,  the  teacher,  by  a  single  glance 
of  the  eye,  can  see  the  track  which  the  mind  has  made,  whether 
straight  or  circuitous,  in  its  search  after  the  answer.  He  will 
also  see  the  mechanical  correctness  with  which  each  step  may 
have  been  performed. 

Frequent  reviews,  by  carrying  the  pupils  a  second  time  over 
the  ground  they  have  traversed,  will  be  another  means  of  de- 
termining whether  they  have  left  any  part  of  it  unexplored. 

Devices  or  excuses  to  escape  the  lesson  altogether,  when  the 
pupil  is  conscious  of  not  having  faithfully  learned  it,  are  an  ag- 
gravated form  of  the  evil  above  mentioned  ;  and  it  should  be 
guarded  against  by  an  examination  of  the  absentee  upon  the 
omitted  lesson  at  another  time. 

I  fear  that  this  slurring  or  shirking  of  the  lesson  is  some- 
times regarded  in  no  other  light  than  as  a  clog  upon  the  prog- 
ress of  the  pupil,  or  as  an  abatement  from  the  success  of  the 
coming  examination.  The  substance  of  the  argument  often 
used  as  a  warning  against  this  species  of  misconduct  is,  that 
whoever  leaves  a  lesson  of  his  course  uumastered,  leaves  an 
enemy  in  ambush  behind  him,  —  an  enemy  who  will,  at  some 
day,  rise  up  to  molest  his  peace,  and  perhaps  to  defeat  his 
most  cherished  hopes.  But,  though  this  is  a  legitimate  con- 
sideration, yet  the  subject  has  relations  far  more  important.  It 
is  not  so  much  the  lesson  which  is  omitted,  as  the  wrongful  act 
which  is  committed.  The  knowledge  that  is  lost  is  an  insig- 
nificant matter  compared  with  the  trickish  habit  that  is  gained. 
The  avoidance  of  the  lesson  has  deprived  the  intellect  of  so 


REPOET   FOR    1845.  465 

much  exercise,  and,  therefore,  has  prevented  whatever  of 
strength  that  exercise  would  have  given  ;  but  the  means  by 
which  the  lesson  was  avoided  have  given  exercise  and  strength 
to  motives  of  deception  and  fraud.  Herein  lies  the  lamentable 
character  of  the  deed.  It  is  only  a  misfortune  to  be  ignorant, 
but  it  is  an  unspeakable  calamity  to  be  dishonest.  However 
vigilantly  the  teacher  may  look  after  the  intelligence  of  his 
charge,  he  should  use  a  thousand  times  more  vigilance  in  pre- 
serving their  integrity.  Limited  attainments  are  not  incom- 
patible with  a  high  degree  of  happiness  ;  but  every  immoral 
act  diminishes  the  capacity  for  happiness  for  ever  and  ever. 

Another  means  of  avoiding  study — and,  I  am  sorry  to  say, 
I  have  found  no  little  evidence  of  its  existence  —  is,  after  pro- 
curing some  fellow-pupil  or  other  person  to  perform  the  woi'k 
which  the  teacher  has  assigned,  to  present  the  work,  thus  per- 
formed by  another,  as  the  product  of  one's  own  labor.  The 
intellectual  loss  and  injury  of  such  a  course  are  great.  It 
leaves  the  mind  unexercised,  when  it  was  one  of  the  principal 
objects  of  the  lesson  to  exercise  it.  It  also  disqualifies  the 
pupil  more  and  more  for  mastering  subsequent  lessons.  A 
scholar  who  did  not  get  his  lessons  last  week  through  indolence 
may  be  unable  to  get  them  this  week  through  incapacity,  and 
next  week  he  may  give  them  up  in  despair.  But  the  most  de- 
plorable quality  of  such  conduct  is,  that  it  is  an  acted  falsehood  ; 
and,  as  subsequent  lessons  are  mastered  with  so  much  more 
difficulty  after  the  omission  of  preceding  ones,  the  power  of 
the  temptation  increases  in  a  geometrical  ratio  at  each  suc- 
ceeding step. 

The  cases  above  referred  to  are  generally  those  where  assist- 
ance is  obtained  out  of  school ;  but  the  prompting  of  a  fellow- 
pupil  in  school,  and  during  the  recitation,  comes  under  the  same 
general  head,  and  incurs  the  like  mischievous  consequences. 
To  guard  against  the  latter  species  of  misconduct,  the  teacher 
should  be  all  eye  and  all  ear.  He  should  be  so  familiar  with 
the  lesson  that  he  can  devote  his  whole  attention  to  the  class, 

instead  of  occupying  the  time  in  preparing  himself,  by  looking 
so 


466  ANNUAL   REPORTS   ON  EDUCATION. 

at  his  book,  to  hear  the  successive  answers.  His  eye  should 
be  on  them  on  their  account,  and  not  on  his  book  on  his  own 
account.  To  guard  the  pupil  against  taking  fraudulent  meas- 
ures out  of  school,  he  should  instruct  as  faithfully  in  regard  to 
the  object  of  the  lesson  as  in  regard  to  the  lesson  itself.  The 
attention  of  the  pupil  should  be  forever  turned  towards  the 
state  of  his  own  mind.  Have  the  lesson,  the  fact,  the  principle, 
the  scientific  relation,  been  reproduced  within  himself?  Are 
they  recorded  on  the  tables  of  his  intellect?  Are  they  so 
clearly  and  enduringly  written  there,  that  if  the  slate  and  black- 
board were  broken  to  fragments,  if  the  book  were  to  be  con- 
sumed, he  would  still  possess  them  as  his  own,  ineffaceably 
inscribed  on  the  mind?  Is  the  lesson  so  luminously  recorded 
in  his  memory,  that  he  can  see  it  there  in  the  darkness  of 
midnight,  and  revive  it  in  the  solitude  of  the  desert  ?  Every 
pupil  should  be  made  to  see,  that  to  transfer  or  to  copy  an 
answer  or  a  process  from  a  text-book  to  his  own  slate  or  paper, 
or  to  take  it  from  another's  dictation,  is  valueless  in  the  way 
of  acquisition,  of  improvement ;  that  it  is,  in  its  nature,  the 
veriest  task-work  or  tread-mill  service  ever  performed.  He 
should  be  made  to  see  that  he  might  as  well  learn  the  art  of 
swimming  by  getting  another  boy  to  swim  for  him ;  that  he 
might  as  well  increase  his  stature  and  strength  by  employing 
another  to  eat  his  meals ;  or  that  he  might  as  well  expect  to 
gain  wealth  by  forfeiting  all  his  daily  earnings  to  the  more  in- 
dustrious. Perhaps  the  most  appropriate  punishment,  in  cases 
where  a  punishment  is  deemed  advisable,  for  stealing  the  solu- 
tion of  a  sum  from  a  book,  or  for  transferring  it  from  another's 
slate,  or  for  borrowing  another's  composition  instead  of  writing 
one,  would  be  to  make  the  offender  copy  off  figures  in  logarithms, 
or  the  letters  of  some  algebraic  process,  about  which  he  knows 
nothing,  or  to  transcribe  passages  in  the  French  or  Latin  lan- 
guage. This  would  be  a  parallel  to  his  own  "  vain  knowledge," 
and  would  show  him  how  pleasant  it  is  to  feed  upon  the  east 
wind. 

But  the  forfeiture  of  privileges  and  of  knowledge  which  the 


REPORT   FOR    1845.  467 

pupil  incurs  by  such  a  course  as  is  above  described  is  not  the 
principal  evil.  It  is  not  a  loss  of  utility  merely,  but  it  is  a  de- 
parture from  honor  and  honesty.  Why  should  not  the  scholar 
who  now  cheats  his  teacher  in  the  recitation-room  cheat  his 
master  in  his  work  when  he  becomes  an  apprentice  or  a  clerk, 
and  his  customers  in  their  utensils  or  their  goods  when  he 
becomes  a  mechanic  or  a  merchant?  All  great  robbers  began 
by  stealing  small  things  ;  and  the  foulest  assassins  and  mur- 
derers commenced  their  career  by  inflicting  petty  injuries. 

I  fear  the  little  departures  from  rectitude  and  truth  which 
sometimes  pervade  a  school,  or  are  practised  by  particular  mem- 
bers of  it,  are  not  regarded  in  their  true  light,  —  as  seminal 
principles  or  germs,  which,  if  not  eradicated,  will  grow  up  to 
maturity,  and  bear  the  fatal  fruit  of  falsehoods,  perjuries,  and 
frauds.  How  narrow  the  range  of  a  school-child's  thoughts, 
compared  with  the  vast  compass  and  combinations  of  an  adult 
mind  !  how  slow  the  mental  operations  of  the  former,  compared 
with  the  celerity  with  which  the  latter  passes  from  premises  to 
conclusions,  and  from  means  to  ends  !  The  child  is  obliged  to 
commence  his  calculations  with  visible  and  tangible  units,  and 
for  a  long  time  he  moves  feebly  and  totteringly  forward,  con- 
stantly seeking  the  support  of  another's  hand ;  yet  what  vast 
and  complicated  schemes  the  same  mind,  in  its  maturity,  will 
project !  When  we  thus  witness  the  capacity  of  growth  and 
expansion  with  which  the  intellect  is  endowed,  why  should 
we  doubt  that  the  appetites  and  propensities  have  at  least  an 
equal  power  of  expansion  and  activity?  Nay,  is  it  not  con- 
ceded in  every  system  of  mental  philosophy  ever  promulgated, 
that  the  appetites  and  desii'es  are  endowed  with  an  ardor  and 
a  vehemence  to  which  the  intellect  is  a  stranger  ;  and  that  the 
passions,  if  unregulated  and  unchastened,  rush  to  extremes  in- 
finitely more  wide  and  more  ruinous  than  the  understanding 
can  ever  reach?  Why  then,  when  we  find  the  mind  which 
was  once  so  feeble,  now  capable  of  concerting  vast  plans  for 
wealth,  for  ambition,  or  other  forms  of  personal  aggrandize- 
ment, —  why  should  we  doubt  that  the  little  tricks  and  prevari- 


468  ANNUAL   REPORTS  ON   EDUCATION. 

cations  of  the  schoolroom  may  grow  up  into  fraudulent  bank- 
ruptcies, or  stupendous  peculations  and  embezzlements?  States 
and  empires  are  no  more  to  the  man  than  the  toys  of  the  nur- 
sery to  the  infant;  why,  then,  should  not  corruption  in  politics, 
and  hypocrisy  in  religion,  grow  out  of  the  artifices  and  pretexts 
of  the  playground?  If  we  would  enjoy  an  immunity  from  the 
latter,  we  must  suppress  the  former.  How  much  easier  and 
safer  to  crush  the  brittle  egg  than  to  kill  the  coiling  serpent ! 

The  act  of  furnishing  arithmetical  solutions,  or  translations 
in  the  classics,  to  a  fellow-pupil  before  recitation,  or  of  prompt- 
ing him  during  it,  is  to  be  treated  as  a  wrong  in  the  giver  as 
well  as  in  the  receiver.  Yet  always,  or  nearly  so,  the  subject 
presents  itself  in  a  different  light  to  children,  and  generally,  I 
believe,  even  to  mature  minds.  It  is  commonly  regarded  as  an 
act  of  kindness  —  as  a  social  pleasure,  if  not  a  social  duty  —  to 
give,  to  one  who  wants,  what  we,  without  any  loss,  can  spare. 
Shall  a  pupil  who  has  neglected  his  lesson  until  the  hour  of 
recitation  approaches  be  subjected  to  punishment,  when  we 
can  supply  his  deficiencies  in  ten  minutes,  and  save  him  from 
harm?  Shall  a  friend  and  classmate,  who  has  suffered  the 
time  of  probation  to  pass  by  unimproved,  —  shall  he  be  sub- 
jected to  mortification,  if  not  to  rebuke  or  chastisement,  when 
we,  merely  by  a  whisper  in  his  ear,  can  save  his  feelings,  his 
character,  and  perhaps  his  skin?  Such  is  the  aspect  in  which 
the  subject  presents  itself  to  most  minds,  especially  to  the  minds 
of  school-children.  So,  to  the  natural  eye,  the  earth  appears 
to  be  flat.  But  what  do  we  do  as  soon  as  the  child  arrives  at  a 
proper  age  for  understanding  its  true  shape  ?  Do  we  not  spend 
time,  use  apparatus,  and  give  explanations,  again  and  again, 
until  the  natural  error  of  the  senses  is  corrected?  And  why 
should  not  as  much  time  be  spent  in  correcting  those  moral 
errors  into  which  all  children  naturally  if  not  necessarily  fall? 
No  reason  can  be  assigned,  unless  it  be  the  infinitely  false  one, 
that  moral  culture  is  less  important  than  intellectual.  The  first 
impressions  of  children  ou  this  whole  subject  of  prompting 
answers,  and  of  supplying  solutions,  can  easily  be  shown  to  be 


REPORT    FOR    1845.  469 

illusory  and  false.  The  true  question  goes  far  deeper  than  the 
scholar's  appearance  at  the  recitation.  The  recitation  is  only 
a  means  to  an  end.  In  itself,  it  is  valueless.  The  only  ques- 
tion of  any  importance  is,  What  is  the  state  of  the  pupil's  mind? 
Does  that  which  he  writes  down  upon  his  slate,  or  speaks  with 
his  tongue,  come  from  his  understanding?  or  does  it  only  come 
mechanically  from  his  fingers,  or  from  his  lips,  by  the  dictation 
of  another,  and  not  from  his  own  mind?  The  pupil  who  sub- 
mits himself  to  the  ordeal  of  a  recitation,  like  a  witness  in 
court,  is  under  a  moral  obligation  to  make  true  answers,  from 
his  own  knowledge,  to  whatever  questions  may  be  propounded 
to  him ;  and  is  that  pupil  an  honest  one,  who,  under  such  an 
obligation,  gives  either  the  work  or  the  answer  of  another  as 
his  own?  If  the  deficiencies  of  others  are  to  be  recorded,  or 
if  there  is  a  competition  for  places  or  medals  or  parts,  and  one 
pupil  escapes  a  mark,  or  gains  a  credit,  by  indirect  means,  is  it 
fair  towards  his  fellows,  or  doing  as  he  would  be  done  by?  If 
two  children  collude  together,  and  agree  to  help  each  other,  by 
private  signs  or  otherwise,  during  the  recitation,  ought  we  to 
be  surprised  if,  afterwards,  they  agree  to  run  up  stocks  in  the 
market,  in  order  to  cheat  innocent  purchasers?  Besides,  where 
is  the  iniquity  to  stop?  If  one  pupil  may  be  assisted  or 
prompted  once,  why  may  not  all  go  to  the  same  extent?  This, 
however,  would  reduce  the  whole  to  their  original  equality ; 
for,  if  all  take  the  liberty  to  cheat  once,  they  stand  in  the  same 
relative  position  as  at  first.  He,  therefore,  who  means  to  get 
a  dishonest  advantage  over  his  fellows  must  now  cheat  twice 
in  order  to  gain  his  end  ;  and  so  on  indefinitely.  If  the  grocer 
adulterates  his  sugar  and  his  flour  to  the  amount  of  ten  per 
cent  of  its  value,  and  the  purchaser  pays  him  ten  per  cent  of 
counterfeit  coin  or  bills,  neither  is  a  gainer  in  money,  while 
both  are  sufferers  in  morals.  So  it  is  with  children  who  cheat 
each  other  and  their  teacher  at  the  recitation.  Now,  is  not  the 
moral  spirit  with  which  the  lesson  is  studied  and  recited  of  as 
much  consequence  as  the  knowledge  it  confers?  And,  if  so, 
ought  not  the  teacher  to  spend  a*  much  time  on  the  former  as 


470  ANNUAL   REPORTS    ON   EDUCATION. 

on  the  latter?     I  exhort  teachers  and  committee-men  to  ask 
themselves  the  question,  whether  this  is  done. 

The  hour  of  recitation  is  the  hour  of  reckoning ;  the  place 
of  recitation  is  the  place  for  weighing  and  gauging  the  amount 
of  acquisition  made  by  the  pupils.  Emphatically,  therefore,  it 
is  a  place  for  fair-dealing,  for  truth,  for  uprightness  towards  the 
teacher,  and  for  equity  between  fellow-pupils.  Any  deception 
there  is  like  the  use  of  false  balances ;  and  the  teacher  should 
no  more  wink  or  connive  at  it,  however  anxious  he  may  be  that 
his  school  should  appear  well,  than  he  should  instruct  his  schol- 
ars how  they  may  use  false  weights  or  measures  in  their  traffic 
with  men. 

I  think  the  nature  of  a  recitation  can  be  so  unfolded  and 
explained  to  all,  excepting,  perhaps,  the  lowest  class  of  minds, 
and  that  the  recitation  itself  can  be  so  conducted,  as  to  save  it 
from  the  frauds  to  which  it  now  gives  birth.  Invested  with  the 
associations  of  honor  and  good  faith,  it  may  be  made  to  assume 
something  of  a  sacred  character.  I  have  known  scholars  who 
would  not  give  an  answer  with  which  a  prompter  had  supplied 
them,  any  more  than  they  would  receive  stolen  goods,  or  pass 
counterfeit  money.  The  inherent  absurdity  of  one  pupil's  get- 
ting a  lesson  for  another  may  be  made  so  obvious  and  glaring, 
even  by  a  moderate  degree  of  ability  to  a  moderate  capacity 
of  understanding,  as  to  excite  contempt  or  abhorrence  for  it. 
The  objects  of  a  child's  studying  are  usefulness,  respectability, 
eminence,  happiness.  These  objects  are  reached  through  the 
acquisition  of  knowledge,  and  through  an  increase  of  mental 
activity  and  energy.  But  each  child's  mind  must  grow  for 
itself  as  much  as  each  child's  body  must  grow  for  itself.  I  may 
as  well  be  warmed  by  another  man's  putting  on  my  garments 
as  be  improved  by  another  man's  getting  my  lessons.  If  a  child 
is  idle,  or  squanders  away  his  time,  he,  in  his  own  proper  per- 
son, must  suffer  for  it.  No  friend  can  bear  the  burden  of  his 
future  ignorance  or  imbecility.  One  person  may  as  well  bear 
another's  toothache,  or  transfer  another's  consumption  to  his 
own  lungs.  Nor  does  the  fraud  bring  any  profit  to  the  defraud- 


REPORT   FOR    1845.  471 

er.  Suppose  the  children,  instead  of  gathering  the  richer  treas- 
ures of  knowledge,  were  only  gathering  gold-dust,  which,  day 
by  day,  should  be  brought  to  the  scales,  that  the  amount  of 
their  gains  might  be  ascertained.  Would  any  sluggard  become 
richer  by  concealing  a  worthless  pebble  in  his  heap?  Would 
not  the  assayer  detect  the  fraud,  and  expose  both  it  and  its 
author?  and  would  not  every  one  who  supplied,  or  who  only 
assisted  in  supplying,  the  spurious  substance,  be  justly  regarded 
as  an  accomplice  in  the  guilty  act  ?  Time  is  the  Great  Assayer, 
and  will  surely  expose  the  folly  and  the  ignorance  of  all  those 
who  cheat  at  the  recitation,  and  impose  upon  the  teacher  the 
semblance  of  knowledge  for  its  reality. 

I  fear  that  too  much  value  is  ordinarily  attached  to  the 
recitation.  I  fear  it  is  often  regarded  as  an  object,  and  not  as 
an  instrument ;  as  the  goal,  and  not  as  the  path  that  leads  to  it. 
The  daily  routine  of  exercises,  and  the  examinations  of  the 
school-committee,  may  cause  all  the  forces  of  the  school  to  con- 
verge to  this  point.  When  such  is  the  case,  the  pupils,  espe- 
cially the  ambitious  ones,  will  devote  themselves  to  the  words 
of  their  lesson  rather  than  to  its  meaning ;  they  will  aim  at 
readiness  and  volubility  rather  than  at  depth  and  discrimina- 
tion ;  they  will  confine  themselves  within  the  author's  train  of 
thought,  instead  of  taking  discursive  views,  tracing  analogies, 
and  sending  the  mind  out  to  the  right  and  left  in  quest  of  ma- 
terials for  confirmation  or  for  questioning,  from  all  collateral 
and  related  topics.  So.  too,  under  such  a  mistaken  view  of  the 
object  of  a  recitation,  the  pupils  will  be  tempted,  when  it  is 
over,  to  discharge  the  subject  from  their  minds,  that  they  may 
make  room  for  the  next  exercise.  All  this  is  delusive.  It 
grasps  at  the  shadow,  but  misses  the  substance.  To  exhibit  to 
the  teacher  the  state  of  the  pupil's  mind  is  the  true  object  of 
the  recitation,  so  that  whatever  is  right  may  be  fastened  there 
securely  and  forever  ;  so  that  deficiencies  may  be  supplied  ;  and 
so  that  whatever  is  erroneous  may  be  rectified  or  obliterated 
before  the  impression  is  deepened  beyond  effacing.  If  the 
arrangements  and  the  general  spirit  of  the  school  are  such  as 


472  ANNUAL    REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

to  make  the  pupils  desire  a  brilliant  recitation  only,  then  they 
are  tempted  to  manage  adroitly  to  conceal  their  ignorance  in 
order  to  escape  degradation,  and  to  gain  a  credit  upon  the 
teacher's  books.  But  such  a  course  will  redound  to  their  own 
discredit,  and  will  entail  enduring  degradation  upon  the  moral 
sense. 

Closely  akin  to  the  above  subject  is  the  use  of  keys  in  math- 
ematical studies.  To  avoid  cumbrous  enumeration,  I  shall 
refer  to  arithmetical  keys  only,  although  the  remarks  on  this 
topic  will  apply  to  algebra  as  well  as  to  arithmetic.  In  our 
old  arithmetical  text-books,  the  answers  were  regularly  append- 
ed to  the  questions,  each  to  each.  The  complaint  of  the  pupil 
who  studied  the  old  arithmetics  in  the  old  way  was,  "  I  cannot 
get  the  answer."  He  did  not  say  he  could  not  understand  the 
principle  ;  but  the  answer,  as  given  in  the  book,  was  the  thing 
he  sought  for.  By  observing  the  denomination  in  which  it  was 
expressed,  and  the  number  of  places  of  figures  which  it  con- 
tained, he  could  conjecture  the  process  by  which  it  might  be 
reached.  The  pupil  thus  made  an  illicit  use  of  the  answer 
itself  as  a  means  of  obtaining  it.  This  was  obviously  prepos- 
terous. The  answer  Avas  the  unknown  quantity  which  was  to 
be  obtained  from  known  data  on  known  principles.  But,  as 
soon  as  the  answer  was  included  among  the  known  data,  the 
pupil  might  arrive  at  it  by  repeated  experiments,  although 
each  time  he  should  proceed  on  unknown  principles.  The 
knowledge  of  the  answer  beforehand,  therefore,  became,  to 
some  extent,  a  substitute  for  such  a  knowledge  of  principles  as 
would  command  the  true  answer,  not  only  in  the  given  case, 
but  in  all  analogous  cases.  Had  it  been  the  only  object  to  ar- 
rive at  the  answer  contained  in  the  book,  then  any  additions, 
subtractions,  multiplications,  and  divisions  which  would  secure 
that  end,  would  be  sufficient ;  and  the  result  would  be  equally 
satisfactory,  whether  the  answer  contained  in  the  book  should 
be  correct  or  erroneous.  Now,  it  is  obvious  that  there  is  no 
more  legitimate  exercise  of  the  power  of  calculation  in  such 
a  procedure  than  there  is  of  true  piety  in  those  contrivances  of 


REPORT   FOR    1845.  473 

the  Japanese,  where,  by  turning  a  crank,  they  wind  off  a  long 
scroll  of  written  prayers  from  one  cylinder  on  to  another.  The 
arithmetical  faculty  is  as  little  employed  in  the  one  case  as  the 
heart  is  in  the  other. 

To  obviate  this  difficulty,  arithmetics  were  prepared  contain- 
ing the  questions  only.  But  lest  the  teacher  should  not  be  able, 
for  want  of  time,  or  for  some  other  reason,  to  determine  the 
correctness  or  incorrectness  of  the  answers  as  they  should  be 
fouud  by  the  pupil,  the  author  prepared  a  second  book,  —  a 
book  for  the  answers,  as  well  as  a  book  for  the  questions.  This 
second  book  is  called  a  "  Key."  Both  questions  and  answers 
are  numbered  so  as  to  correspond.  According  to  the  theory, 
the  key  is  to  be  used  only  by  the  teacher.  It  is  a  labor-saving 
instrument,  designed  to  supersede  the  necessity  of  the  teacher's 
lookiug  over  each  sum.  But  it  being  known  to  the  scholars 
that  there  is  a  key,  containing  not  only  the  answers,  but  solu- 
tions or  partial  solutions  of  the  most  difficult  questions,  a  griev- 
ous temptation  is  presented  to  them  to  get  it  and  use  it.  So 
far  as  this  is  done,  it  defeats  the  very  object  of  separating  the 
answers  from  the  questions,  and  makes  the  increased  cost  of 
two  books  over  pne  a  gratuitous  expense.  But  what  is  infi- 
nitely more  to  be  depi'ecated  than  any  cost,  or  any  diminution 
in  intellectual  attainments,  is  the  moral  delinquency  which  is 
involved  in  the  act  of  using  the  key  clandestinely.  If  the  use 
of  keys  be  prohibited,  they  must  be  obtained  surreptitiously, 
and  examined  by  stealth.  The  key  itself  must  be  kept  in  some 
secret  place,. where  the  teacher  will  not  be  likely  to  discover  it. 
Hence  a  system  of  frauds.  The  purchasing  of  a  book  ;  the 
selection  of  a  covert  place  for  its  concealment ;  the  stealthy  step 
or  look  by  which  it  is  examined ;  the  transfer  of  the  answers, 
perhaps  upon  a  piece  of  paper,  to  be  carried  privately  about 
the  person ;  the  plans  laid  to  satisfy  or  circumvent  the  teacher, 
should  he  make  any  inquiry  into  the  subject ;  and,  finally,  the 
presence  of  the  pupil  at  the  recitation,  with  the  questions  all 
correctly  solved,  but  with  a  lie  visible  to  himself  lying  at  the 
bottom  of  every  solution,  —  all  this  planned  and  consummated 


474  ANNUAL    REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

deception  it  is  indeed  fearful  to  contemplate.  It  is  a  practical 
training  of  the  young  heart  to  iniquity.  Each  .commendation 
obtained  under  such  circumstances  is  a  reward  for  past  decep- 
tion, and  a  lure  to  its  repetition  in  future.  Why  should  not  the 
child  who  does  this,  and  who,  perhaps,  is  not  reprehended  for 
doing  it,  if  done  when  the  committee  or  visitors  are  present, — 
why,  when  the  opportunity  comes,  should  he  not  overreach  his 
neighbor  in  making  a  bargain,  or  put  two  votes  into  the  ballot- 
box  to  secure  the  election  of  his  favorite  candidate,  or  defraud 
the  post-office  and  the  custom-house?  And  how  much  is  the 
virulence  of  the  temptation  increased  when  prizes  are  offered 
to  the  foremost  pupils !  when,  perhaps,  badges  of  honor  are 
bestowed  upon  the  successful  competitors,  and  their  names  are 
brought  forward  with  eclat  in  reports,  or  proclaimed  to  the 
world  through  newspapers,  while  a  proportionate  degradation 
awaits  the  unsuccessful !  —  and  all  this  is  made  to  depend  upon 
the  marks  of  credit  or  discredit  received  at  the  end  of  the  reci- 
tations. 

What  the  world  is  seen  to  regard  with  honor,  ambitious 
children  will,  of  course,  strive  to  obtain  ;  and,  when  intellectual 
attainments  take  precedence  of  moral  qualities,  hoAV  cruelly 
will  they  be  tempted  to  sacrifice  the  latter  to  the  former !  In- 
foreign  universities,  where  a  subscription  to  creeds  is  a  pre- 
requisite to  the  honors  and  emoluments  of  professorships  and 
presidencies,  do  we  not  know  that  men,  for  the  sake  of  a  con- 
spicuous and  lucrative  station,  will  subscribe  to  theological 
dogmas,  and  articles  of  church  government,  which  their  souls 
abhor?  For  such  bold  treason  against  God  and  man,  they 
were  prepared  in  childhood,  by  slight  and  gradually-increasing 
deviations  from  truth  and  duty,  under  temptations  whose  force 
they  could  not  be  expected  to  resist.  Is  it  not  the  worst  form 
of  sacrilege  to  invade  the  unsophisticated  consciences  of  chil- 
dren with  temptations  to  evil,  before  which  it  is  almost  certain 
they  will  fall? 

For  years  past,  I  have  made  particular  inquiries  of  teachers 
and  others  on  this  subject.  I  have  endeavored  to  ascertain  to 


REPORT   FOR    1845.  475 

what  extent  keys  are  allowed  or  forbidden  in  our  schools ; 
and  also  whether  they  are  used,  although  forbidden.  I  am 
satisfied  that  a  startling  amount  of  deception  is  practised ;  and 
that  not  a  few  of  our  children  are  learning  those  arts  in  school, 
which,  we  have  reason  to  fear,  will  be  matured  in  after-life 
into  flagrant  immorality  and  turpitude. 

In  some  cases,  it  has  been  discovered  that  a  class  owned  a 
single  key  in  common,  which  was  passed  round  privately 
among  them.  In  some,  the  sous  of  a  family  go  to  one  school, 
and  the  daughters  to  another ;  and  although,  in  one  of  the 
schools,  keys  are  strictly  prohibited,  yet  in  the  other  they  are 
openly  allowed,  or,  at  least,  they  are  not  forbidden  ;  so  that  all 
the  children  have  equal  access  to  them.  I  believe  it  would  be 
far  better  than  that  things  should  continue  in  their  present  con- 
dition, that  all  restriction  in  the  use  of  keys  should  be  removed 
(in  which  case  it  would,  of  course,  be  better  to  return  to  the 
old  system  of  inserting  the  answer  with  the  question  in  the 
text-book)  ;  but  the  only  effectual  remedy,  while  such  helps 
are  prepared  and  are  accessible,  is  to  cultivate  the  moral  feel- 
ings of  the  pupils  to  such  a  high  tone  as  will  make  them  dis- 
dain and  abhor  those  acts  of  deception  by  which  one  pupil 
obtains  an  advantage  over  another,  or  by  which  the  pupils  suc- 
ceed in  deceiving  the  teacher.  It  is  fervently  to  be  hoped  that 
teachers  will  look  more  carefully  into  this  subject  than  they 
have  been  accustomed  to  do.  Better  that  we  should  go  back 
to  counting  on  the  ten  fingers,  and  remain  there,  than  that  the 
learners  of  arithmetic  should  imbibe  the  spirit  by  which  they 
will  hereafter  make  fraudulent  invoices  o'r  false  entries  in  the 
books  of  banks,  or  of  the  government. 

It  might  prove  a  preventive  to  the  fraudulent  use  of  keys, 
and  save  children  from  some  of  the  temptations  which  now 
spring  from  the  use  of  them,  if  teachers  would  make  it  a  fre- 
quent practice  to  dictate  original  questions  from  their  own 
minds.  However  great  the  pupil's  proficiency  may  be,  a  com- 
petent teacher  could  easily  frame  questions  equivalent  and 
analogous  to  those  contained  in  the  book  ;  and  the  impossi- 


476  ANNUAL   EEPORT8   ON   EDUCATION. 

bility,  in  such  cases,  of  getting  at  the  answer  by  the  use  of  a 
key,  would  preclude  the  thought  and  prevent  the  desire  of  doing 
so.  Is  not  this  in  consonance  with  the  spirit  of  the  prayer,  — 
at  once  so  religious  and  so  philosophical,  —  that  we  may  not  be 
led  into  temptation?  The  only  objection  that  can  be  made  to 
the  preparation  of  questions  by  teachers  is,  that  they  may  not 
have  time  to  examine  the  solutions,  and  decide  upon  their  cor- 
rectness ;  and  must,  therefore,  submit  to  the  necessity  of  taking 
questions  where  the  answers  are  at  hand.  But  surely,  to  an 
accomplished  teacher,  it  can  be  the  work  of  but  a  few  moments 
to  look  over  even  a  long  demonstration,  and  to  determine 
whether  the  successive  steps  have  been  correctly  taken.  As  to 
what  may  be  regarded  as  the  mechanical  part  of  the  solution,  — 
the  addition,  subtraction,  multiplication,  and  division,  —  he  has 
no  need  to  trouble  himself  with  that.  He  knows  the  nature  of 
the  question  he  has  given  ;  he  perceives,  in  the  twinkling  of  an 
eye,  what  the  necessary  steps  are  to  arrive  at  a  correct  result ; 
and  a  single  glance  from  point  to  point,  even  in  an  extended 
process,  is  sufficient  to  show  him  whether  the  correct  course, 
or  one  of  several  correct  courses,  has  been  pursued.  As  to  the 
rudimeutal  parts,  he  may,  occasionally  at  least,  set  some  of  the 
younger  classes  to  examine  them.  They  will  be  able  to  detect 
errors,  if  any  exist,  in  the  work  of  the  older  pupils  ;  and  the 
older  pupils,  mortified  at  being  exposed  by  the  younger,  will  be 
incited  to  greater  care. 

In  advanced  Prussian  schools,  where  arithmetic  was  so  re- 
markably well  taught  and  learned  (though,  if  it  were  well 
taught,  it  is  almost -tautology  to  say  it  was  well  learned), 
instead  of  an  octavo  volume,  or  a  series  of  duodecimos,  im- 
posing burdensome  expenses  upon  the  parents,  I  generally 
found  arithmetical  text-books  which  did  not  contain  more  than 
fifty  or  sixty  pages, —  mere  skeletons, — and  yet  amply  suffi- 
cient for  the  use  of  the  schools.  Probably  niueteeu-twentieths, 
if  not  forty-nine  fiftieths,  of  the  questions  were  supplied  extem- 
poraneously by  the  teacher  from  his  own  mind.  Under  such 
a  system,  no  temptations  to  idleness,  and  no  provocations  to 


REPORT   FOR    1845.  477 

fraud,  could  enter  iu,  to  weaken  the  intellect  and  to  deprave 
the  morals. 

Children  should  also  be  encouraged  to  frame  questions  for 
themselves,  for  their  own  working ;  and,  within  certain  limits, 
to  frame  questions  for  each  other.  In  some  parts  of  arithmetic, 
such  an  exercise  would  be  of  great  utility,  as  it  would  help 
them  to  understand  more  thoroughly  the  nature,  the  number, 
and  the  relation  of  the  terms  necessary  to  form  a  practical 
question.  Preparing  questions  would  fasten  more  securely  in 
the  mind  the  principles  for  their  solution. 

I  leave  this  topic  with  the  expression  of  an  intense  desire 
that  those  who  use,  as  well  as  those  who  prepare,  mathematical 
text-books,  will  take  into  consideration  the  moral  tendencies  as 
well  as  the  intellectual  bearings  of  the  methods  they  adopt,  and 
of  the  works  they  publish.  If  each  day's  addition  to  arith- 
metical knowledge  is  to  be  a  subtraction  from  the  authority 
of  conscience,  it  would  be  better  that  such  days  should  never 
dawn. 

I  have  sometimes  found  the  preservation  of  good  order  in 
schools,  and  especially  the  prevention  of  whispering,  attempted 
by  means  which  seem  to  me  to  incur  great  moral  and  social 
hazards.  In  some  schools,  a  pupil  caught  in  an  act  of  delin- 
quency is  made  to  take  a  place  upon  the  platform,  or  other 
elevated  site  in  the  schoolroom,  and  there  to  watch  for  other 
delinquents.  When  he  detects  any  one  of  his  schoolmates  in 
a  violation  of  any  of  the  rules  of  the  school,  he  is  expected  to 
announce  the  name  of  the  offender  and  the  offence.  If  not 
contradicted,  or  although  contradicted,  yet  if  confirmed,  he  is 
absolved,  and  returns  to  his  seat ;  and  the  new  culprit  succeeds 
to  the  post  and  the  office  of  sentinel.  Here  he  is  expected  to 
remain,  until,  iu  his  turn,  he  can  obtain  his  discharge  by  suc- 
cessfully inculpating  another.  Such  a  watchman  is  usually 
called  a  monitor ;  but  his  real  office  is  that  of  a  spy.  If  indo- 
lent, he  may  prefer  the  post  to  one  which  obliges  him  to  study. 
He  stands  guard  under  no  responsibility.  If  he  sees  one  of  his 
friends  about  to  commit  an  offence,  he  can  overlook  it,  or  even 


478  ANNUAL    REPORTS    ON   EDUCATION. 

connive  at  it,  by  turning  away,  so  as  to  afford  an  opportu- 
nity for  its  commission.  I  have  seen  such  an  overseer  vio- 
lating, with  those  immediately  around  him,  the  very  rules 
which  he  was  stationed  there  to  enforce.  If,  however,  he 
entertains  any  grudge  against  a  schoolmate,  he  may  there  find 
an  opportunity  to  indulge  it. 

I  think  the  practice  here  described  has  an  injurious  influence, 
both  upon  the  school  and  upon  the  sentinel  himself,  whose  only 
qualification  to  watch  others  consists  in  his  own  offence.  It 
obviously  tempts  to  concealment,  which  is  unfaithfulness  ;  and 
to  partiality,  which  is  injustice.  The  old  proverb,  "  Set  a 
rogue  to  catch  a  rogue,"  needs,  even  for  the  public  safety,  some 
additional  direction  by  which  the  public  may  be  guarded  against 
the  collusion  of  the  two  rogues  when  they  come  to  understand 
each  other.  At  best,  the  proverb  is  founded  on  a  low  principle  ; 
and  it  inculcates  no  lesson  of  wisdom  or  benevolence  in  regard 
to  the  reformation  of  either  party. 

Some  teachers  adopt  the  above  plan,  but  include  another 
element  of  danger  in  it.  If  the  original  culprit  does  not  suc- 
ceed in  detecting  a  fellow-pupil  in  some  offence,  he  receives  a 
punishment.  If  he  discovers  another,  and  that  other  a  third, 
and  so  on,  until  the  session  of  the  school  is  closed,  the  pun- 
ishment falls  upon  the  last.  Now,  to  escape  punishment  by 
subjecting  another  to  punishment,  brings  into  active  exercise 
the  most  unkind  and  dissocial  propensities  of  human  nature. 
It  makes  our  welfare  or  our  immunity  depend  upon  another's 
wrong-doing.  It  connects  our  escape  from  suffering  with 
another's  subjection  to  it.  It  makes  it  for  our  immediate 
interest  that  an  offence  should  be  committed  ;  and  thus  tempts 
us  to  rejoice  at  the  error  or  the  misconduct  of  our  neighbor, 
instead  of  obeying  the  commandment  to  love  him  as  ourselves. 
Is  this  a  Christian  relation  in  which  to  place  children  in  regard 
to  each  other?  Suppose  it  had  been  so  ordained  by  the  Crea- 
tor, that  one  man  could  escape  from  his  wounds  or  diseases 
only  by  touching  the  person  of  another,  and  thus  transferring 
them  to  him  ;  how  few  Samaritans  would  be  found  who  would 


REPORT   FOR   1845.  479 

suspend  the  journey  or  the  business  of  life  that  they  might  heal 
their  neighbor !  and  would  not  such  a  law  turn  the  world  into 
Levites,  who  would  pass  by  on  the  other  side  of  the  way  ?  In 
the  end,  such  a  law  would  be  ruinous  even  to  those  for  whose 
benefit  it  was  devised  ;  since  it  would  make  it  the  interest  of 
all  to  inflict  mutual  harm.  When  one  drowning  man  attempts 
to  save  himself  by  grasping  another,  the  consequence  almost 
invariably  is,  that  both  go  to  the  bottom.  I  trust  that  all 
teachers,  who,  either  through  example  or  inadvertence,  have 
been  led  to  adopt  the  course  whose  evils  are  here  exposed,  will 
adandon,  and  never  resume  it. 

Whispering  is  very  justly  and  almost  universally  considered 
to  be  one  of  the  greatest  mischiefs  that  can  infest  a  schoolroom. 
In  small  schools,  consisting  either  of  very  large  or  of  very 
young  scholars,  it  occasions  less  inconvenience  ;  but  in  large 
schools,  especially  if  composed  of  scholars  of  all  ages,  it  is  a 
very  serious  annoyance,  and  energetic  teachers  usually  strive 
to  suppress  it.  In  a  room  containing  sixty  scholars,  if  each 
should  whisper  only  one-sixtieth'  part  of  the  hour,  —  not  an 
inordinate  allowance,  if  whispering  be  permitted  at  all,  —  it 
would  be  sufficient  to  make  the  buzz  perpetual.  The  mischief 
of  whispering,  however,  is  by  no  means  confined  to  the  noise 
it  makes.  If  one  be  allowed  to  whisper,  another  must  be 
allowed  to  listen  ;  and  it  is  too  much  to  expect  that  the  neigh- 
bors of  the  parties  will  be  indifferent  hearers  or  spectators  of 
what  is  going  on  around  them.  Sometimes,  too,  a  plan  or  a 
joke  started  in  one  corner  will  be  telegraphed  round  the  room 
almost  with  the  rapidity  of  a  lighted  train  of  gunpowder.  The 
course  of  thought  of  the  whole  school  will  thus  be  interrupted  ; 
and,  though  the  act  of  whispering  may  occupy  but  half  a 
minute,  it  may  occasion  the  loss  of  several  minutes  to  each 
pupil. 

But,  objectionable  as  is  the  practice  of  whispering  iu  schools, 
some  means  are  used  for  avoiding  it  which  seem  to  me  to  be  far 
more  so.  In  some  schools,  all  whispering  is  prohibited  under 
sanctions  more  or  less  severe  ;  while  the  teacher,  conscious  of 


480  ANNUAL   REPORTS    ON   EDUCATION. 

his  own  inability  to  detect  all  offenders,  and  discarding  the 
practice  by  which  the  guilty  are  set  to  watch  for  the  guilty, 
establishes  another  rule,  by  which  the  offenders  are  required  to 
report  their  own  offences.  At  the  close  of  each  day,  or  half- 
day,  the  roll  is  called,  and  each  pupil  is  required,  when  his 
name  is  announced,  to  confess  the  number  of  breaches,  if  any, 
which  he  has  committed. 

One  of  the  objections  to  this  mode  of  prevention  is,  that  it 
hazards  the  commission  of  a  greater  offence  in  order  to  avert 
a  less  one.  To  prevent  whispering,  it  tempts  to  falsehood. 
Now,  though  whispering  is  mischievous,  yet  who,  consider- 
ately, would  suppress  a  thousand  cases  of  it  at  the  expense 
of  one  lie?  Consider  the  force  of  the  temptation.  At  the 
appointed  time,  the  teacher  calls  upon  the  pupils  to  declare 
whether  any  violation  of  the  rule  has  been  committed  by  them. 
He  calls  upon  them  to  plead  guilty  or  not  guilty.  To  acknowl- 
edge that  they  are  guilty  is  a  public  avowal  of  wrong-doing ; 
and,  if  the  feelings  are  not  blunted,  must  always  incur  some 
mortification.  A  penalty  or  forfeiture  of  some  kind  —  such  as 
noting  the  case  in  a  record-book,  or  reporting  it  to  the  parents, 
or, '  at  least,  the  teacher's  disapproval  —  must  be  attached  to 
the  act,  or  the  whole  will  soon  degenerate  into  a  farce.  Under 
these  circumstances,  the  pupil  is  called  upon  to  avow  a  breach 
of  duty.  He  is  to  do  that  publicly,  which  involves  some  degree 
of  shame  ;  he  is  to  do  that  voluntarily,  -which  requires  some 
moral  courage  ;  and  he  is  to  do  that  promptly,  which  demands 
such  a  vigorous  impulsion  of  conscientiousness  as  belongs  to 
comparatively  few.  On  the  other  hand,  by  silence,  or  by  a 
moment's  delay,  —  during  which  he  may  perhaps  be  debating 
within  himself  what  course  to  take,  —  the  occasion  will  pass 
by,  and  immunity  from  outward  censure  be  secured.  Is  not 
this  a  snare  to  conscience?  Is  not  this  leading  children  into 
temptation,  —  a  grievous  temptation?  Does  it  not,  in  fact,  lead 
two  persons  —  perhaps  even  more  than  two  —  into  temptation? 
for,  if  one  pupil  has  whispered,  he  must  have  whispered  to 
another,  —  generally  to  a  friend  sitting  at  the  same  desk.  For 


REPORT   FOR    1845.  481 

the  friend  to  betray  the  offender  may  wear  the  aspect  of  un- 
kinduess.  Besides,  to  betray  a  fellow-pupil,  is  held,  whether 
justly  or  not,  —  according  to  the  moral  code  of  the  college  and 
the  schoolroom,  —  to  deserve  great  odium.  Perhaps  both  have 
offended,  and  therefore  stand  in  equal  need  of  each  other's 
forbearance. 

There  is  one  aspect  belonging  to  the  course  above  described, 
which  it  is  peculiarly  painful  to  contemplate,  —  that  of  a  child 
debating  with  himself,  either  before  the  commission  of  an  of- 
fence, or  when  called  upon  to  confess  it,  respecting  the  chances 
of  his  escape  ;  and  making  the  commission  of  the  offence  in 
the  first  instance,  or  the  denial  of  it  in  the  second,  depend  upon 
the  balance  of  probabilities  in  favor  of  detection  or  of  exemp- 
tion. A  falser  condition  of  mind  cannot  be  conceived.  Prob- 
ably the  fiend  who  tempts  to  crime  by  the  hope  or  promise  of 
concealment  outnumbers  all  his  fellow-fiends  in  the  retinue 
of  his  victims.  A  wrong  consciously  perpetrated  by  the  heart 
is  neither  made  greater  by  exposure,  nor  less  by  impunity. 
The  question  which  Conscience  puts  respecting  a  guilty  act  is, 
not  whether  it  is  known  or  unknown,  but  whether  it  has  been 
done  ;  and,  before  her  awful  tribunal,  the  judgment  is  the  same, 
whether  it  is  concealed  by  darkness  and  silence  from  the  eyes 
and  ears  of  all  created  beings,  or  whether  all  the  stars  of  the 
firmament  have  arranged  themselves,  for  the  revelation  and  the 
condemnation  of  the  deed,  into  a  language  of  everlasting  and 
unquenchable  light. 

Xo\v,  I  can  conceive  of  a  school  —  I  think  I  have  seen  such 
schools  —  where  the  moral  sense  of  the  pupils  has  been  so  en- 
lightened and  trained,  that  it  would  be  safe  to  put  a  question 
of  the  kind  above  supposed,  without  jeoparding  the  integrity 
of  the  pupils.  But  how  much  more  frequently,  in  the  present 
state  of  our  schools  as  to  morals,  would  the  solicitations  to 
wrong  be  an  overmatch  for  fidelity  to  truth,  and  thus  begin  a 
habit  of  falsehood,  or  confirm  one  already  begun,  which,  before 
the  end  of  life,  by  the  confluence  of  hundreds  of  little  streams 
into  one  deep  current  of  corruption,  would  prove  the  ruin  of 
31 


482  ANNUAL    REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

the  tempted !  As  a  guardian  of  the  morals  of  youth,  and 
especially  of  their  veracity,  —  that  central  point  of  morals,  — 
no  teacher  should  allow  his  own  convenience,  or  his  pride  in 
the  appearance  of  the  record  of  his  school,  or  his  fear  of  incur- 
ring the  displeasure  of  any  pupil,  or  the  parent  of  any  pupil,  for 
one  morneut  to  weigh  down  the  scale  against  the  perpetration, 
or  even  the  imminent  danger  of  the  perpetration,  of  an  untruth. 
The  love  of  truth  is  a  primal  element  in  moral  character. 
Truth  is  the  cement  of  society.  Without  it,  all  friendships, 
partnerships,  communities  themselves,  would  be  dissolved. 
Without  some  degree  of  mutual  confidence,  no  two  men,  wheth- 
er virtuous  or  vicious,  could  look  each  other  in  the  face  for 
a  minute.  Complete  distrust  at  all  points  would  segregate 
each  individual  of  the  race  from  all  the  rest ;  and,  like  an  un- 
balanced centrifugal  force,  would  impel  each  to  fly  away,  and 
to  seek  some  vacant  part  of  the  universe  for  his  solitary  abode. 

There  is  a  natural  adaptation  betweeu  the  love  of  intel- 
lectual and  the  love  of  moral  truth  to  confirm  and  strengthen 
each  other.  One  should  never  be  set  in  opposition  to  the 
other.  Circumstances  should  never  be  so  arranged,  that  the 
pursuit  of  an  intellectual  good  may  conflict  with  that  of  a 
moral  one.  Not  antagonists,  but  co-laborers  for  the  happiness 
of  man,  the  teacher  should  unite  and  marry  them  into  an  in- 
separable union,  and  thus  lay  an  imperishable  foundation  for 
the  virtues  and  duties  of  life. 

In  regard  to  the  prevention  of  whispering  in  school,  the  fol- 
lowing important  questions  arise  ;  and  I  do  not  see  how  they 
can  be  answered  in  the  negative  :  If  it  be  practicable  to  train  a 
school  to  such  a  high  point  of  principle  and  of  honorable  ibel- 
ing,  that  its  members  will  promptly  acknowledge  the  trans- 
gression of  a  rule,  may  not  the  same  members  be  so  trained  as 
not  to  be  guilty  of  the  transgression  itself?  Or,  if  children 
cannot  be  deterred  from  whispering  by  the  reasonableness  of  the 
requisition,  are  they  not  likely  to  be  guilty  of  falsehood  under 
the  pressure  of  so  violent  a  temptation?  And,  finally,  does  not 
falsehood  surpass  whispering  as  an  offence,  too  much  to  allow 


REPORT   FOR    1845.  483 

us  to  secure  our  schools  from  the  inconvenience  of  the  latter 
by  incurring  a  serious  hazard  of  the  baseness  of  the  former? 

The  chances  of  success  in  preventing  whispering  by  an  ex- 
ercise of  vigilance  on  the  part  of  the  teacher  will  be  increased 
or  diminished  by  the  number  and  ages  of  the  scholars,  and  by 
the  good  or  ill  construction  of  the  seats  in  the  schoolroom. 
The  smaller  the  school,  other  things  being  equal,  the  more  easy 
to  banish  this  invader  of  its  quiet,  —  not  easier  in  the  ratio  of 
the  diminished  number  merely ;  but,  to  express  it  mathemati- 
cally, the  ease  is  as  the  square  of  the  diminution.  Any  school, 
however,  may  be  considered  as  only  of  a  moderate  or  medium 
size,  if  the  number  of  the  teachers  is  fitly  proportioned  to  the 
number  of  the  scholars. 

The  construction  of  the  schoolroom  bears  directly  upon  this 
subject.  The  old-fashioaed  schoolhouses,  with  seats  on  three, 
and  sometimes  on  four  sides  of  the  schoolroom,  —  leaving  only 
a  space  on  one  side,  unoccupied  by  seats,  sufficient  for  a  door, 
—  could  not  have  been  more  ingeniously  contrived  to  invite 
disobedience  and  trickery  had  the  Genius  of  Deception  been 
the  architect.  In  such  a  room,  one-half  the  children,  at  least, 
were  always  without  the  range  of  the  teacher's  eye,  and  so 
withiu  the  sphere  of  temptation.  Where  circumstances  had 
been  so  skilfully  contrived  to  entice  them  into  transgression, 
who  can  wonder  that  they  so  often  became  its  victims  ?  Even 
schoolhouse  architecture  has  a  palpable  connection  with  moral 
culture. 

Various  remedies  have  been  suggested  for  the  prevention  of 
whispering  in  school,  besides  the  extreme  one  of  corporal 
punishment  in  any  of  its  forms. 

Occupation  is  one  of  the  most  effectual.  While  each  scholar 
has  employment  on  his  own  account,  he  has  neither  time  nor 
inducement  to  trespass  upon  his  neighbor.  This  is  the  case 
for  two  reasons.  His  own  occupation  precludes  the  desire  of 
communicating  with  his  fellow  ;  and  the  occupation  of  his 
fellow  will  repel  approaches,  should  he  be  tempted  to  make 
them. 


484  ANNUAL    REPORTS    ON   EDUCATION. 

The  privation  of  some  customary  privilege  —  such  as  being 
kept  within  doors  at  recess  —  is  another  expedient.  If  a  single 
act  of  communication  in  school,  occupying  but  half  a  minute, 
causes  a  forfeiture  of  a  five-minutes'  privilege  of  communica- 
tion at  recess,  then  the  balance  of  advantage  is  so  obviously 
on  the  side  of  self-restraint  as  to  become  a  powerful  motive  for 
abstaining.  Such  a  forfeiture  for  such  an  offence  seems  unob- 
jectionable ;  but,  in  all  cases  where  it  is  inflicted,  the  offender 
should  have  a  recess  by  himself  at  another  time  :  for  the  recess 
is  demanded  by  the  laws  of  health  ;  and  the  teacher's  punish- 
ments should  never  endanger  health. 

Recognizing  the  strong  natural  desire  of  all  children  to  com- 
municate with  each  other,  and  the  inherent  difficulty  of  re- 
pressing such  an  inborn  and  powerful  impulse,  some  teachers 
adopt  the  expedient  of  an  intermediate  recess ;  or  rather  a 
suspension  of  the  exercises  of  the  schoolroom,  for  a  period 
of  five  minutes,  at  prescribed  times,  in  each  half-day's  session. 
During  this  suspension,  the  pupils  are  allowed  to  rise,  to  walk 
about,  and  to  converse,  and  thus  to  give  vent  to  their  pent-up 
desires  for  muscular  action  and  for  social  communication. 
This  may  be  allowed  twice  during  each  half-day,  —  once  before 
and  once  after  the  customary  recess  at  the  middle  of  the 
session.  Of  course,  it  becomes  less  necessary  as  the  scholars 
are  older. 

But,  from  my  own  observation  and  experience,  I  am  led  to 
believe  that  all  methods  for  preventing  communication  between 
scholars  in  school,  however  skilfully  devised  or  energetically 
executed  they  may  be,  will  prove  inadequate  to  the  intended 
purpose,  unless  they  include  another  element,  —  the  assent  and 
co-operation  of  the  scholars  themselves.  The  natural  propen- 
sity to  speak,  the  inborn  social  instinct  to  make  known  our 
thoughts  and  feelings  to  our  fellow-men,  is  so  vigorous,  that  it 
requires  the  most  powerful  motives  of  fear,  of  interest,  or  of 
duty,  to  smother  them.  In  infancy,  it  is  as  vain  to  command 
a  child  to  stifle  the  expression  of  its  desires  and  emotions  as  to 
command  the  gushing  waters  of  a  fountain  to  cease  from  their 


REPORT    FOR    1845.  485 

uprising.  Later  in  life,  though  the  inward  propulsion  of  feel- 
ing, seeking  some  form  of  outward  expression,  may  be  regu- 
lated, yet  it  cannot,  even  then,  be  wholly  suppressed.  Probably 
no  two  animals  of  auy  kind  were  ever  together  for  two  min- 
utes, —  unless  asleep,  or  profoundly  absorbed  in  something 
else,  — without  some  transmission,  by  looks  or  signs,  of  sympa- 
thy or  aversion.  AVith  the  human  species,  if  the  lips  are  sealed, 
the  fingers  will  be  made  the  medium  of  communication ;  if  the 
hands  are  confined,  the  eye  will  become  the  subtle  messenger 
of  thought.  But  the  voice  is  the  natural  sign-maker,  and  there- 
fore it  is  through  the  voice  that  the  will  acts  most  promptly 
and  energetically.  In  prisons,  where  the  inmates  work  in  com- 
panies, but  under  a  rigorous  prohibition,  sanctioned  by  terrible 
penalties,  against  intercommunication,  either  by  word  or  ges- 
ture, cases  have  occurred  where  the  tortured  spirit  within  would 
give  vent  to  its  natural  instinct  by  a  tremendous  shriek  or  yell, 
and  then  submit  to  a  flagellation,  with  patience,  as  an  expiation 
of  the  offence. 

In  this,  therefore,  as  in  all  other  cases,  whether  pertaining  to 
the  government  or  to  the  proficiency  of  a  school,  the  teacher's 
best  resources  —  the  only  allies  he  can  enlist,  who  will,  in  all 
cases,  secure  him  the  victory  —  ai'e  the  pupils  themselves.  No 
threats,  no  forfeitures,  no  fear,  no  pain,  though  the  teacher 
should  summon  these  to  his  aid  in  formidable  hosts,  will  ever 
expel  whispering  from  school,  unless  superadded  thereto  is  the 
scholars'  consent.  I  have  witnessed  proofs  of  the  truth  of  this 
assertion  too  numerous  to  be  contested.  In  schools  where 
authority  and  superior  physical  power  were  mainly  relied  on,  I 
have  witnessed  cases  of  transgression,  even  while  the  teacher 
was  assuring  me  of  the  sufficiency  of  his  own  sovereign  com- 
mand to  prevent  them.  But,  if  the  pupils  have  confidence  in 
their  teacher,  —  if  they  respect  his  talents  and  his  attainments, 
and  are  constantly  drawn  towards  him  by  the  attractions  of  a 
filial  affection,  —  their  co-operation  can  be  obtained,  and  that 
will  prove  all-sufficient.  Indeed,  if  only  every  other  scholar  — 
that  is,  if  no  more  than  one-half  of  the  school  —  should  unite 


486  ANNUAL    REPORTS    ON   EDUCATION. 

in  placing  a  ban  upon  the  practice,  it  would  be  suppressed ;  for, 
as  a  scholar  will  rarely  if  ever  be  whispered  to  without  his 
own  permission,  it  follows,  that,  if  every  other  scholar  should 
join  the  league  of  abstinence,  the  other  half  would  be  debarred 
from  addressing  them,  and  thus  an  interdict  would  be  placed 
even  upon  willing  transgressors. 

It  is  hardly  necessary  to  observe,  that,  under  the  generic 
term  whispering,  I  here  include  all  forms  of  illicit  communica- 
tion, whether  carried  on  through  the  medium  of  the  voice,  the 
finger-language,  writing  on  paper  or  on  a  slate,  marking  words 
or  letters  in  a  book  so  as  to  make  a  sentence,  or  by  any  other 
of  the  ingenious  devices  which  fear  and  fraud  have  contrived. 
Their  object  is  the  same,  and  their  mischief  is  the  same.  They 
all  train  the  mind  to  base  and  unmanly  artifices,  for  which  no 
amount  of  knowledge  is  any  equivalent,  —  artifices  which  only 
confer  more  formidable  powers  of  mischief  upon  the  highly- 
developed  intellect. 

Perhaps  no  other  combination  of  circumstances  pertaining 
to  a  school  furnishes  so  favorable  an  opportunity  as  the  one 
under  consideration  for  the  inculcation  of  self-denial,  and  for 
habituating  the  pupils  to  its  practice.  Self-denial  is  not  so  much 
a  pre-eminent  virtue  as  it  is  the  parent  of  all  the  virtues.  To 
be  able  to  resist  the  present  solicitations  of  passion  or  of  appetite, 
in  consideration  of  a  future  good  ;  to  be  able  to  postpone  or  to 
forego  immediate  gratification,  in  obedience  to  a  principle  of 
duty  ;  to  be  able,  in  the  solitude  of  a  desert  or  in  the  darkness 
of  midnight,  when  no  human  eye  cau  see  us,  when  no  obstacle 
or  bar,  save  the  eternal  law  of  right,  conies  between  the  object 
of  our  unlawful  desire  and  our  enjoyment  of  it ;  to  be  able, 
under  such  circumstances,  not  only  to  abstain,  but  to  feel  that 
our  resolution  would  be  no  ^iron^or  though  all  the  universe 
were  gathered  around  us  in  a  circle,  of  which  we  were  the 
luminous  centre,  —  this  may  be  justly  regarded  as  the  acme 
of  moral  power  and  grandeur.  How  vast  the  distance  between 
this  moral  altitude  and  the  low  region  of  weakness,  of  tempta- 
tion, and  of  peril,  in  which  the  child  is  born  !  But  just  in  pro- 


REPORT   FOR   1845.  487 

portion  to  this  distance  are  the  reward  and  the  glory  of  the 
teacher  who  leads  the  young  spirit  onward  in  its  sublime 
ascension  to  the  heights  of  virtue. 

The  very  scheme  and  constitution  of  human  nature  demon- 
strate that  we  have  as  deep  an  interest  in  any  portion  of  futu- 
rity —  hour  for  hour,  and  day  for  day  —  as  in  the  same  portion 
of  time  now  passing  ;  for  the  simple  but  decisive  and  perfectly 
intelligible  reason,  that  future  time  is  to  be  present  time. 
Indeed,  our  personal  interest  preponderates  in  favor  of  that  por- 
tion of  time  which  lies  beyond  us,  rather  than  in  favor  of  that 
now  present  ;  because  the  current  of  our  life  widens  and  deepens 
as  it  advances  ;  and  because  new  capacities  and  sources  of 
happiness  and  of  misery  are  perpetually  pouring  in  their  con- 
fluent streams  to  increase  the  volume  of  our  future  existence, 
and  thus  making  that  existence  more  desirable  for  enjoyment, 
or  more  terrible  for  suffering.  We  know,  too,  that  the  present 
not  only  has  its  concomitants  of  weal  or  woe,  but  that  it  will 
modify  and  color  till  that  is  to  come  after  it.  To  the  eye  of 
reason  and  conscience,  therefore,  the  stages  of  being  through 
which  we  are  hereafter  to  pass  have  as  close  a  relation  to  our- 
selves, to  our  identity,  as  those  through  which  we  are  now 
passing.  It  is  the  eye  of  sense  only  which  magnifies  the  near, 
but  sees  the  distant  in  the  diminished  proportions  of  perspec- 
tive ;  as  has  been  strikingly  illustrated  in  the  saying,  that  a  straw 
placed  near  the  eye  seems  as  large  as  an  oak  of  a  hundred  years 
in  the  distance.  But  the  difficulty  is,  that,  with  a  spiritual 
nature  perpetually  existent,  we  have  appetites  and  desires  that 
demand  immediate  gratification  ;  and,  to  give  plausibility  to 
their  demands,  it  is  also  true  that  those  appetites  and  desires 
must,  to  a  certain  extent,  be  gratified,  or  our  temporal  existence 
would  cease.  The  teacher,  then,  should  put  the  future  visibly 
into  the  scale,  that  it  may  counterbalance  the  present.  For  this 
purpose,  the  connection  between  the  present  and  the  future 
must  be  explained,  —  the  tendency  of  habits,  whether  good  or 
evil,  to  increase  in  velocity  and  momentum  ;  the  tendency  of 
all  indulged  desires  and  thoiights  to  redouble  their  strength, 


488         ANNUAL  REPORTS  OX  EDUCATION. 

and  their  control  over  the  will ;  the  danger,  therefore,  of 
uttering  a  profane  word,  of  venturing  upon  the  terrible  experi- 
ment of  a  falsehood,  of  dissimulation,  of  envy,  of  unkiudness, 
of  disobedience.  The  competent  teacher  adopts  this  method 
in  regard  to  all  the  studies  pursued  in  his  school.  He  shows 
the  relation  between  what  is  present  and  visible,  and  what  is 
distant  and  unseen.  Physical  geography  can  never  be  learned, 
unless  the  child  is  first  led  to  form  adequate  conceptions  of 
space,  Avhere  he  can  assign  locality  to  objects,  and  give  arrange- 
ment to  all  the  facts  he  learns.  History  can  never  be  learned, 
unless  the  learner  has  adequate  conceptions  of  past  time,  —  of 
successive  centuries,  along  whose  years  and  decades  he  can 
distribute  and  arrange  the  events  which  history  brings  under 
his  notice.  So  the  duty  and  the  utility  of  self-denial  can  never 
be  adequately  enforced  or  appreciated,  unless  the  future  be 
opened,  and  the  relations  of  passing  events  to  the  fortunes  of 
after-life  be  exhibited.  Why,  then,  should  so  great  a  propor- 
tion of  the  school-hours  be  spent  upon  studies,  and  so  small 
a  proportion  upon  motives?  Why  should  the  reputation  and 
the  patronage  of  schools  depend  more  upon  what  the  scholars 
know  than  upon  how  they  act  f  Why  should  the  public  inquire 
more  frequently  respecting  the  school  or  the  college  where  a 
great  man  has  been  educated  than  respecting  the  influences 
under  which  a  good  man  has  been  trained?  In  the  vast  ma- 
jority of  our  schools  throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of  the 
land,  are  not  the  laws  of  orthoepy  more  carefully  taught  than 
the  laws  of  justice  and  equity  between  man  and  man?  Is  the 
duty  of  forgiveness  as  much  insisted  on  as  the  rules  of  gram- 
mar? Are  the  elementary  ideas  of  right  and  wrong  as  labori- 
ously explained  as  the  elements  of  arithmetic  ?  or  are  the  mighty 
results  of  good  or  evil  principles,  as  they  are  evolved  in  society, 
in  the  affairs  of  government,  and  in  the  iutei'course  of  nations 
with  each  other,  as  perseveringly  expounded  as  are  the  higher 
combinations  of  arithmetical  numbers?  Are  not  errors  in  text- 
books, or  even  in  the  language  of  visitors,  sometimes  brought 
forward  with  care  and  exposed  with  vanity,  while  obscene 


REPORT   FOR    1845.  489 

carvings,  or  emblems  of  pollution,  around  the  premises,  or  on 
the  walls  of  the  schoolroom  itself,  are  suffered  to  remain  un- 
•molested?  These  frightful  inconsistencies  must  be  terminated. 
Their  continuance  is  suicide.  Self-preservation  as  well  as  re- 
ligion demands  a  change.  Neglect  moral  and  Christian  culture 
in  the  schoolroom,  and  if  the  exchange  is  shaken  by  stupen- 
dous frauds,  if  perjuries  invade  the  tribunals  of  justice,  if 
hypocrisy  and  intolerance  are  installed  in  the  sanctuaries 
of  religion,  if  political  profligacy  reigns  in  the  council-halls  of 
the  nation,  and  sends  its  streams  of  corruption  through  all  the 
channels  of  government,  AVC  shall  reap  only  as  we  have  sown. 

There  are  some  schools  in  Massachusetts,  and  the  number  is 
increasing,  where,  without  invading  the  conscientious  rights  or 
scruples  of  a  single  denomination,  social  and  Christian  princi- 
ples have  been  so  wisely  acted  on  by  the  teacher,  have  been  so 
clearly  and  convincingly  brought  down  and  brought  home  to 
the  minds  of  the  pupils,  that  not  only  whispering,  but  other 
sources  of  disorder  and  misconduct,  has  been  almost  entirely 
banished  from  the  schoolroom.  Cases  have  occurred  where, 
voluntarily,  without  solicitation,  the  older  and  more  influential 
scholars  have  signed  a  pledge,  obligating  themselves  to  abstain 
from  particular  school-offences,  and  to  use  their  influence  to 
induce  others  to  practise  the  like  abstinence.  How  high  the 
point  of  self-respect  and  of  principle  which  the  pupils  have 
reached,  when  such  a  measure  emanates  spontaneously  from 
tRem  !  How  greatly  is  the  power  of  acquisition  promoted  when 
the  power  of  self-control  is  enthroned  in  the  breast !  Aud  how 
far-reaching  and  decisive  in  its  influences  upon  after-life  is  a 
successful  resolution  in  childhood  to  seek  counsel  of  duty,  and 
to  abide  by  its  decisions  !  Blessed  is  the  fortune  of  those  chil- 
dren who  are  led  by  wise  and  benignant  hands  to  some  moral 
eminence,  where  they  can  survey  the  path  that  will  conduct 
them  to  happiness,  and  are  inspired  with  the  motives  which 
will  prompt  them  to  pursue  it !  * 

*  As  a  specimen  of  the  utter  oblivion  into  which  a  love  of  intellectual  acute- 
ness  aud  skill  may  throw  the  moral  relations  of  a  subject,  I  quote  the  following 
question  from  a  modern  arithmetic :  — 


490  ANNUAL    REPORTS    ON   EDUCATION. 

The  vice  of  truantship  is  to  be  regarded  under  the  same 
moral  aspects.  The  truant,  it  is  true,  loses  privileges  which 
can  never  be  recovered  ;  because  no  revolution  of  the  wheel  or 
time  ever  brings  back  an  hour  that  has  been  wasted.  By  fore- 
going his  opportunity  of  acquiring  knowledge,  the  truant  for- 
feits at  least  a  portion  of  his  chances  for  future  usefulness  and 
success  in  life  ;  and  he  also  forfeits  those  enduring  satisfactions 
which  are  the  rewards  of  intellectual  culture.  Loitering  by 
the  wayside  but  for  a  single  day,  or  deviating  into  illicit  paths 
but  for  a  single  hour,  he  allows  those  who  were  behind  him  to 
pass  by,  and  to  seize  upon  the  advantages  or  the  honors,  which, 
by  the  use  of  diligence,  he  might  rightfully  have  made  his  own. 
He  enrolls  himself  with  the  most  wasteful  of  all  prodigals,  — 
those  who  are  prodigal  of  time.  But  the  positive  good  which 
is  lost  is  trifling  compared  with  the  positive  evil  which  is  in- 
curred. Every  act  of  truantship  is  a  twofold  falsehood.  It  is 
a  falsehood  committed  against  the  parent  who  sends,  and  against 
the  teacher  who  expects.  Worse  than  either  of  these,  it  is  a 
violation  of  the  culprit's  own  sense  of  duty.  To  waste  the 
seed-time,  and  to  consume  the  seed  from  which  a  rich  harvest 
might  be  reaped,  does  but  condemn  the  fields  of  after-life  to 
barrenness  ;  but  the  pretence,  the  equivocation,  the  deceit,  and 
occasionally  the  downright  lie,  and,  what  is  worst  of  all,  the 
perpetual  holding  of  the  mind  in  an  active  lying  state,  —  that 
is,  in  a  state  ready  to  lie,  —  these  strew  thickly  those  tares  of 
vice  over  the  fields  of  youth  whose  harvest  will  be  ruin.  It  is 

"  A  sea-captain  on  a.  voyage  had  a  crew  of  thirty  men,  half  of  whom  were  blacks. 
Being  becalmed  on  the  passage  for  a  long  time,  their  provisions  began  to  fail; 
and  the  captain  became  satisfied,  that,  unless  the  number  of  men  was  greatly 
diminished,  all  would  perish  of  hunger  before  they  reached  any  friendly  port. 
He  therefore  proposed  to  the  sailors  that  they  should  stand  in  a  row  on  deck,  and 
that  every  ninth  man  should  be  thrown  overboard  until  one-half  of  the  crew  were 
thus  destroyed.  To  this  they  all  agreed.  How  should  they  stand  to  save  the 
whites  ?  » 

Doubtless  this  question  was  prepared  by  the  author,  and  has  been  laboriously 
studied  by  thousands  of  pupils,  without  any  distinct  contemplation  of  the  fiend- 
ish injustice  and  fraud  which  it  involves,  but  only  with  admiration  for  the  inge- 
nuity which  originated,  and  for  the  talent  that  can  solve  it ;  and  yet  the  idea  which 
the  question  has  lodged  in  the  mind  may  become  the  parent  of  a  fraud  as  base  if 
iiot  as  appalling  as  its  prototype. 


REPORT   FOR   1845.  491 

not,  then,  the  squandering  of  school-privileges  which  gives  to 
this  offence  its  most  malignant  type  ;  it  is  not  the  loss  of  money 
expended  for  books  and  for  tuition  ;  it  is  not  the  indignity 
offered  to  the  teacher :  but  it  is  the  positive  wrong,  self-inflicted 
upon  the  pupil's  own  moral  nature  ;  it  is  that  struggle  between 
his  own  illicit  desires  and  his  sense  of  duty,  in  which  the  for- 
mer are  victorious ;  it  is  the  stratagem,  and  the  putting  of  the 
mind  into  a  frame  to  invent  stratagems,  in  order  to  secure  im- 
punity or  to  avoid  suspicion,  — it  is  this  inward  training  of  the 
soul  to  the  contemplation  and  the  devices  of  iniquity,  which 
gives  to  the  evil  its  magnitude  and  frightfulness.  But  is  it  s6 
regarded  by  those  parents  who  never  visit  the  school  from  the 
beginning  to  the  end  of  the  term,  in  order  to  examine  the 
teacher's  register,  or  to  learn,  by  personal  inquiry,  whether  their 
children  have  been  delinquent  ?  Is  it  so  regarded  by  any  teacher 
who  records  absences,  half-day  after  half-day,  without  ever 
visiting  the  parents  to  know  whether  the  absence  is  necessary 
or  fraudulent  ?  Is  it  so  regarded  either  by  parents  or  teachers, 
who,  when  the  offence  is  detected,  inflict  chastisement  upon  the 
offender  as  the  penalty  of  his  misconduct,  but  take  no  other 
measures  to  reach  the  secret  workings  of  his  mind,  and  there 
to  rectify  the  springs  of  action  themselves? 

In  rural  districts,  where  the  population  is  sparse,  cases  of 
truantship  are  of  rare  occurrence.  In  cities  and  large  towns, 
and  especially  in  manufacturing  villages,  the  offence  is  not 
unfrequent.  Various  devices  are  resorted  to  for  its  successful 
commission.  In  most  schools,  no  written  excuse  for  absence  or 
tardiness  is  required,  and  therefore  a  truant  has  only  to  fabri- 
cate some  excuse  for  being  late  or  absent ;  and  the  teacher  too 
often  dismisses  the  subject  without  further  inquiry.  When 
written  excuses  are  required,  parents  often  give  one  without 
date,  which  the  pupil  will  keep  as  long  as  he  dares,  —  perhaps 
for  several  days,  —  and  then  present  it.  Sometimes  a  child  is 
necessarily  detained  at  home  for  half  an  hour  after  the  com- 
mencement of  the  school ;  and,  having  obtained  an  excuse 
from  his  parent  without  any  specification  as  to  time,  he  plays 


492  ANNUAL   REPORTS   ON  EDUCATION. 

truant  for  the  greater  part  of  the  session,  and  then  goes  in  and 
presents  it.  Or  the  parent  sends  written  word  that  he  wishes 
his  child  to  return  home  before  the  school  is  done,  without 
specifying  how  long  before  ;  and  an  hour  or  two  of  playtime  is 
gained  by  obtaining  dismission  too  early.  Instances  have  oc- 
curred where  a  child  has  had  the  wickedness  to  forge  an  excuse, 
and  present  it  as  genuine.  But  if  the  child  will  forge  his 
father's  name  to  an  excuse,  in  order  to  get  an  hour  of  play, 
ought  we  to  be  surprised  if  the  same  child,  when  grown  to 
manhood,  should  commit  the  crime  of  forgery  to  obtain  the 
means  of  criminal  indulgence  ?  Is  it  a  vain  apprehension  that 
a  child,  thus  false  to  his  own  interests  and  to  the  claims  of  duty, 
will  be  false  to  all  the  interests  and  duties  which  may  afterwards 
be  committed  to  his  keeping?  If  we  think  we  foresee,  in  the 
remarkable  answers  of  a  school-boy,  — •  remarkable  only  because 
so  little  is  expected  at  so  early  an  age,  —  proofs  of  the  power 
and  the  splendor  that  shall  aggrandize  and  adorn  the  future 
man,  why  may  not  we  foresee,  in  these  juvenile  offences  which 
are  so  lightly  passed  over,  proofs  of  those  enormous  misdeeds 
which  afterwards  shall  bring  distress  upon  a  family,  a  com- 
munity, or  a  country?  With  pleasure  it  is  admitted,  that  there 
are  cases  of  reformation,  —  cases  where  the  evil  that  was  be- 
tokened by  a  youth  of  error  is  averted  by  repentance,  and 
followed  by  a  life  of  uprightness.  On  the  other  hand,  also,  it- 
must  be  conceded  that  there  are  instances  where  all  the  hopes 
that  were  cherished  by  a  childhood  of  innocence  have  been 
blasted  by  a  manhood  of  profligacy.  But,  on  both  sides,  these 
cases  are  exceptions  to  the  general  rule ;  and  they  are  no 
further  to  be  recognized  as  grounds  of  action,  than  as  they 
admonish  us  never  to  sink  into  the  inaction  of  over-confidence 
in  regard  to  the  good,  nor  into  the  hopelessness  of  despair  iu 
regard  to  the  bad.  A  venerable  clergyman  belonging  to  the 
State,  always  watchful  of  the  condition  of  youth,  and  regarding 
the  conduct  of  the  child  as  foretokening  the  character  of  the 
man,  has  informed  me  that  he  taught  school  for  many  years 
in  the  town  where  he  was  afterwards  settled  as  a  minister  ;  that 


REPORT   FOR    1845.  493 

it  was  his  practice,  while  in  school,  to  keep  a  detailed  record 
of  the  diligence,  proficiency,  and  moral  deportment  of  his 
pupils,  which  record  he  has  preserved  ;  and  now,  on  recurring 
to  this  school-diary,  he  finds,  with  but  few  exceptions,  that  it 
would  answer  very  well  as  an  index,  or  table  of  contents,  for 
the  acted  volume  of  their  subsequent  lives.  There  is  one  vice, 
indeed,  or  rather  a  prolific  parent  of  all  vices,  which  disturbs 
this  great  law  of  probabilities,  and  often  falsifies  the  indica- 
tions given  by  an  exemplary  youth  of  an  honorable  old  age.  It 
is  the  vice  of  intemperance.  This  vice  is  a  horrid  alchemy, 
which  transmutes  every  thing  good  into  evil ;  and  not  merely 
changing  affinities,  but,  corrupting  the  very  elements  on  which 
it  work?,  renders  it  impossible  ever  afterwards  to  restore  them 
to  their  pristine  strength  and  purity.  It  is  the  theological  oppo- 
site of  regeneration  ;  for  it  depraves  depravity  itself. 

In  the  new  register-book  which  has  been  prepared  by  the 
Board,  and  which  will  be  in  the  schools  the  ensuing  summer 
term,  provision  is  made  for  the  entry  of  each  pupil's  name.  If 
the  teacher  performs  his  duty  in  keeping  the  register,  as  it  is  to 
be  presumed  he  will,  then  every  parent,  on  visiting  the  school, 
can  learn  by  mere  inspection  whether  his  child  is  charged  on 
the  book  with  more  cases  of  tardiness  or  absence  than  have 
been  authorized ;  and,  by  a  vigilant  use  of  this  check,  the  vice 
of  truantship  may  be  generally  extirpated. 

The  question,  By  what  motives  shall  children  be  incited  to 
study  ?  opens  a  vast  and  most  interesting  field  of  inquiry.  That 
the  human  mind  was  pre-adapted  by  its  benevolent  Creator  for 
the  acquisition  of  knowledge  and  the  exercise  of  reason,  is  not 
merely  an  inference  drawn  from  the  wisdom  and  goodness  of 
God,  but  it  is  ocularly  demonstrated  by  the  constitution  of  our 
nature.  It  is  not  merely  what  we  should  expect,  but  what  we 
actually  see.  Before  the  human  lungs  are  brought  into  the 
world,  how  admirably  are  they  prepared  for  the  air  that  is  to 
surround  and  to  fill  them  !  Not  only  are  the  lungs  tubular  and 
vesicular,  in  the  highest  degree,  for  the  reception  of  the  air, 
but  the  air  has  a  property  which  the  blood  must  imbibe,  or  it 


494  ANNUAL   REPORTS    ON    EDUCATION. 

would  perish  in  five  minutes ;  and,  further,  the  blood  has  a 
property  which  it  must  cast  out  through  the  lungs  into  the  air, 
or  again  it  would  perish  in  five  minutes  from  another  cause. 
What  need  has  the  unborn  child  of  that  exquisite  mechanism, 
the  eye  ;  of  the  iris,  invested  with  power  to  enlarge  or  diminish 
itself  by  a  spontaneous  movement ;  of  its  crystalline  lens,  and 
of  its  different  humors,  to  cause  the  rays  of  light  to  converge  ; 
of  the  finely- wrought  net-work  of  the  retina,  spread  at  the  true 
focal  distance  over  its  interior  surface ;  of  the  wonderful  nerve 
that  lies  behind  it,  holding  mysterious  communication  with  the 
secret  chambers  of  the  brain ;  and  of  the  solid  masonry  of 
bones,  which  is  built  up  as  a  wall  of  protection  around  it? 
This  marvellous  contrivance  is  prepared  in  reference  to  the 
sun,  —  an  object  almost  a  hundred  millions  of  miles  distant 
from  it ;  it  is  prepared  in  reference  to  sidereal  systems,  lying 
at  incomputable  distances  from  our  system  ;  and  He  who,  in 
the  beginning,  created  the  greater  and  lesser  lights  of  the  firma- 
ment, and  who  now  selects  and  arranges  the  subtlest  particles 
of  matter  for  the  formation  of  the  human  eye,  established  of 
old  the  relations  between  them,  and  pre-adapted  their  powers 
and  their  properties  to  each  other.  How  curiously  has  the 
Creator  fashioned  the  mechanism  of  the  ear !  He  has  planted 
it  so  deeply  and  securely  within  the  protecting  walls  of  the 
cranium,  that  it  needs  no  bars  or  portals  to  defend  it  from  ex- 
ternal encroachments  ;  he  has  made  it  to  stand  forever  open, 

—  by  night  as  well  as  by  day,  and  whether  sleeping  or  waking, 

—  so  that  there  is  scarcely  a  natural  agent  of  harm  that  can  ap- 
proach   us,  without  warning  us   of  its  coming.     With  what  a 
delicate  equilibrium  is  its  tympanum  balanced!  —  vibrating  at 
the  buzz  of  an  insect's  wing,  or  at  the  tread  of  an  insect's  foot, 
yet  able  to  bear  uninjured  the  ocean's  roar,  or  the  thunder's 
crash  ;  and  it  is  made  to  delight  in   all   the  variety  of  sweet 
sounds  that  lie  between  these  far-distant  extreme.-.      And  so  of 
all  the  other  senses.  >  Is  it  not  intuitively  obvious   that   they 
were  designed  to  bring  us  into  communication  and  relationship 
with  the  infinitely-varied  objects  of  the  world  around  us  ;   with 


REPORT   FOR    1845.  495 

the  food  and  drinks  which  nourish  and  sustain  us  ;  with  the 
solid  substances  that  shelter,  and  the  textile  ones  that  clothe 
us  ;  with  the  various  races  of  animals  over  which  a  dominion  " 
has  been  given  us  ;  with  the  dry  land  which  abicleth  in  its 
place,  and  with  the  waters  which  make  their  perpetual  circuit 
from  the  mountains  and  hills  into  the  rivers,  from  the  rivers 
into  the  sea,  from  the  sea  into  the  clouds,  and  from  the  clouds 
to  the  mountains  and  hills  and  rivers  again  ? 

Nor  is  utility  the  only  purpose  of  those  beautiful  relations 
which  exist  between  ourselves  and  the  external  world.  The 
goodness  of  God  is  as  pervading  as  his  power,  and  hence  he 
has  everywhere  intermingled  pleasure  with  advantage.  Golden 
threads  are  thickly  interspersed  in  every  web  which  Nature  has 
woven.  How  conspicuous  is  this  truth  in  regard  to  the  prop- 
erty of  color  !  Most  of  the  other  properties  of  matter  seem 
to  have  a  primary  reference  to  utility.  The  inflexibility  of 
stone,  and  the  elasticity  of  steel ;  the  combustibility  of  wood, 
and  the  relative  incombustibility  of  the  metals ;  the  hardness 
of  flint,  and  the  softness  of  wool  and  silk,  —  seem  primarily  de- 
signed for  use  rather  than  for  pleasure  ;  and  so  of  innumerable 
other  objects.  But  what  profit  can  the  cold  utilitarian  extort 
from  all  the  variegation  and  changeful  beauties  of  color?  The 
rainbow,  the  orient  sun,  the  evening  clouds,  the  plumage  of 
birds,  the  flower-strewn  fields,  the  hues  of  the  blossoming 
spring,  and  of  the  foliage  of  autumn,  joyful  in  its  death,  — 
these  add  no  gold  to  his  coffers,  nor  acres  to  his  lauds,  nor  fruit 
to  his  garners.  Yet  this  beautiful  property  of  matter  is  spread 
upon  the  surface  of  all  things,  as  if  to  attract  our  attention  to 
them,  and  to  win  our  regards  for  them,  not  only  before,  but 
after,  the  age  of  reflection  ;  and  no  other  property  is  at  once  so 
universal  and  so  varied  as  this.  In  almost  every  instance,  the 
gracious  Author  of  this  property  of  matter,  and  of  our  capacity 
to  perceive  it,  has  made  it  pleasurable  ;  and  probably  no  child 
ever  consciously  looked,  even  for  the  thousandth  time,  upon  the 
moon,  or  a  sun-illumined  cloud,  or  stream,  or  lake,  without  an 
emotion  of  joy. 


496  ANNUAL   REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

Such  is  the  relation  which  our  senses  bear  to  the  external 
universe. 

And,  in  the  second  place,  the  faculties  by  which  we  reason 
stand  in  the  same  relation  to  the  perceptive  powers,  and  to  the 
images  or  notions  of  things  which  they  collect,  as  the  percep- 
tive powers  themselves  do  to  the  objects  of  the  external  world. 
Through  the  senses  we  collect  notions,  more  or  less  accurately 
and  extensively,  of  the  boundless  variety  of  things  that  consti- 
tutes the  world  around  us,  —  of  all  that  is  great  or  small,  high 
or  low,  solid  or  fluid,  cold  or  hot,  moving  or  motionless,  odorous 
or  inodorous,  savory  or  vapid,  hard  or  soft,  loud  or  low,  and  so 
forth  ;  but  all  this  knowledge  of  properties  would  be  of  no 
more  service  to  us  than  to  the  beasts  of  the  field  or  the  fowls  of 
the  air,  did  not  the  illuminating  reason  preside  over  them,  dis- 
cerning the  relations  between  them,  disentangling  consequences 
by  referring  each  effect  to  its  cause,  and,  out  of  new  arrange- 
ments and  combinations,  educing  new  uses  to  increase  the 
physical  comforts  and  the  spiritual  elevation  of  mankind.  It  is 
only  by  the  safer  light  of  reason,  indeed,  that  we  rectify  the 
mistakes  into  which  the  senses  would  inevitably  and  constantly 
lead  us.  To  the  senses,  the  earth  and  sun  are  flat :  reason 
declares  them  to  be  spheres.  If  we  ask  the  senses,  they  affirm 
that  the  earth  is  thousands  of  times  larger  than  the  sun  ;  if  we 
consult  the  reason,  we  are  assured  that  the  sun  would  contain 
within  its  circumference  more  than  thirteen  hundred  thou.saud 
globes,  each  as  large  as  the  earth.  The  senses  declare  that 
the  earth  is  stationary,  and  that  the  sun  revolves  around  it 
every  day ;  but  reason  gives  stability  to  the  sun,  and  a  diurnal 
revolution  to  the  earth.  So,  from  the  beginning  of  life,  reason 
rectifies  the  errors  of  the  senses;  and,  without  its  aid,  we 
should  be  iu  a  world  of  illusions,  each  one  leading  us  .astray. 
Reason  also  teaches  us  to  discover  those  things  which  are  too 
remote  and  too  minute  for  the  senses  ever  to  reach,  —  the 
magnificent  bodies  and  distances  of  astronomy,  and  the  imper- 
ceptibly minute  atoms  and  motions  of  chemistry.  Who,  then, 
let  me  again  ask,  can  doubt  that  the  great  Author  of  our  reason 


REPORT   FOR    1845.  497 

designed  that  it  should  be  used,  and  that  it  should  be  developed 
and  cultivated  in  order  to  be  used?  As  the  senses  were  created 
to  receive  images  or  perceptions  of  things  belonging  to  the 
external  world  ;  so  the  reason  was  created  to  work  upon  those 
images  or  perceptions  when  received,  to  correct  and  modify  and 
assort  them,  to  discover  the  insensible  qualities  they  possess, 
and  to  penetrate  to  the  laws  they  obey.  Hence  it  is  obvious, 
from  our  very  constitution,  that  the  Deity  meant  that  the 
science  of  optics  should  be  understood,  as  much  as  that  the 
sensation  of  light  should  be  felt;  that  the  atmosphere  should 
be  analyzed  into  its  different  ingredients,  and  the  properties  of 
each  ingredient  determined,  as  much  as  that  the  atmosphere 
itself  should  be  breathed  ;  and  that  the  laws  of  life  and  health 
should  be  discovered,  as  much  as  that  we  should  desire  to 
live. 

And  in  all  these  exercises  of  the  reason  upon  the  crude  mate- 
rials of  knowledge,  not  less  than  in  the  acquisition  of  the 
knowledge  itself,  there  is  pleasure.  Nature  has  not  constituted 
this  portion  of  the  mind  upon  the  principles  of  utility  alone, 
but  upon  the  principles  of  utility  and  pleasure  combined.  How 
intensely  have  all  the  great  intellectual  luminaries  of  the  world 
loved  the  sciences  iu  which  they  labored !  and  who  has  ever 
understandingly  surveyed  any  part  of  the  creation  of  God, 
without  being  thrilled  with  delight? 

Is  not  the  course  of  Nature,  then,  —  which  is  a  lesson  given 
by  the  Creator  himself,  —  full  of  instruction  and  wisdom  in 
regard  to  the  school-motives  which  should  be  brought  to  bear 
upon  children?  First,  in  order  to  win  attention,  the  objects 
of  knowledge  should  be  made  attractive,  as  Nature,  by  bestow- 
ing upon  her  objects  the  pleasing  qualities  of  form  and  color, 
of  motion  and  sound,  makes  them  attractive.  As  the  powers 
of  perception  precede  the  powers  of  reasoning,  in  the  order  of 
development,  the  sensible  qualities  of  things  should  first  be 
presented  to  the  learner.  Afterwards,  and  when  the  reasoning 
powers  are  developed,  the  profounder  relations  that  exist  be- 
tween things,  and  the  laws  by  which  they  are  governed, 

32 


498        ANNUAL  REPORTS  ON  EDUCATION. 

should  be  unfolded  to  the  reason  in  the  same  manner  in  which 
the  sensible  properties  had  been  exhibited  to  the  senses.  In 
this  clear  light  of  Nature,  too,  we  see  where  language  should 
come  in.  Words  are  but  the  signs  of  things,  not  only  use- 
less, but  burdensome  and  pernicious,  without  a  knowledge  of 
the  things  themselves.  For  all  mankind,  the  course  of  Nature 
is,  things,  and  then  their  names.  For  a  year,  and  not  unfre- 
quently  for  two  years,  after  a  child's  birth,  the  Deity  forbids 
to  it,  withholds  from  it,  the  use  of  language.  At  that  period 
of  life,  so  cumbrous  and  uncertain  an  instrument  as  language 
would  confuse  and  bewilder  the  mind,  and  divert  it  from  the 
perception  of  qualities  to  signs.  Yet,  during  that  time,  how 
much  does  a  child  learn  respecting  the  properties  and  distances 
and  relative  positions  of  the  objects  about  him  !  What  more 
stupendous  folly,  then,  can  be  conceived,  than  to  teach  children 
to  read,  without  seeing  that  they  understand  what  they  read ; 
to  teach  them  the  pauses  and  emphases  and  cadences  which 
are  designed  to  aid  the  intellect,  and  the  modulation  and  tones 
which  are  expressive  of  the  passions,  while  they  themselves 
receive  but  little  more  conscious  intelligence  or  emotion  from 
the  lesson  than  do  the  benches  on  which  they  sit !  Still  worse 
is  it  if  coarse  and  harsh  appliances  are  used  as  substitutes  for 
those  true  and  genuine  sources  of  interest  which  are  thus 
withheld. 

But,  notwithstanding  this  original  adaptation  of  the  faculties 
for  acquiring  and  using  knowledge,  it  must  be  conceded  that 
there  are  cases  in  actual  life  where  the  natural  tendency  of 
the  mind  to  become  acquainted  with  the  things  around  it  has 
been  marred,  and  sometimes  almost  obliterated.  As  the 
stomach,  with  its  instinctive  longings  for  healthful  food,  may 
be  so  abused  as  to  loathe  the  most  appropriate  nourishment ;  so 
the  mind,  with  its  inborn  love  of  knowledge,  —  which  seems  to 
be  not  merely  an  attraction  for  knowledge,  but  a  repulsion  from 
ignorance,  —  may  be  so  abused  as  to  look  with  disgust  at  what 
it  should  have  longed  for.  And  this  is  not  unfrequently  done, 
by  parental  ignorance  or  perversity,  before  the  child  passes  into 


EEPORT   FOR    1845.  499 

the  hands  of  the  professional  teacher.  In  such  a  case,  the 
teacher  may  appear  to  do  a  vast  deal  more  by  stimulating  the 
verbal  memory  of  the  child,  and  by  giving  him  the  show 
instead  of  the  substance  of  knowledge,  than  if  he  should  strive 
to  re-animate  the  apparently  dead  powers  of  acquisition  and  of 
thought.  Yet  the  latter  should  be  done,  at  whatever  seeming 
delay ;  and  the  faithful  teacher  will  do  it,  irrespective  of  the 
consequences  to  his  own  reputation.  It  is  only  the  unfaithful 
teacher  who  will  adopt  the  course  which  will  make  the  child 
appear  best  at  the  end  of  the  term,  irrespective  of  his  perma- 
nent welfare. 

It  was  the  opinion  of  Pestalozzi,  —  that  wisest  of  school- 
masters, —  that  the  children's  want  of  interest  in  their  studies, 
in  his  day,  was  almost  universally  referable  to  a  want  of  skill 
in  those  who  had  charge  of  them.  "  There  are  scarcely  any 
circumstances,"  he  says,  "  in  which  a  want  of  application  in 
children  does  not  proceed  from  a  want  of  interest ;  and  there 
are  perhaps  none  under  which  a  want  of  interest  does  not 
originate  in  the  mode  of  treatment  adopted  by  the  teacher.  I 
would  go  so  far  as  to  lay  it  down  as  a  rule,  that  whenever 
children  are  inattentive,  and  apparently  take  no  interest  in  a 
lesson,  the  teacher  should  always  first  look  to  himself  for  a 
reason."  Undoubtedly,  in  expressing  this  opinion,  Pestalozzi 
must  have  referred  to  permanent  teachers  only,  and  not  to  such 
as  keep  the  same  school  only  for  a  few  weeks,  or  for  a  single 
term  ;  and  in  many  cases,  certainly,  the  parents  as  well  as  the 
teacher  should  be  included  in  the  stricture.  Yet,  if  any  person 
had  a  right  to  say  this,  it  was  Pestalozzi ;  for,  however  stub- 
born or  stupid  children  had  ever  been  found  to  be  under  other 
masters,  they  became  docile  and  improving  under  him.  But 
every  teacher  cannot  become  what  Pestalozzi  was,  with  his 
extraordinary  natural  endowments,  and  with  his  life  of  experi- 
ence, any  more  than  every  man  can  become  what  Lord  Bacon 
or  Sir  Isaac  Newton  or  Dr.  Franklin  was.  What,  then,  shall 
be  done  by  such  teachers  as  we  have,  and  are  glad  to  employ? 
Shall  they  not,  as  far  as  possible,  imitate  him,  and,  by  pursu- 


500  ANNUAL   REPORTS   ON  EDUCATION. 

ing  similar  means,  approximate  to  similar  results  ?  Shall  they 
not,  as  he  did,  determine  what  they  will  not  do,  as  well  as 
what  they  will  do?  "  The  motive  of  fear,"  says  he,  "  should 
not  be  made  a  stimulus  to  exertion.  It  will  destroy  interest, 
and  will  speedily  create  disgust.  The  interest  in  study  is  the 
first  thing  which  a  teacher  should  endeavor  to  excite  and  keep 
alive."  And  again,  speaking  of  that  class  of  children  who  are 
subjected  to  a  mere  "  mechanical  training,"  and  who,  therefore, 
need  some  collateral  stimulus  to  spur  them  on  to  study,  he 
says,  "  The  common  motive  by  which  such  a  system  acts  on 
those  whose  indolence  it  has  conquered  is  fear.  The  very 
highest  to  which  it  can  aspire,  in  those  whose  sensibility  is 
excited,  is  ambition. 

"  It  is  obvious,"  he  continues,  "  that  such  a  system  can  cal- 
culate only  on  the  lower  selfishness  of  man.  To  that  least 
amiable  or  estimable  part  of  the  human  chai*acter,  it  is,  and 
always  has  been,  indebted  for  its  best  success.  Upon  the  bet- 
ter feelings  of  man  it  turns  a  deaf  ear. 

"  How  is  it,  then,  that  motives  leading  to  a  course  of  action 
which  is  looked  upon  as  mean  and  despicable,  or  at  best  as 
doubtful,  when  it  occurs  in  life,  —  how  is  it  that  motives  of 
that  description  are  thought  honorable  in  education?  Why 
should  that  bias  be  given  to  the  mind  in  a  school,  which,  to 
gain  the  respect  or  the  affection  of  others,  an  individual  must 
first  of  all  strive  to  unlearn  ?  —  a  bias  to  which  every  candid 
mind  is  a  stranger. 

"  I  do  not  wish  to  speak  harshly  of  ambition,  or  to  reject  it 
altogether  as  a  motive.  There  is,  to  be  sure,  a  noble  ambition, 
—  dignified  by  its  object,  and  distinguished  by  a  deep  and 
transcendent  interest  in  that  object.  But  if  we  consider  the 
sort  of  ambition  commonly  proposed  to  the  school-boy ;  if  we 
analyze  '  what  stuff  'tis  made  of,  whereof  it  is  born,'  —  we  shall 
find  that  it  has  nothing  to  do  with  the  interest  taken  in  the  ob- 
ject of  study  ;  that  such  an  interest  frequently  does  not  exist ; 
and  that,  owing  to  its  being  blended  with  that  vilest  and  mean- 
est of  motives,  — with  /ear,  —  it  is  by  no  means  raised  by  the 


REPORT   FOR   1845.  501 

wish  to  give  pleasure  to  those  who  propose  it  ;  for  a  teacher 
who  proceeds  on  a  system  in  which  fear  and  ambition  are  the 
principal  agents  must  give  up  his  claim  to  the  esteem  or  affec- 
tion of  his  pupils. 

"  Motives,  like  fear  or  inordinate  ambition,  may  stimulate  to 
exertion,  intellectual  or  physical ;  but  they  cannot  warm  the 
heart.  There  is  not  in  them  that  life  which  makes  the  heart 
of  youth  heave  with  delight  of  knowledge,  with  the  honest  con- 
sciousness of  talent,  with  the  honorable  wish  for  distinction, 
with  the  kindly  glow  of  genuine  feeling.  Such  motives  are 
inadequate  in  their  source,  and  inefficient  in  their  application ; 
for  they  are  nothing  to  the  heart,  and  '  out  of  the  heart  are  the 
issues  of  life.' " 

In  remarking  upon  school-motives,  the  use  of  emulation  as 
an  incentive  to  study  cannot  be  overlooked  ;  and  yet  I  mean 
to  abstain,  on  this  occasion,  from  touching  upon  the  debatable 
ground  which  it  covers.  To  discuss  the  subject  fully  would 
require,  not  a  paragraph  merely,  but  a  treatise.  In  regard  to 
the  general  question,  —  the  expediency  of  a  system  of  means  to 
excite  emulation  between  scholars.  —  there  are  distinguished 
advocates  on  both  sides  ;  but  it  will  be  my  endeavor,  at  the 
present  time,  only  to  elucidate  some  points,  respecting  which 
there  is,  ?o  far  as  I  know,  an  entire  unanimity  of  abstract 
opinion,  though  with  no  inconsiderable  diversity  in  practice. 

May  we  not  expect  the  assent  of  all  intelligent  men  to  the 
doctrine,  that  it  is  the  teacher's  duty  to  effect  the  greatest  general 
proficiency  of  his  pupils  ?  It  is  not  the  remarkable  progress  of 
a  few  scholars,  while  others  remain  in  a  stationary  condition, 
or  are  even  retrograding,  that  is  desirable  or  allowable.  The 
spirit  of  all  our  institutions  coincides  herein  with  the  spirit  of 
humanity  and  religion ;  all  enforcing  the  duty  of  succoring 
the  destitute,  of  instructing  the  ignorant,  of  elevating  the  lowly. 
As  it  would  be  a  violation  of  the  soundest  principles  of  political 
economy  to  make  the  rich  richer,  and  the  poor  poorer ;  so  it 
would  transgress  the  plainest  dictates  of  republican  duty  and 
Christian  ethics  to  jnve  knowledge  to  the  learned  at  the  ex- 


502  ANNUAL   REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

pense  of  suffering  the  ignorant  to  remain  in  their  ignorance. 
To  present  this  idea  with  arithmetical  precision,  let  us  suppose, 
that,  in  a  class  of  twenty  children  in  one  school,  the  improve- 
ment often  of  them  shall  be  equal  to  5  each,  or  50  in  all ;  and 
that  of  the  other  ten  shall  be  nothing :  so  that  50  shall  repre- 
sent the  improvement  of  the  whole  class.  In  another  school, 
suppose  a  class  of  the  same  number,  but  an  improvement  of  2^ 
for  each  of  the  whole.  As  in  the  former  case,  fifty  will  be  the 
product ;  and  who  will  not  acknowledge  that  the  greatest  good 
has  been  accomplished  in  the  latter  instance  ?  Who  will  deny 
that  the  teacher  in  the  latter  case  has  accomplished  a  far  nobler 
object  than  in  the  former? 

When  schools  are  very  large,  and  it  is  the  custom  of  the 
committee  to  examine  only  the  first  class,  or,  perhaps,  only  a  part 
of  the  first  class,  the  temptation  to  carry  forward  those  who  are 
to  be  examined,  even  at  the  expense  of  neglecting  the  residue, 
is  peculiarly  strong ;  and  it  needs  all  the  guards  of  an  active 
conscience  in  the  teacher,  and  a  vigilant  superintendence  in  the 
committee,  to  prevent  it. 

As  a  spur  to  emulation,  it  is  not  an  nnfrequent  practice  to 
make  a  record,  at  the  end  of  each  recitation,  of  the  number  of 
mistakes  which  each  scholar  may  have  made.  In  the  great 
majority  of  instances,  so  far  as  I  have  witnessed,  this  record  is 
made  without  any  reference  to  the  quality  of  the  mistake  com- 
mitted. Yet  can  any  thing  be  more  unjust  than  to  recognize 
no  difference  between  a  mistake  in  fact  and  a  mistake  in  prin- 
ciple f  lu  arithmetic,  for  instance,  one  scholar,  with  his  mind 
intently  fixed  upon  the  principle  according  to  which  his  prob- 
lem is  to  be  wrought,  makes  a  mistake  in  subtracting  or  divid- 
ing, and  fails,  therefore,  of  arriving  at  the  true  answer.  Anoth- 
er, regardless  of  principle,  performs  the  mechanical  part  of  his 
work  correctly,  but  proceeds  upon  such  an  erroneous  hypothesis 
as  will  insure  error  in  every  question,  which  comes  under  the 
same  head  or  rule.  In  geography,  one  makes  a  mistake  of  a 
few  hundreds  in  the  census  of  a  great  city ;  another  does  not 
perceive  that  there  is  any  connection  between  the  great  slopes 


REPORT   FOR   1845.  503 

of  a  continent  and  the  course  of  its  rivers.  In  history,  one 
has  forgotten  the  date  of  an  unimportant  event  ;  another 
makes  Gen.  Washington  a  Frenchman.  Yet  in  these  cases, 
or  such  as  these,  the  mistakes  are  reckoned  numerically  ;  no 
difference  being  made  between  a  mistake  which  a  wise  man 
might  have  committed  and  one  which  stigmatizes  its  author 
as  a  dunce.  To  estimate  the  demerit  of  mistakes  by  number, 
instead  of  quality,  is  as  rude  a  way  as  it  would  be,  in  the 
transactions  of  the  bank  or  the  market-place,  to  receive  and 
pay  all  the  various  coins  of  our  common  currency  by  tale, 
instead  of  weight  and  fineness. 

Again  :  will  it  not  be  conceded  by  all  that  the  degree  of  emu- 
lation is  excessive  which  induces  scholars  to  study  for  recita- 
tion rather  than  for  knowledge  f  The  difference  between  the 
two  modes  is  great,  and  it  diffuses  its  consequences  over  all  the 
future  life.  To  learn  for  the  purpose  of  repeating  or  reciting 
what  is  learned  at  the  end  of  an  hour,  or  of  a  few  hours,  sup- 
poses a  state  of  mind  entirely  different  from  that  which  is 
necessary  in  order  to  learn  the  same  thing  with  a  view  of 
treasuring  it  up  in  the  mind  to  be  remembered  forever.  The 
mind  approaches,  surveys,  and  grasps  the  subject,  in  these  two 
cases,  by  modes  wholly  unlike.  If  a  thing  is  to  be  remembered 
only  for  an  hour,  there  are  many  auxiliary  helps,  which  are 
useless,  and  even  pernicious,  if  the  object  be  to  insure  its  reten- 
tion for  life.  The  order  in  which  the  lesson  stands  upon  the 
pages  of  the  text-book  ;  the  sequence  of  paragraphs  or  sections  ; 
the  accident  of  a  principle's  being  stated  at  the  top  or  the  bot- 
tom of  a  page,  on  its  right  hand  or  on  its  left ;  the  fact  that  a 
place  in  the  lesson  has  been  rendered  conspicuous  to  the  eye 
by  a  proper  name  or  a  date,  —  all  these  and  many  other  acci- 
dental associations  may  be  temporary  helps,  though  they  are 
permanent  obstructions.  They  are  like  the  tricks  and  devices 
of  the  professors  of  mnemonics,  who,  in  ten  lessons,  will  teach 
their  classes  the  greatest  quantity  of  things,  which,  however, 
are  like  records  made  upon  the  beach  whence  the  tide  has  re- 
ceded, to  be  washed  away  by  its  refluent  wave.  The  pup.il 


504  ANNUAL    REPORTS    ON   EDUCATION. 

who  studies  for  recitation  merely,  is  tempted,  all  the  while,  to 
use  the  artificial  memory  :  the  pupil  who  studies  for  knowledge 
will  use  the  philosophic  memory  only.  Knowledge  acquired 
by  the  artificial  method  remains  only  while  the  arbitrary  as- 
sociations on  which  it  is  founded  remain  ;  but  knowledge  ac- 
quired by  a  perception  of  philosophic  relations,  being  inwrought 
into  the  very  structure  and  constitution  of  the  mind,  will  be 
perpetuated  until  the  happening  of  such  a  catastrophe  as  shall 
shatter  to  pieces  the  mind  itself;  and,  even  then,  it  will  be 
seen  shining  among  the  fragments.  Who  ever  heard  of  a  great 
philosopher  or  jurist  or  mathematician,  —  a  Franklin,  a  Mar- 
shall, or  a  Bowditch,  —  whose  vast  sequences  of  thought  were 
linked  together  only  by  the  brittle  chain  of  an  artificial  mem- 
ory? Among  the  graduates  of  those  institutions  of  learning 
where  emulation  is  one  of  the  main  incentives  to  study,  is  it  the 
general  rule  that  the  scholars  who  obtain  the  highest  honors  of 
the  class  achieve  a  corresponding  rank  in  society?  On  the 
other  hand,  is  it  not  a  fact  that  the  exceptions  to  the  con- 
trary rule  hardly  amount  to  a  respectable  number? 

Not  only  is  the  state  of  the  mind  different  while  studying 
and  while  reciting,  if  the  only  or  the  main  object  be  to  make  a 
brilliant  recitation,  but  there  is  a  still  greater  difference  after 
the  recitation  than  before  it.  If  superior  rank  at  recitation  be 
the  object,  then,  as  soon  as  that  superiority  is  obtained,  the 
spring  of  desire  and  of  effort  for  that  occasion  relaxes.  The 
pupil  knows  that  the  record,  "  perfect,"  set  against  his  name, 
will  stand,  whatever  fading-out  of  the  lesson  there  may  be 
from  his  mind.  He  dismisses,  therefore,  all  thought  of  the  last 
lesson,  and  concentrates  his  energies  upon  the  next ;  and  this 
becomes  his  history  from  day  to  day.  Instead  of  spending  an 
extra  hour  or  half-hour  in  collateral  reading,  for  the  purpose  of 
fortifying  and  expanding  the  views  contained  in  the  text-book, 
he  spends  it  for  increasing  the  volubility,  or  polishing  the  style, 
of  the  recitation.  But,  to  the  pupil  who  studies  for  the  sake  of 
understanding  and  retaining  the  subject-matter  of  the  lesson, 
the  recitation  is  only  one  of  the  early  stages  in  the  progress  of 


REPORT  FOR   1845.  505 

his  investigations.  As  he  goes  abroad,  and  views  the  works 
of  nature  and  of  art,  he  revives  and  applies  the  principles  he  has 
learned,  until  they  become  so  familiar,  that  they  rise  spontane- 
ously in  the  mind  on  every  related  occasion.  If  he  reads  any 
thing  in  a  book  or  a  newspaper,  or  hears  any  thing  in  conversa- 
tion, involving  the  same  principles,  or  explicable  by  them,  the 
principles  become  consciously  present  to  his  reflection,  until 
frequent  repetition,  seconded  by  the  ready  welcome  they  always 
receive,  domiciliates  them  in  the  mind,  and  enfranchises  them 
as  members  of  the  household  of  thought. 

The  spirit  of  the  above  remarks  applies  to  all  cases  of  study- 
ing for  review  as  well  as  to  studying  for  recitation. 

Now,  that  I  may  avoid,  on  this  occasion,  all  points  of  con- 
troversy in  regard  to  the  use  of  emulation  in  schools,  I  desire 
only  to  commend  the  following  rule  of  practice  to  teachers :  If 
they  perceive  that  the  use  of  emulation  as  a  motive-power 
tends  to  increase  the  bulk  and  showiness  of  acquisition  rather 
than  to  improve  its  quality ;  if  it  leads  pupils  to  cultivate  a 
memory  for  words  rather  than  an  understanding  of  things ; 
and  if  it  be  found  that  the  knowledge  acquired  through  its  in- 
strumentality is  short-lived,  because  it  has  been  acquired  for 
the  temporary  purpose  of  the  recitation  or  examination  rather 
tnan  for  usefulness  in  after-life,  —  if  teachers  find  all  or  any  of 
these  mischiefs  resulting  from  the  use  of  such  a  motive,  they 
should  restrict  it  within  such  limits  as  will  effectually  avoid 
them. 

But  the  most  serious  objection  which  can  be  urged  against 
this  agency  is  of  a  moral  character.  I  suppose  no  one  will 
deny  that  emulation  may  be  plied  to  such  a  degree  of  inten- 
sity as  to  incur  moral  hazards  and  delinquencies.  Addressing 
each  teacher  on  his  own  ground,  whatever  that  may  be,  I 
would,  with  deference,  submit  to  him  the  following  considera- 
tions :  If  the  object  of  a  pupil  be  to  learn ;  if  he  compares 
himself  with  himself,  which  may  be  called  self-emulation, 
and  asks  whether  he  knows  more  to-day  than  he  did  yesterday, 
or  has  acquired  more  during  the  current  term  or  year  than  he 


506  ANNUAL   REPORTS   ON  EDUCATION. 

did  during  the  corresponding  part  of  the  last  term  or  year  ;  if 
he  has  some  elevated  object  before  him,  which  he  desires  to 
reach,  and  rejoices  in  his  progress  towards  it,  —  all  this  seems 
not  only  lawful,  but  laudable.  But  if  the  pupil  rejoices,  not 
because  he  has  acquired  so  much  knowledge,  but  because,  in 
acquiring  so  much,  he  has  excelled  another,  and  therefore) 
would  have  grieved,  even  though  he  had  made  still  greater' 
acquisitions  than  he  has,  if  another  had  surpassed  him  ;  if  he 
indulges  a  feeling  of  exultation,  not  because  he  has  shone,  but 
because  he  has  outshone  a  rival ;  if  he  yields  to  the  temptation 
of  disparaging  a  competitor  whom  he  would  not  have  dispar- 
aged but  for  the  competition,  and  is  not  as  prompt  to  defend 
or  justify  him  as  though  the  rivalship  did  not  exist  between 
them  ;  if  he  enjoys  his  own  triumph  with  a  keener  zest  because 
of  the  mortification  of  a  fellow-aspirant,  —  in  all  and  in  each 
of  these  cases,  I  suppose  it  will  be  admitted  by  every  one,  that 
the  law  of  Christian,  and  even  of  heathen,  morality  is  violated. 
Bishop  Butler  defines  emulation  to  be  "  the  desire  and  hope  of 
equality  with  or  superiority  over  others  with  whom  we  com- 
pare ourselves ; "  and  he  then  adds,  "  To  desire  the  attainment 
of  this  equality  or  superiority  by  the  particular  means  of  others 
being  brought  down  to  our  own  level,  or  below  it,  is,  I  think, 
the  distinct  notion  of  envy."  Abstaining,  then,  from  all  discus* 
sion  of  the  general  question,  I  would  still  say,  that  wherever 
teachers  perceive  the  above-described  consequences,  or  any  of 
them,  to  be  produced  by  emulation,  they  should  be  admonished 
that  it  has  gone  too  far. 

It  is  obvious  that  the  question  respecting  the  propriety  or  the 
impropriety,  the  justifiableuess  or  the  unjustifiablencss,  of  using 
emulation  as  an  incentive  to  intellectual  progress,  will  be  de- 
cided in  different  ways  by  different  persons,  according  to  the 
relative  rank  which  they  respectively  assign  to  mental  as  dis- 
tinguished from  moral  qualities.  Whether  talent  be  admired 
above  virtue,  or  virtue  above  talent,  the  weaker  affection  will 
be  sacrificed  to  the  stronger,  just  as  certainly  as  a  parent,  whose 
bark  is  in  danger  of  sinking,  will  throw  his  treasures  overboard 


REPORT   FOR    1845.  507 

to  save  his  first-born,  if  the  first-born  be  nearer  to  his  heart 
than  his  treasures.  So,  if  a  teacher  desires  that  his  pupil  should 
be  a  great  man  rather  than  a  good  one  ;  or  that  he  should  ac- 
quire wealth  rather  than  esteem  ;  or  that  he  should  master  the 
Latin  and  Greek  languages  rather  thau  rule  his  own  spirit ;  or 
attain  to  high  official  preferment  rather  than  love  the  Lord  his 
God  with  all  his  heart,  and  his  neighbor  as  himself,  —  then  he 
will  goad  him  on  by  the  deep-driven  spur  of  emulation,  or  any 
other  motive,  until  he  outstrips  his  fellows,  at  whatever  peril  to 
his  moral  nature.  But  if,  on  the  other  hand,  the  teacher 
esteems  the  greatness  of  humility  above  the  greatness  of 
ambition  ;  if  he  prefers  mediocrity,  or  even  obscurity,  with 
uprightness  and  independence  of  soul,  to  princely  fortune  or 
regal  power  without  them ;  if,  in  fine,  he  Avould  see  his  pupil 
dispensing  blessings  along  the  lowliest  walks  of  life  rather  than 
blazing  athwart  the  sky  with  a  useless  splendor,  —  then  he  will 
forego  the  brilliant  recitation,  the  talented  essay,  the  annual 
prize,  the  college  honor,  rather  than  win  them  by  any  incentive 
which  jeopards  honor,  veracity,  or  benevolence.  But  while 
there  is  such  a  practical  diversity  of  opinion  in  regard  to  what 
constitutes  the  highest  destination  of  our  nature,  even  in  a 
worldly  point  of  view,  we  cannot  expect  a  genei-al  concurrence 
of  opinion  as  to  the  influences  under  which  the  youthful  char- 
acter should  be  formed.  Those  who  are  intent  upon  ends 
which  are  so  different  can  hardly  agree  as  to  means.  A  dis- 
cussion, however,  of  these  unsettled  questions,  in  a  spirit  of 
kindness  and  candor,  may  lead  to  a  convergence,  if  not  to  a 
coincidence,  of  opinion. 

Having  spoken  of  the  temptations  that  encompass  our  chil- 
dren in  regard  both  to  the  manner  and  the  motive  of  their 
studies  and  recitations,  I  wish  to  add  a  few  remarks  in  regard 
to  the  final  examinations  of  the  schools. 

From  the  moment  when  the  school  is  opened,  it  ought  to  be 
understood  that  each  day  is  equally  a  day  of  preparation  for 
the  closing  visit  of  the  committee.  It  ought  to  be  understood 
that  every  absence  and  every  tardiness,  every  instance  of  idle- 


508  ANNUAL   EEPORTS   ON  EDUCATION. 

ness  and  of  inattention,  is  so  much  of  time  or  of  effort  with- 
drawn from  that  preparation.  At  all  times,  by  every  means, 
in  every  form,  the  expectation  is  to  be  extinguished,  the  idea  is 
to  be  annihilated,  that  especial  preparation,  as  the  school  draws 
towards  its  close,  on  a  few  pages  or  a  few  lessons,  can  atone 
for  or  conceal  any  want  of  studiousness  or  of  regularity  as 
the  term  advances.  Every  pupil  should  be  made  clearly  to 
see,  and  deeply  to  feel,  that  his  fortune  is  in  his  own  hands  ; 
that  the  responsibility  of  his  future  appearance  rests  upon  him- 
self;  that  no  arts  or  devices  are  to  be  made  use  of,  either  to 
conceal  his  ignorance  or  to  display  his  knowledge  ;  that  his 
mind  will  be  submitted  for  inspection,  not  on  its  bright  side 
only,  but  on  all  sides  ;  and  that  it  will  be  useless  for  him  to 
expect  to  shine  on  that  occasion,  with  only  a  radiant  beam  of 
light  thrown  across  it  here  and  there,  while  wide  intervals  of 
darkness  lie  between.  Above  all,  will  the  teacher  who  wishes 
to  keep  the  moral  character  of  his  scholars  pure  and  stainless 
beware  of  encouraging  or  of  tolerating  any  imposition  upon 
the  committee.  He  will  not  turn  the  last  few  days  of  the 
school  into  seasons  of  rehearsal  for  the  examination.  He  will 
not  indicate  lessons  or  pages  or  questions  that  are  to  be  spe- 
cially conned  for  the  occasion.  To  be  guilty  of  any  such 
artifice,  with  a  view  to  make  the  school  appear  better  than  it 
is,  is  to  corrupt  the  minds  of  his  pupils.  To  the  conscientious 
teacher,  the  formation  of  such  a  conspiracy,  whether  tacit  or 
express,  between  himself  and  his  pupils,  will  be  the  abominable 
thing  which  his  soul  hateth.  It  is  true,  that  strong  temptations 
may  beset  a  teacher,  and  solicit  him  to  deviate  from  the  course 
of  rectitude  by  an  unfair  preparation  of  his  school.  All  laud- 
able and  honorable  motives  unite  with  the  dictates  of  self- 
interest  to  make  him  desire  the  approval  of  the  committee,  and 
of  his  employers  generally  ;  and,  what  is  more,  such  fraudulent 
preparations  have  not  been  uncommon  in  former  times,  so  that 
precedent  can  be  pleaded  for  them.  It  is  well  known,  that,  a 
few  years  ago,  some  teachers  used  to  cast  the  parts,  among 
their  scholars,  as  much  as  they  were  ever  cast  in  a  play.  The 


REPORT   FOR    1845.  509 

scholars  committed  the  portions  assigned  them  to  memory. 
The  committee  and  parents  attended,  and  listened,  with  appar- 
ent delight,  to  recitations  which  proceeded  with  such  volubility, 
that  auswers  were  often  given  before  the  questions  were  put. 
And,  when  the  day  was  over,  all  parties  —  teacher,  committee, 
parents,  and  children  —  congratulated  each  other  upon  the 
success  and  brilliancy  of  the  farce.  Were  such  a  course  so 
common  as  to  be  understood  to  mean  nothing,  much  of  its  mis- 
chief would  be  taken  away.  But,  at  the  present  day,  it  is  not 
so.  Universally,  an  examination  is  now  understood  to  be  au 
assaying  of  the  value  of  the  school.  All,  therefore,  who  are 
now  guilty  of  any  couutei'feiting  of  the  image  and  superscrip- 
tion of  knowledge,  like  other  counterfeiters,  conceal  it  if  they 
can.  Hence,  any  one  who  ventures  upon  such  a  course  now  is 
a  teacher  of  evil,  and  not  of  good.  Standing  before  his  charge 
in  the  sacred  character  of  a  moral  guide,  he  guides  to  immo- 
rality. Considering  the  immaturity  of  the  children,  and  the 
deference  with  which  they  naturally  look  up  to  him,  he  is  not 
so  much  the  accomplice  in  a  fraud,  as  the  originator  and  insti- 
gator of  it.  By  presenting  the  alluring  side  of  wrong  to 
unsophisticated  minds,  he  creates,  rather  than  connives  at,  its 
commission  ;  and,  by  one  such  practical  example,  he  neutralizes 
a  volume  of  formal  moralizing.  Few  things  in  a  teacher's 
conduct  furnish  a  more  fair  or  a  more  certain  test  of  the 
question,  whether  he  has  a  lively  and  sensitive  conscience,  or 
has  no  standard  of  duty  higher  than  mere  conventional  rules 
and  observances. 

It  is  in  the  power  of  the  school-committee  to  uphold  and  to 
perpetuate  this  loss  to  the  minds  and  this  demoralization  of 
the  hearts  of  pupils,  or  at  once  and  utterly  to  annul  it.  If, 
when  visiting  the  school  for  the  first  time,  they  announce  that 
they  shall  themselves  conduct  the  closing  examination  ;  that, 
however  much  or  however  little  ground  the  classes  may 
undertake  to  cultivate,  they  will  be  liable  to  be  taken  to  any 
part  of  that  ground,  to  show  in  what  condition  they  have  left 
it ;  and  that  they  will  be  examined  on  the  subject  rather  than 


510  ANNUAL    REPORTS    ON   EDUCATION. 

on  the  book,  —  if  this  be  done,  the  pupils  will  study  throughout 
the  whole  term  with  a  very  different  object  in  their  minds 
from  what  they  would  otherwise  do.  They  will  perceive  at 
once,  that  if  they  devote  special  attention  to  a  few  lessons,  or  to 
a  few  sections,  to  the  neglect  of  the  rest,  the  neglected  portions 
may  be  the  very  ones  on  which  they  will  be  questioned  ;  and 
that  the  probability  of  their  being  taken  up  on  a  less  prepared 
part  will  be  in  the  ratio  of  the  extent  of  that  part.  Such  a 
course,  too,  will  furnish  a  teacher  with  one  of  the  most  pal- 
pable arguments  in  favor  of  the  steady,  persevering  application 
of  his  pupils. 

At  the  examination,  every  thing,  as  far  as  possible,  should 
be  rescued  from  the  dominion  of  chance.  No  pupil  should  feel 
that  he  can  escape  by  what  is  called  good  luck,  or  suffer  by 
bad.  Hence  examinations  by  written  or  printed  questions 
are  better  than  by  oral ;  for,  in  such  case,  the  question  can  be 
put  to  all ;  and  a  comparison  of  the  different  answers  will  be 
an  impartial  test  of  relative  attainments.  la  arithmetic,  the 
identical  questions  contained  in  the  text-book  should  not  be 
put,  but  equivalent  ones.  As  grammar  pertains  to  language, 
there  is  a  special  propriety  in  requiring  answers  to  be  given  in 
•writing,  in  order  to  determine  whether  a  pupil  who  can  parse 
glibly,  and  cite  all  the  rules,  can  write  any  better  English  thau 
one  who  has  never  opened  a  grammatical  text-book.  When 
proficiency  in  hand-writing  is  made  one  of  the  tests  or  titles 
for  deserving  rank  or  rewards,  it  is  alleged  that  some  children 
begin  their  copy-books  by  writing  a  few  pages  in  a  style  in- 
ferior to  their  ability,  for  the  dishonest  purpose  of  appearing  to 
have  made  more  rapid  improvement  during  the  term  than  they 
really  have  done.  To  prevent  this,  some  committees  have 
adopted  the  expedient  of  providing  themselves  with  one  or 
more  specimen-books  for  each  school,  in  which  all  the  writers 
are  required  to  write  at  the  end  of  the  term.  This  specimen 
is  then  compared  with  the  specimens  of  the  preceding  year  ; 
and  the  real  progress  of  the  writer  is  determined  by  the  com- 
parison. In  this  case,  no  inferior  specimen  can  be  prepared  as 
a  foil  to  set  off  its  fellow. 


REPORT   FOR    1845.  511 

In  deprecating  the  devices  and  stratagems  of  the  pupils  against 
their  teacher,  we  should  be  no  less  earnest  in  deprecating  all 
devices  and  stratagems  of  the  teacher  against  the  pupils.  There 
should  be  no  arts  to  entrap  on  his  side,  any  more  than  arts  to 
evade  on  theirs.  He  should  practise  the  utmost  vigilance ; 
but  vigilance  is  as  opposite  to  circumvention  as  a  friendly  visit 
to  ask  for  an  explanation  is  to  eaves-dropping.  Let  the  teach- 
er, then,  never  descend  to  sly  watchings  or  insidious  question- 
ings ;  but  let  his  countenance,  his  manner,  and  his  language 
bespeak  frankness  in  himself,  and  confidence  in  his  pupils. 
The  atmosphere  between  him  and  them  should  be  sunny  and 
genial,  unclouded  by  suspicion,  and  unchilled  by  distrust. 
Were  it  always  sunlight,  there  Avould  be  no  thievish  owls  nor 
felon  foxes.  As  like  begets  like,  confidence  or  unworthy  sus- 
picion in  the  teacher  will  beget  confidence  or  unworthy  sus- 
picion in  the  school. 

It  is  sometimes  tauntingly  asked  by  the  opponents  of  our 
common-school  system,  why  this  boasted  institution  does  not 
yield  more  abundant  harvests  of  virtue ;  why  the  young  men 
and  the  young  women  who  come  from  our  public  schools  are 
not  nobler  specimens  of  whatever  is  pure  in  feeling,  and  exem- 
plary in  conduct.  I  feel  no  disposition  to  retort  upon  such  sin- 
ister inquirers  by  asking  the  question,  what  they  themselves 
have  ever  done  to  elevate  these  schools  to  a  condition  from 
which  purer  influences  might  be  expected  to  flow.  But  another 
inquiry  will  answer  their  inquiry,  and  dispel  the  ominous 
doublings  which  it  suggests.  Let  this  startling  question  then 
be  first  answered,  What  is  the  relative  amount  of  time  and 
attention  devoted  to  the  moral  culture  of  our  children  in 
school  as  compared  with  that  which  is  devoted  to  the  intellect? 
Follow  the  routine  exercises  of  our  schools  for  a  single  term ; 
or,  rather,  take  a  broad  survey  of  the  whole  course  of  instruc- 
tion, from  the  day  when  the  little  child  first  crosses  the  thresh- 
old of  the  schoolhouse,  to  the  day  when,  on  the  verge  of 
manhood  or  womanhood,  the  young  man  and  the  young  woman 
bid  it  farewell  to  enter  upon  some  of  the  varied  duties  of  life. 


512  ANNUAL   EEPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

What  innumerable  lessons  have  been  set !  how  many  recita- 
tions have  been  performed  !  what  a  graduated  series  of  books 
has  been  read,  for  the  purpose  of  leading  the  young  mind 
upward,  step  by  step,  along  the  ascent  of  knowledge  !  what 
questionings,  and  repetitions  of  questionings,  to  the  hundredth 
time  !  and  what  reviews,  and  reviewing  of  things  reviewed ! 
But,  on  the  other  hand,  how  comparatively  sterile  of  instruc- 
tion has  all  this  course  of  years  been  in  the  duties  of  children 
to  each  other  ;  in  the  mutual  duties  of  brothers  and  sisters  ;  in 
filial  duties ;  in  the  duties  of  the  talented  towards  those  less 
highly  endowed  by  Nature  ;  of  those  who  are  well-clad  towards 
those  who  are  clad  in  the  homely  garb  of  poverty  ;  of  the 
well-formed  towards  the  deformed,  or  the  sufferers  under  any 
physical  privation  ;  and,  indeed,  in  that  vast  range  of  civil  and 
social  duties  which  awaits  each  one  of  them  in  after-life  ;  and 
of  the  duty  of  love  to  their  heavenly  Father,  and  of  obedience 
to  his  laws  !  What  has  been  said  against  the  passions  of  pride 
and  cupidity,  and  envy  and  revenge?  What  expositions  have 
been  made  of  the  inherent  detestableness  of  profaneness  and 
obscenity  and  falsehood?  or  of  the  retinue  of  calamities  that 
come  in  the  train  of  intemperance  and  gaming?  Has  arith- 
metic been  so  taught  as  to  show  the  folly  of  buying  lottery- 
tickets  as  a  means  of  obtaining  wealth  ?  In  teaching  grammar, 
has  a  reference  to  the  grammatical  blunders  and  solecisms  of 
the  ignorant  been  accompanied  by  such  humane  and  benevo- 
lent inculcations  as  will  inspire  all  the  learners  with  a  desire 
to  seek  out  ignorance,  and  to  enlighten  it?  or  have  the  errors 
of  unavoidable  ignorance  been  so  ridiculed  and  contemned, 
that  all  the  class  will  be  led  to  vie  with  each  other  in  jeering 
at  the  unfortunately  and  innocently  ignorant  wherever  they 
may  meet  them?  In  teaching  history,  have  the  criminality  of 
nine-tenths  of  all  the  wars  ever  waged,  and  the  unspeakable 
sufferings  they  have  inflicted  upon  mankind,  been  portrayed? 
or,  on  the  other  hand,  have  victorious  armies  and  blood-stained 
conquerors  been  held  up  as  objects  of  admiration?  Who  can 
rejoice  at  the  proficiency  of  the  children  in  their  studies,  if, 


REPORT   FOR    1845.  513 

when  the  school  is  dismissed,  the  older  ones  gather  themselves 
hastily  into  some  corner  to  draw  a  lottery,  though  it  should 
involve  only  the  value  of  a  knife  or  a  pencil-case  ?  or  if  the 
younger  ones  are  seen  to  leap  the  fences,  and  to  explore  woods 
and  fields,  that  they  may  rob  birds'  nests?  or  if  those  of  any 
age  trespass  upon  the  neighboring  orchards  to  purloin  fruit? 
Are  our  children  taught  in  school  the  duty  of  restoring  lost 
articles  which  they  may  have  found?  or  the  infamousness  of 
cheating  the  post-office  by  sending  concealed  letters,  or  substi- 
tutes for  letters?  or  the  iniquity  of  adulterating  commodities 
for  sale,  or  of  defrauding  in  weight  or  measure?  or  the  cruelty 
and  sinfuluess  of  detraction  and  slander?  Whei'e  these  things 
are  neglected,  the  children  may  be  well  trained  in  reading  and 
writing  and  arithmetic ;  but  they  are  not  trained  in  the  way 
they  should  go.  Such  children  may  make  powerful  or  crafty 
or  worldly-prosperous  men  ;  but  they  will  not  become  men 
of  unspotted  and  stainless  lives  ;  they  are  not  preparing  them- 
selves to  do  as  they  would  be  done  by ;  they  are  not  learning 
to  do  justly,  to  love  mercy,  and  to  walk  humbly  with  God.* 

There  is  another  fact  which  deepens  and  aggravates,  to  an 
alarming  extent,  the  evil  here  spoken  of.  I  refer  to  the  mode 
often  used  in  imparting  even  the  pittance  of  moral  instruction 
that  is  given. 

Since  the  time  of  Pestalozzi,  there  has  been  scarcely  any 
difference  of  opinion  among  the  leading  educators  of  Europe 
or  America  as  to  the  true  and  philosophical  method  of  instruc- 
tion. With  one  consent,  their  decision  is  in  favor  of  the 
exhibitory,  explanatory,  and  inductive  method.  This  method  is 
the  opposite  of  the  dogmatic.  The  latter  method  consists  in 

*  During  the  last  year,  while  I  was  passing  by  a  school,  the  children  came  out 
to  take  their  forenoon  recess.  They  were  boy.*,  in  appearance,  between  eight  and 
ten  or  eleven  years  of  age.  As  they  rushed  into  the  street,  one  of  the  largest 
boys  turned,  and  cried  out,  "  Xow  let's  play  robber !  "  AVhereupon  he  drew  a  pine 
dagger  from  under  IMS  coat,  seized  one  of  his  fellows,  and  exclaimed,  "  Your 
money,  or  your  life '. "  This  scene,  thus  enacted  in  sport,  was  doubtless  drawn 
from  some  of  the  novels  of  the  day,  whose  guilty  authors  receive  the  patronage,  if 
not  the  homage,  of  society ;  while  the  comparatively  innocent  felon,  who  only  steals 
ahorse  or  burns  a  house,  is  sentenced  to  the  penitentiary.  Was  that  school  doing 
its  duty,  or  building  up  character  after  a  Christian  model? 
33 


514  ANNUAL   REPORTS   ON    EDUCATION. 

laying  down  abstract  rules,  formulas,  or  theorems,  in  a  posi- 
tive, authoritative  manner,  and  requiring  the  forms  of  words  in 
which  the  abstractions  are  expressed  to  be  committed  to  mem- 
ory. Of  course,  the  principle  embodied  in  these  forms  of 
words  is  to  be  received  by  the  learner  whether  he  understands 
it  or  not,  and  without  any  inquiry  on  his  part  whether  it  be 
true  or  false.  But,  on  the  Pestalozzian  method,  nothing  which 
lies  beyond  the  reach  of  intuition  is  asserted  without  being 
explained.  If  a  complex  idea  is  affirmed,  it  is  analyzed  into 
its  elements :  if  an  abstruse  one  is  introduced,  it  is  illustrated, 
if  practicable,  by  some  sensible  object ;  if  not  susceptible  of 
illustration  by  any  sensible  object,  some  anecdote  or  narrative 
is  related,  or  some  combination  of  circumstances  supposed, 
which  will  make  it  intelligible.  When  the  subject-matter  will 
admit,  there  is  an  actual  exhibition  of  the  thing  spoken  of.  If 
the  thing  spoken  of  cannot  be  exhibited,  there  is  explanation, 
founded  on  the  exhibition  of  some  analogous  thing.  Should 
the  lesson  refer  to  any  common  or  simple  substance,  a  specimen 
is  exhibited,  —  as  in  the  case  of  minerals,  metals,  fruits,  man- 
ufactures, and  so  forth.  To  a  child  who  has  never  seen  a 
mountain,  a  hill  is  made  a  unit  of  measure  for  explaining  the 
mountain's  height  and  extent.  So  of  a  brook,  to  one  who  has 
never  seen  a  river ;  and  of  a  pond,  to  one  who  has  never  seen 
a  lake  or  an  ocean.  If  a  centaur  or  sphinx  or  mermaid  be 
referred  to,  the  teacher  draws  the  likeness  of  one  upon  the 
blackboard,  or  exhibits  an  engraving.  In  case  of  a  complex 
object,  as  a  machine,  a  ship,  a  fort,  or  an  Indian  pagoda,  some 
miniature  model,  or,  at  least,  some  pictorial  representation,  is 
produced,  and  made  the  basis,  or  framework,  of  the  conceptions 
that  are  to  be  founded  upon  it,  or  collocated  around  it.  When 
the  thing  to  be  taught  is  not  an  object  of  the  senses,  but  of  the 
mind  only,  and  especially  when  the  thing  lies  remote  from 
elements,  or  first  principles,  this  method  requires  that  the 
learner's  mind  should  be  conducted  through  all  the  interme- 
diate stages  of  progress,  until  it  arrives  at  the  point  where  the 
complex  or  abstract  idea  can  be  understood  ;  and  then,  and  not 


REPORT   FOR   1845.  515 

till  then,  that  it  should  be  brought  forward.  In  fine,  this 
method  requires  that  individuals  should  be  introduced  before 
species,  species  before  genera,  and  so  forth.  But  the  dogmatic 
method  begins  with  the  most  comprehensive  generalizations, 
and  rims  the  risk  of  the  pupil's  obtaining  any  knowledge 
of  particulars  afterwards.  In  the  one  case,  the  learner  is 
expected  to  receive  blindly  what  is  dictated  to  him  ;  while  the 
other  method  exhibits,  explains,  illustrates,  exemplifies,  and 
educes,  and  then  submits  the  whole  to  the  learner's  intelligence, 
to  be  received  or  discarded. 

After  this  statement  of  the  points  of  distinction  between  the 
Pestalozzian  and  the  dogmatic  method,  it  would  be  only  an 
illustration  of  the  former  were  an  example  of  each  to  be  given. 
Suppose,  then,  a  foreign  gentleman  should  send  his  sou  to  Bos- 
ton, under  the  care  of  a  tutor,  in  order  that  he  might  become 
acquainted  with  the  city  and  its  vicinity,  and  learn  something 
of  its  public  works,  its  institutions,  and  its  distinguished  men. 
According  to  the  dogmatic  method,  when  the  strangers  should 
have  arrived  and  taken  their  lodgings,  the  tutor  would  obtain 
a  guide-book  for  his  pupil.  In  a  series  of  lessons,  he  would  see 
that  the  peninsular  shape,  the  territorial  extent,  the  statistics 
of  population,  commerce,  education,  and  so  forth,  were  well 
studied  and  recited.  The  boundaries  of  the  city — Charles 
River  on  the  north,  the  ocean  on  the  east,  and  the  interior  on 
the  south  and  west  —  would  be  learned.  The  pupil  would  be 
taught  to  name  the  principal  streets,  bridges,  and  railroads, 
probably  in  an  alphabetical  order,  until  they  could  be  volubly 
repeated.  A  directory  would  be  put  into  his  hands,  with  a 
mark  against  the  names  of  the  men  whose  distinction  entitled 
them  to  a  place  in  his  memory.  He  would  be  told,  that,  in  the 
city  or  its  vicinity,  there  are  an  Asylum  for  the  Insane,  an  In- 
stitution for  the  Blind,  a  Navy  Yard,  Bunker-hill  Monument, 
Dorchester  Heights,  Lexington  and  Concord  battle-grounds, 
and  so  forth.  These  facts,  and  such  as  these,  would  be  depos- 
ited in  the  memory,  reviewed  and  rehearsed,  until  they  could 
all  be  called  up  at  will ;  and  then  the  parties  would  re-embark, 


516  ANNUAL   REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

congratulating  themselves  that  the  object  of  their  mission 
had  been  successfully  accomplished.  This  is  the  dogmatic 
method. 

On  the  other  hand,  suppose  the  tutor  to  instruct  his  pupil 
on  the  exhibitory,  explanatory,  and  inductive  plan.  For  the 
first  lesson,  he  takes  him  to  the  dome  of  the  State  House,  —  the 
highest  point  in  the  metropolis,  and  one  which  commands 
the  splendid  panorama  of  the  city  and  its  suburbs.  There,  be- 
fore a  single  object  is  pointed  out,  before  a  single  glance  at  the 
broad  and  varied  scene  is  allowed,  the  points  of  the  compass 
are  determined.  If  the  sun  be  visible,  this  is  done  by  an  obser- 
vation, consisting  of  but  two  elements, —  the  position  of  the  sun, 
and  the  hour  of  the  day.  First  a  general  survey  is  allowed, 
in  order  to  impress  the  mind  with  a  general  conception  of  out- 
line and  extent.  This  is  in  analogy  to  that  summary  descrip- 
tion of  the  nature,  the  advantages,  and  the  pleasures  of  a  study, 
which  a  teacher  should  always  give  to  his  class  when  a  new 
branch  is  introduced.  Then  a  single  class  of  objects  is  selected 
for  attention,  —  suppose  it  to  be  the  public  buildings  ;  and,  as 
the  one  from  whose  observatory  they  are  looking  is  the  central 
point  from  which  the  bearings  and  distances  of  all  the  rest  are 
to  be  estimated,  it  is  first  considered.  Then  the  other  great 
public  edifices  or  structures  are  taken  in  their  order,  —  the 
Quincy  Market,  the  public  buildings  at  South  Boston,  the 
Blind  Institution,  the  Colleges,  the  Hospitals,  Bunker-hill 
Monument,  the  Navy  Yard,  the  lighthouses  arid  forts  in  the 
harbor.  When  the  most  interesting  of  this  class  of  objects  are 
completed,  —  after  such  reflections  and  explanations,  and,  per- 
haps, pencillings,  as  may  be  deemed  necessary,  —  the  eye  is 
withdrawn  from  the  whole  ;  the  parties  retire  ;  and  the  pupil  is 
required  to  reproduce  from  his  recollection,  in  the  form  of  a 
map,  all  the  objects  he  has  examined,  with  their  apparent  dis- 
tances, positions,  and  so  forth.  In  succeeding  lessons,  given 
from  the  same  elevated  point,  other  objects  and  neighboring 
towns  are  pointed  out.  Here  the  telescope  is  used.  The 
bridges,  and  the  six  lines  of  railroads  radiating  from  the  city, 


REPORT   FOR    1845.  517 

towards  the  south,  west,  and  north,  are  designated.  After 
every  lesson,  a  map  of  objects  or  localities  is  prepared,  both 
for  the  purpose  of  determining  the  accuracy  of  the  impression 
carried  away,  and  of  deepening  it  in  the  mind.  After  such 
minuteness  of  detail  as  circumstances  will  allow,  the  same 
objects  are  visited  and  inspected  ;  and  their  history,  administra- 
tion, amount  of  success  or  causes  of  failure,  and  so  forth, 
learned.  The  streets  are  learned  by  passing  through  them ; 
the  schools,  by  visiting  and  questioning  them  ;  the  state  of  com- 
merce and  merchandise,  from  the  wharves,  the  custom-house, 
and  the  depositories  ;  the  manufactories,  by  the  amount  and 
the  quality  of  their  fabrics ;  the  distinguished  men,  by  intro- 
duction, conversation,  and  personal  intimacy ;  and  historical 
events,  not  merely  by  reading  the  narrative,  but  by  visiting  the 
scenes  where  they  occurred.  Such  is  an  inadequate  represen- 
tation of  what  may  be  called  the  Pestalozzian  method  of 
instruction.  Which  of  the  two  methods  is  most  conducive  to 
an  understanding  of  the  subject,  it  is  not  difficult  to  decide. 

Now,  it  is  but  a  few  years  since  the  dogmatic  method  was 
the  one  almost  universally  practised  in  our  schools  in  regard 
to  intellectual  instruction.  Arithmetic  was  taught  without  oral 
exercises  cr  the  blackboard  ;  geography,  without  globes,  maps, 
or  map-drawing ;  grammar,  by  the  endless  repetitions  of  gov- 
ernment and  agreement,  mood  and  tense,  gender,  number,  and 
case,  —  the  children  asseverating  ten  thousand  times  the  re- 
markable facts  that  he  is  masculine,  she  feminine,  and  it  neu- 
ter ;  that  one  is  in  the  singular  number,  two,  three,  four,  and  all 
the  rest,  in  the  plural,  and  so  forth.  But  such  a  change  has 
taken  place  in  this  respect,  that,  at  the  present  time,  there  is  not 
one  of  our  first  class  of  schools  where  the  principles  of  arithmetic 
are  not  explained ;  where  words  are  not,  denned,  and  the  mean- 
ing of  the  author  paraphrased  ;  poetry  turned  into  prose  ;  maps 
drawn  ;  orthographical  and  grammatical  exercises  written;  and, 
generally,  the  thiug  itself  sought  for  and  understood,  instead  of 
a  mere  babbling  from  memory  of  the  words  in  which  it  is  ex- 
pressed. But,  in  regard  to  moral  subjects,  I  fear  the  dogmatic 


518  ANNUAL   REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

method  still  remains,  —  precepts,  rules,  abstruse  principles, 
mere  formulas  of  speech,  —  without  specification,  without  ex- 
pansion, without  illustration,  without  the  living,  glowing,  inspir- 
ing spirit.  Suppose,  in  arithmetical  proportion,  the  teacher 
should  tell  the  pupil  that,  "  as  the  first  term  is  to  the  second, 
so  is  the  third  to  the  answer,"  and  should  there  stop.  "Would 
the  pupil  ever  know  how  to  work  a  sum  in  the  rule  of  three? 
But  the  moral  lesson,  "  Do  as  you  would  be  done  unto."  is  pre- 
cisely analogous  to  the  arithmetical  one,  if  it  stops  with  the 
general  injunction.  The  latter  needs  exemplification,  by  in- 
stances, as  much  as  the  former,  and  would  profit  as  much  by  it. 
Yet,  under  this  head  in  the  arithmetic,  a  hundred  examples  will 
be  given  ;  under  the  moral  axiom,  not  one.  I  cannot  see  why 
it  is  not  as  absurd  to  give  a  moral  rule  to  a  child,  without  exam- 
ples under  it,  as  it  is  to  give  an  arithmetical  rule,  without  ex- 
amples under  that ;  and,  if  questions  pertaining  to  business  are 
selected  in  the  one  case,  why  should  not  questions  pertaining 
to  duty  be  selected  in  the  other?  Suppose  the  teacher  of  a 
normal  school  should  prescribe,  as  a  rule  to  the  future  teachers, 
"  Train  up  a  child  in  the  way  he  should  go,"  and  should  there 
leave  them,  without  giving  them  any  specific  instructions  as  to 
what  that  way  is,  and  by  what  means  children  can  be  trained 
—  that  is,  accustomed — to  walk  in  it.  How  easy  it  would  be 
to  make  accomplished  teachers,  if  such  a  precept,  comprehen- 
sive and  perfect  as  the  principle  of  it  is,  were  all  that  is  neces- 
sary !  But  such  a  rule  requires  years  of  exemplification  and 
practice  :  it  requires  years  of  reading,  redectiou,  and  consulta- 
tion with  masters  of  the  art.  Under  the  rule,  to  do  as  we 
would  be  done  unto,  a  thousand  instances,  taken  from  the 
play-ground,  the  schoolroom,  the  domestic  fireside,  the  pleas- 
ure-party, the  shop,  the  counting-room,  should  be  given.  Under 
the  rule,  to  love  our  neighbors  as  ourselves,  the  illustrations 
may  be  as  numerous  as  all  the  interests  and  wants  of  life. 
How  varied  are  those  rights  of  property  which  come  within 
the  protection  of  the  command,  "Thou  shalt  not  steal;"  and 
those  rights  of  character  and  of  reputation  that  are  embraced 


REPORT   FOR    1845.  519 

within  the  spirit  of  the  prohibition,  "  Thou  shalt  not  bear  false 
witness  against  thy  neighbor  "  !  Are  these  things  of  less  con- 
sequence than  the  frivolous  discussions  whether  a  and  an  and 
the  are  articles  or  adjectives?  Are  these  momentous  subjects, 
with  all  their  finite  and  infinite  bearings,  to  be  postponed  in 
order  that  we  may  have  time  to  teach  children  not  to  spell 
labor  and  honor  with  the  letter  «,  or  public  and  music  with 
the  letter  k ;  or  when  to  reduplicate  the  final  consonants  of 
primitive  words,  and  when  not  ?  How  can  a  child  be  led  to 
love  the  Lord  his  God  with  all  his  heart,  unless,  in  the  first 
place,  he  has  a  heart  which  has  been  trained  to  love  what  is 
good  ;  and,  in  the  second  place,  unless  some  of  those  glorious 
attributes  of  his  Maker  which  are  fitted  to  excite  his  love  are 
unfolded  to  his  perceptions?  How  can  a  child  love  God  while 
he  knows  nothing  of  him  but  the  name,  and  has  perhaps  heard 
that  name  spoken  more  frequently  in  profaneness  or  blasphemy 
than  in  reverence?  Is  it  of  more  consequence  for  a  child  to 
know  the  specks  of  islands  in  the  Indian  or  Pacific  Oceans  than 
it  is  to  know  the  reason  why  he  is  taught  to  say  that  God  is 
good,  and  that  his  tender  mercies  are  over  all  his  works?  Is 
it  more  important  that  a  child  should  be  taught  the  anomalies 
of  our  arbitrary  language  than  that  he  should  be  instructed  in 
the  beneficence  of  his  heavenly  Father,  who  has  created  the 
sun  for  his  warmth  and  light,  and  the  earth  for  his  dwelling- 
place  ;  who  robes  Nature  in  beautiful  colors  for  the  gratifica- 
tion of  his  eye,  and  surrounds  him  with  an  atmosphere  which 
is  an  undecaying  medium  of  communication  with  his  friends, 
and,  like  a  vast  instrument  of  music,  is  forever  ready  to  be 
played  upon  for  the  delight  of  his  ear ;  whose  skill  and  power 
are  made  known  in  the  formation  of  his  body,  and  whose 
bounty  in  the  abundance  that  sustains  it ;  whose  munificence 
in  the  bestowment  of  his  faculties,  with  their  adaptations  to 
happiness  ;  and  who  has  given  him,  in  the  words  and  life  of 
the  Saviour,  a  perfect  rule  and  a  perfect  example  ?  If  there  be 
nothing  in  orthography  or  etymology  or  syntax  of  superior 
value  to  an  upright  life,  or  better  becoming  an  immortal  being 


520  ANNUAL   REPORTS    ON   EDUCATION. 

than  devout  feelings  towards  his  Maker,  why  should  the  former 
be  allowed  to  dispossess  the  latter,  and  usurp  their  place  ? 

The  natural  conscience  needs  training  in  order  to  discern 
the  distinctions  between  right  and  wrong,  in  the  same  manner 
that  the  intellect  needs  training  in  regard  to  addition  and  sub- 
traction, or  substantive  and  verb,  or  latitude  and  longitude, 
or  republics  and  monarchies.  No  man,  then,  has  any  right  to 
oppose  our  system  of  common  schools  because  the  children 
who  come  from  them  are  not  as  honest  as  they  are  intelligent, 
and  as  benevolent  as  they  are  sagacious,  until  our  teachers  are 
as  competent  and  as  faithful  in  teaching  their  pupils  humanity 
and  morality,  and  in  training  them  to  the  practice  of  the  social 
virtues,  as  they  are  in  teaching  them  the  common  branches  of 
study,  and  in  training  them  for  the  business  of  life.  When 
the  voice  of  public  opinion  shall  imperatively  demand  as  high 
a  degree  of  culture  for  the  moral  as  for  the  intellectual  nature, 
and  teachers  shall  bestow  it,  all  opposition  to  our  schools  will 
be  destroyed  ;  for  the  opponents  themselves  will  be  reformed 
into  advocates. 

The  unexpected  length  to  which  this  Report  has  already  ex- 
tended admonishes  me  to  bring  it  to  a  close  ;  although,  in  so 
doing,  I  am  obliged  to  omit  other  and  kindred  topics,  to  which 
I  would  gladly  advert.  Instead  of  generalizing  on  the  subject 
of  morals,  or  vainly  attempting  to  embellish  their  inherent 
beauty  and  loveliness,  I  have  preferred  to  set  forth  in  the  pre- 
ceding pages,  with  some  minuteness  and  detail,  the  principal 
dangers  to  which  our  children  are  exposed  as  they  are  passing 
through  our  schools  ;  and  I  have  endeavored  to  help  the  con- 
scientious teacher  in  the  discharge  of  his  duties  to  those  chil- 
dren by  setting  up  a  few  way-marks  and  beacons  along  their 
perilous  path.  This,  however,  is  a  subject  heretofore  uniuves- 
tigated,  so  far  as  I  know,  by  any  writer  on  education.  Like 
other  pioneers,  I  must,  doubtless,  have  made  a  very  imperfect 
survey  of  the  extensive  field  I  have  entered,  —  all  the  more  im- 
perfect because  it  is  so  extensive.  But  I  devoutly  hope  that 
what  has  now  been  said  may  prove  sufficient  to  incite  others 


REPOET   FOR    1845.  521 

to  make  more  complete  explorations,  until  every  precipice  and 
pitfall  that  besets  the  pathway  of  the  rising  generation  in  their 
common  pursuit  of  knowledge  may  be  not  only  discovered, 
but  surmounted  with  warning  signals  too  conspicuous  to  be 
unnoticed. 

Directly  and  indirectly,  the  influences  of  the  Board  of  Edu- 
cation have  been  the  means  of  increasing,  to  a  great  extent,  the 
amount  of  religious  instruction  given  in  our  schools.  Moral 
training,  or  the  application  of  religious  principles  to  the  duties 
of  life,  should  be  its  inseparable  accompaniment.  No  commu- 
nity can  long  subsist,  unless  it  has  religious  principle  as  the 
foundation  of  moral  action,  nor  unless  it  has  moral  action  as 
the  superstructure  of  religious  principle.  Not  at  present,  any 
more  than  in  the  days  of  the  Jewish  theocracy,  does  the 
strength  of  a  nation  consist  in  the  number  of  its  horsemen,  or 
its  chariots,  or  its  mighty  men  of  valor,  but  in  those  who  fear 
the  Lord,  and  work  righteousness. 

Travellers  inform  us,  that,  in  some  of  the  vast  deserts  of 
the  Eastern  continent,  the  course  of  the  wayfarers  across  the 
trackless  waste  is  marked  by  the  bleaching  bones  of  mighty 
caravans  that  had  perished  on  their  way  in  traversing  the 
desolate  expanse.  Spread  out  upon  the  arid  sands,  or  heaped 
in  mounds,  these  relics  of  the  dead  give  warning  of  the  dangers 
by  which  they  had  been  overwhelmed.  The  pilgrim  troop 
or  merchant  company,  as  they  pass  along,  and  behold  these 
eloquent  memorials  of  others'  fate,  are  admonished  to  press  on 
with  vigor,  that  they  may  reach  the  place  of  safety.  Even 
thus,  along  the  track  of  time,  for  thousands  of  years,  do  historic 
memorials  —  like  vast  monumental  piles  upon  the  right  hand 
and  upon  the  left  —  make  known  to  us  the  causes  of  the 
decline  and  fall  of  ancient  and  of  modern  republics.  They  fell 
through  the  ignorance  and  debasement  of  the  people  that  com- 
posed them.  But  for  these,  Greece,  having  revivified  her  spirit 
by  the  genius  of  Christianity,  and  turned  her  Pantheon  into  a 
temple  of  the  living  and  true  God,  might,  to  this  day,  have 
spread  far  more  than  her  ancient  happiness  and  splendor  over 


522  ANNUAL   REPORTS   ON  EDUCATION. 

those  beautiful  regions  where  now  the  Mahoramedan  bears 
sway ;  and,  but  for  these,  Rome  might  have  adopted  the  prin- 
ciples of  that  purer  faith  which  was  preached  to  her  by  the 
Apostle  to  the  Gentiles,  and  saved  the  world  from  the  thousand 
years  of  unspeakable  horrors  which  the  dark  ages  inflicted 
upon  it.  Happy  will  our  young  Republic  be,  if,  forewarned  by 
the  perdition  of  others,  she  avoids  their  fate  by  avoiding  the 
causes  that  incurred  it. 


REPORT   FOR   1846. 


GENTLEMEN,  — 

To  w^ite  a  history  of  popular  education  in  Massachusetts 
would  be  a  work  of  great  interest,  and  of  little  difficulty.  Such 
a  history,  however,  seems  not  to  have  beeu  contemplated,  and, 
therefore,  would  not  be  warranted,  by  those  resolves  of  the 
legislature  under  which  the  following  pages  are  prepared.  The 
resolves  provide  only  for  "  the  republication  of  so  much  of  his 
(the  late  Secretary's)  Tenth  Annual  Report,  as,  with  the  requi- 
site additions  and  alterations,  will  exhibit  a  just  and  correct 
view  of  the  common-school  system  of  Massachusetts,  and  the 
provisions  of  law  relating  to  it.*  An  adequate  idea  of  this 
"•  system,"  however,  can  hardly  be  obtained  without  a  brief 
reference  to  its  origin,  and  to  those  great  fundamental  princi- 
ples which  its  authors  and  supporters  seem  rather  to  have 
tacitly  assumed  than  to  have  fully  expounded. 

The  Pilgrim  Fathers  who  colonized  Massachusetts  Bay  made 
a  bolder  innovation  upon  all  pre-existing  policy  and  usages 
than  the  world  had  ever  known  since  the  commencement  of  the 
Christian  era.  They  adopted  special  and  costly  means  to  train 
up  the  whole  body  of  the  people  to  industry,  to  intelligence,  to 
virtue,  and  to  independent  thought.  The  first  entry  in  the 
public  record-book  of  the  town  of  Boston  bears  date,  "  1634, 
7th  month,  day  1."  The  records  of  the  public  meetings  for  the 
residue  of  that  year  pertain  to  those  obvious  necessities  that 

*  The  provisions  of  law  are  omitted  in  this  volume. 

523 


524  ANNUAL    REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

claimed  the  immediate  attention  of  an  infant  settlement.  But 
in  the  transactions  of  a  public  meeting,  held  on  the  13th  day 
of  April,  1635,  the  following  entry  is  found  :  "  Likewise  it  was 
then  generally  agreed  upon,  that  our  brother  Philemon  Pur- 
mont  [or  Purment]  shall  be  intreated  to  become  scholemaster 
for  the  teaching  and  nourtering  of  children  with  us."  Mr. 
Purmout  was  not  expected  to  render  his  services  gratuitously. 
Doubtless  he  received  fees  from  parents ;  but  the  same  records 
show,  that  a  tract  of  thirty  acres  of  land,  at  Muddy  River, 
was  assigned  to  him  ;  and  this  grant,  two  years  afterwards,  was 
publicly  confirmed.  About  the  same  time,  an  assignment 
was  made  of  a  "  garden  plott  to  Mr.  Daniel  Maude,  schoole- 
master,  upon  the  condition  of  building  thereon,  if  neede  be." 
From  this  time  forward,  these  golden  threads  are  thickly  in- 
woven in  the  texture  of  all  the  public  records  of  Boston. 

It  is  not  unworthy  of  remark,  that  a  word  of  beautiful  sig- 
nificance, which  is  found  in  the  first  record  on  the  subject  of 
schools  ever  made  on  this  continent,  has  now  fallen  wholly  out 
of  use.  Mr.  Purmont  was  entreated  to  become  a  i4  scholemas- 
ter," not  merely  for  the  "  teaching,"  but  for  the  "  XOURTERIXG  " 
of  children.  If,  as  is  supposed,  this  word,  now  obsolete  in  this 
connection,  implied  the  disposition  and  the  power  on  the  part 
of  the  teacher,  as  far  as  such  an  object  can  be  accomplished  by 
human  instrumentality,  to  warm  into  birth,  to  foster  into  strength, 
and  to  advance  into  precedence  and  predominance,  all  kindly 
sympathies  towards  men,  all  elevated  thoughts  respecting  the 
duties  and  the  destiny  of  life,  and  a  supreme  reverence  for  the 
character  and  attributes  of  the  Creator,  then  how  many  teach- 
ers have  since  been  employed  who  have  not  NOURISHED  the 
children  committed  to  their  care  ! 

In  1642,  the  General  Court  of  the  colony,  by  a  public  act, 
enjoined  upon  the  municipal  authorities  the  duty  of  seeing  that 
every  child  within  their  respective  jurisdictions  should  be  edu- 
cated. Xor  was  the  education  which  they  contemplated  either 
narrow  or  superficial.  By  the  terms  of  the  act.  the  selectmen 
of  every  town  were  required  to  "  have  a  vigilant  eye  over  their 


REPORT  FOR    1846.  525 

brethren  and  neighbors,  —  to  see  first  that  none  of  them  shall 
suffer  so  much  barbarism  in  any  of  their  families,  as  not  to  en- 
deavor to  teach,  by  themselves  or  others,  their  children  and 
apprentices,  so  much  learning  as  may  enable  them  perfectly  to 
read  the  English  tongue,  and  [obtain  a]  knowledge  of  the  capi- 
tal laws  ;  upon  penalty  of  twenty  shillings  for  each  neglect 
therein." 

Such  was  the  idea  of  "  barbarism  "  entertained  by  the  colo- 
nists of  Massachusetts  Bay  more  than  two  centuries  ago. 
Tried  by  this  standard,  even  at  the  present  day,  the  regions  of 
civilization  become  exceedingly  narrow ;  and  many  a  man 
who  now  blindly  glories  in  the  name  and  in  the  prerogatives  of 
a  republican  citizen  would,  according  to  the  better  ideas  of  the 
Pilgrim  Fathers,  be  known  only  as  the  "  barbarian  "  father  of 
"  barbarian  "  children. 

The  same  act  further  required  that  religious  instruction 
should  be  given  to  all  children  ;  and  also  "  that  all  parents 
and  masters  do  breed  and  bring  up  their  children  and  appren- 
tices in  some  honest,  lawful  calling,  labor,  or  employment, 
either  in  husbandry  or  some  other  trade  profitable  for  them- 
selves and  the  Commonwealth,  if  they  will  not  or  can  not  train 
them  up  in  learning  to  fit  them  for  higher  employments." 

Thus  were  recognized  and  embodied  in  a  public  statute  the 
highest  principles  of  political  economy  and  of  social  well-being, 
the  universal  education  of  children,  and  the  prevention  of 
drones  or  non-producers  among  men. 

By  the  same  statute,  the  selectmen  and  magistrates  were  em- 
powered to  take  children  and  servants  from  the  custody  of  those 
parents  and  masters,  who,  "  after  admonition,"  "  were  still 
negligent  of  their  duty  in  the  particulars  above  mentioned," 
and  to  bind  them  out  to  such  masters  as  they  should  deem 
worthy  to  supply  the  place  of  the  unnatural  parent,  —  boys 
until  the  age  of  twenty-one,  and  girls  until  that  of  eighteen. 

The  law  of  1642  enjoined  universal  education  ;  but  it  did  not 
make  education  free,  nor  did  it  impose  any  penalty  upon  mu- 
nicipal corporations  for  neglecting  to  maintain  a  school.  The 


526  ANNUAL   REPORTS    ON   EDUCATION. 

spirit  of  the  law,  however,  worked  energetically  in  the  hearts 
of  the  people  ;  for  in  Gov.  Winthrop's  Journal  ("  History  of 
New  England,"  vol.  ii.  p.  215,  Savage's  edition),  under  date 
of  1645,  we  find  the  following:  "Divers  free  schools  were 
erected,  as  at  Roxbury  (for  maintenance  whereof  every  inhabit- 
ant bound  some  house  or  laud  for  a  yearly  allowance  forever) 
and  at  Boston,  where  they  made  an  order  to  allow  fifty  pounds 
to  the  master,  and  an  house  and  thirty  pounds  to  an  usher,  who 
should  also  teach  to  read  and  write  and  cipher,  and  Indians' 
children  were  to  be  taught  freely,  and  the  charge  to  be  by 
yearly  contribution,  either  by  voluntary  allowance,  or  by  rate 
of  such  as  refused,  &c. ;  and  this  order  was  confirmed  by  the 
General  Court.  Other  towns  did  the  like,  providing  mainte- 
nance by  several  means." 

It  is  probable,  however,  that  some  towns,  owing  to '  the 
sparseness  of  their  population  and  the  scantiness  of  their  re- 
sources, found  all  the  moneys  in  their  treasury  too  little  to  pay 
the  salary  of  a  master ;  and  surrounded  by  dangers,  as  they 
were,  from  the  ferocity  of  the  aborigines  and  the  inclemency 
of  the  climate,  believed  that  not  an  eye  could  be  spared  from 
watching  nor  a  hand  from  labor,  even  for  so  sacred  a  purpose 
as  that  of  instruction ;  and  therefore  failed  to  sustain  a  school 
for  the  teaching  and  "  uourtering  "  of  their  children.  But,  in 
all  these  privations  and  disabilities,  the  government  of  the  col- 
ony saw  no  adequate  excuse  for  neglecting  the  one  thing  need- 
ful. They  saw  and  felt,  that  "  if  learning  were  to  be  buried  in 
the  graves  of  their  forefathers,  in  Church  and  Commonwealth," 
then  they  had  escaped  from  the  house  of  bondage,  and  swam  an 
ocean,  and  braved  the  terrors  of  the  wilderness,  in  vain.  In  the 
year  1647,  therefore,  a  law  was  passed  making  the  support  of 
.schools  compulsory,  and  education  both  universal  and  free. 

By  this  law,  every  town  containing  fifty  householders  was 
required  to  appoint  a  teacher  "  to  teach  all  such  children  as 
shall  resort  to  him  to  write  and  read ;  "  and  every  town  con- 
taining one  hundred  families  or  householders  was  required  to 
"  set  up  a  grammar  school,"  whose  master  should  be  "  able 


REPORT   FOR    1846.  527 

to  instruct  youth  so  far  as  they  may  be  fitted  for  the  univer- 
sity." 

The  penalty  for  non-compliance  with  the  above  requirements 
was  five  pounds  per  annum.  In  1671,  the  penalty  was  in- 
creased to  ten  pounds  per  aunum  ;  in  1683,  to  twenty  pounds  ; 
and  in  1718,  to  thirty  pounds  for  every  town  containing  one 
hundred  and  fifty  families ;  to  forty  pounds  for  every  town 
containing  two  hundred  families  ;  and  so  on,  pro  rota,  for  towns 
containing  two  hundred  and  fifty  or  three  hundred  families. 
The  penalty  was  increased  from  time  to  time,  to  correspond 
with  the  increasing  wealth  of  the  towns.  All  forfeitures  were 
appropriated  to  the  maintenance  of  public  schools.* 

It  is  common  to  say  that  the  act  of  1647  laid  the  foundation 
of  our  present  system  of  free  schools ;  but  the  truth  is,  it 
not  only  laid  the  foundation  of  the  present  system,  but,  in  some 
particulars,  it  laid  a  far  broader  foundation  than  has  since  been 

*  It  is  well  known,  that,  in  the  dearth  of  the  precious  metals  which  prevailed 
among  the  early  settlers  of  Massachusetts,  the  colonial  and  provincial  governments 
made  various  kinds  of  grain,  —  wheat,  rye,  barley,  Indian  corn,  &c.,  —  with  sev- 
eral other  commodities,  a  legal  tender  in  payment  of  debts,  and  received  them  for 
taxes.  In  our  early  legislation  and  history,  these  were  called  "  country  pay." 
From  time  to  time,  the  law  determined  the  value  of  the  bushel,  or  unit,  of  each 
kind  of  product.  On  an  examination  of  twenty  such  determinations  of  value, 
made  from  1642  to  1094  inclusive,  I  find  that  Indian  corn  was  rated  at  from  one 
8liilliug  and  two  pence  a  bushel  to  three  shillings  and  six  pence;  and  that  the 
average  for  this  whole  period  was,  within  a  very  slight  fraction,  two  shillings  and 
ten  pence  a  bushel. 

Allowing  six  persons  to  a  family,  a  town  of  three  hundred  families  would  con- 
tain a  population  of  eighteen  hundred. 

To  pay  a  fine  of  sixty  pounds,  therefore,  to  which  such  a  town  would  be  liable  by 
one  of  the  laws  above  referred  to,  if  paid  in  Indian  corn,  at  the  average  of  the 
prices  which  prevailed  from  1642  to  1694,  would  require  four  hundred  and  twenty- 
three  bushels. 

The  rates  of  labor,  as  ordained  by  the  colonial  government,  show,  in  a  still  more 
striking  manner,  how  heavily  the  towns  were  mulcted  for  neglecting  to  support 
schools. 

Under  date  of  Sept.  30,  1630,  "  It  is  ordered,  that  laborers  shall  not  take  aboue 
lid  a  day  for  their  work  and  not  aboue  6d  and  meate  and  drink  under  paine  of 
10s;  noe  master  carpenter,  mason,  joyner  or  bricklayer,  shall  take  aboue  ICd  a  day 
for  their  worke,  if  they  have  meate  and  drink,  —  and  the  second  sort  not  aboue 
12d  a  day  under  payne  of  10s  both  to  giuer  and  receauer." 

At  these  rates,  it  would  take  a  laborer  (having  board)  four  hundred  and  eighty 
days  to  pay  a  fine  of  one  pound.  The  penalty  imposed  upon  towns,  by  the  law  of 
1647,  for  not  maintaining  a  free  school,  was  five  oounds,  —  equivalent,  at  the  above 


528  ANNUAL   REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

built  upon,  and  reared  a  far  higher  superstructure  than  has  since 
been  sustained.  Modern  times  have  witnessed  great  improve- 
ments in  the  methods  of  instruction,  and  in  the  motives  of  dis- 
cipline ;  but,  in  some  respects,  the  ancient  foundation  has  been 
narrowed,  and  the  ancient  superstructure  lowered.  The  term 
"  grammar  school,"  in  the  old  laws,  always  meant  a  school 
where  the  ancient  languages  were  taught,  and  where  youth 
could  be  "  fitted  for  the  university."  Every  town  containing 
one  hundred  families  or  householders  was  required  to  keep 
such  a  school.  Were  such  a  law  in  force  at  the  present  time, 
there  are  not  more  than  twelve  towns  in  the  Commonwealth 
which  would  be  exempt  from  its  requisitions.  But  the  term 
"  grammar  school  "  has  wholly  lost  its  original  meaning  ;  and 
the  number  of  towns  and  cities  which  are  now  required  by  law 
to  maintain  a  school  where  the  Greek  and  Latiu  languages  are 
taught,  and  where  youth  can  be  fitted  for  college,  does  not 
exceed  thirty.  The  contrast  between  our  ancestors  and  our- 
selves in  this  respect  is  most  humiliating.  Their  meanness 
in  wealth  was  more  than  compensated  by  their  grandeur  of 
soul. 

The  institution  of  a  free-school  system  on  so  broad  a  basis, 
and  of  such  ample  proportions,  appears  still  more  remarkable 
when  we  consider  the  period  in  the  world's  history  at  which 
it  was  originated,  and  the  fewness  and  poverty  of  the  people  by 
whom  it  was  maintained.  In  1647,  the  entire  population  of 
the  colony  of  Massachusetts  Bay  is  supposed  to  have  amounted 

rate,  to  the  work  of  a  common  laborer  (with  board,  but  without  clothing)  for 
twenty-four  hundred  days,  or  all  the  working  days  in  almost  eight  years. 

Under  date  of  Sept.  3,  1G34,  it  was  ordered  that  "  noe  person  that  keepes  an 
ordinary  shall  take  above  6d  a  meale  for  a  person,  and  not  above  Id  for  an  ale 
qu:irtc  tor  beare  out  of  meale  time  vnder  the  penalty  of  10s  for  eury  offence,  either 
of  dyet  or  beare." 

In  1654,  May  3,  the  following  order  was  made  :  "  As  the  countrje  is  in  debt,  no 
stock  in  the  treasury,  no  meanes  at  present  to  raise  any,  so  that  workmen  cannot 
be  procured  to  finish  the  Cattle,  which  yett  is  necessary  forthwith  to  be  done,"  the 
several  military  companies  must  do  it;  one  division  of  them  by  having  each  of  their 
soldiers  labor  three  days  on  this  fortification,  and  another  by  being  individually 
assessed  4s.  Od.  Hence  it  would  seem  that  4s.  Od.  were  held  to  be  an  equivalent  for 
three  days'  work  on  the  Castle,  and  going  to  and  returning  from  the  work.  —  See 
An  Historical  Account  of  Mamachujctts  Currency,  by  JOSEPH  B.  FELT. 


REPORT    FOR    1846.  529 

only  to  twenty-one  thousand  souls.  The  scattered  and  feeble 
settlements  were  almost  buried  in  the  depths  of  the  forest. 
The  external  resources  of  the  people  were  small,  their  dwellings 
humble,  and  their  raiment  and  subsistence  scanty  and  homely. 
They  had  no  enriching  commerce  ;  and  the  wonderful  forces  of 
Nature  had  not  then,  as  now,  become  gratuitous  producers  of 
every  human  comfort  and  luxury.  The  whole  valuation  of  all 
the  colonial  estates,  both  public  and  private,  would  hardly  have 
been  equal  to  the  inventory  of  many  a  private  citizen  of  the 
present  day.  The  fierce  eye  of  the  savage  was  nightly  seen 
glaring  from  the  edge  of  the  surrounding  wilderness  ;  and  no 
defence  or  succor,  save  in  their  own  brave  natures,  was  at 
hand.  Yet  it  was  then,  amid  all  these  privations  and  dangers, 
that  the  Pilgrim  Fathers  conceived  the  magnificent  idea,  not 
only  of  a  universal,  but  of  a  free  education,  for  the  whole  peo- 
ple. To  find  the  time  and  the  means  to  reduce  this  grand 
conception  to  practice,  they  stinted  themselves,  amid  all  their 
poverty,  to  a  still  scantier  pittance  ;  amid  all  their  toils,  they 
imposed  upon  themselves  still  more  burdensome  labors  ;  and, 
amid  all  their  perils,  they  braved  still  greater  dangers.  Two 
divine  ideas  filled  their  great  hearts,  —  their  duty  to  God  and  to 
posterity.  For  the  one,  they  built  the  church ;  for  the  other, 
they  opened  the  school.  Eeligion  and  knowledge,  —  two 
attributes  of  the  same  glorious  and  eternal  truth,  and  that  truth 
the  only  one  on  which  immortal  or  mortal  happiness  can  be 
securely  founded ! 

It  is  impossible  for  us  adequately  to  conceive  the  boldness  of 
the  measure  which  aimed  at  universal  education  through  the 
establishment  of  free  schools.  As  a  fact,  it  had  no  precedent 
in  the  world's  history  ;  and,  as  a  theory,  it  could  have  been 
refuted  and  silenced  by  a  more  formidable  array  of  argument 
and  experience  than  was  ever  marshalled  against  any  other  in- 
stitution of  human  origin.  But  time  has  ratified  its  soundness. 
Two  centuries  of  successful  operation  now  proclaim  it  to  be  as 
wise  as  it  was  courageous,  and  as  beneficent  as  it  was  disinter- 
ested. Every  community  in  the  civilized  world  awards  it  the 
34 


530  ANNUAL    REPORTS    ON   EDUCATION. 

meed  of  praise  ;  and  states  at  home,  and  nations  abroad,  in  the 
order  of  their  intelligence,  are  copying  the  bright  example. 
What  we  call  the  enlightened  nations  of  Christendom  are  ap- 
proaching, by  slow  degrees,  to  the  moral  elevation  which  our 
ancestors  reached  at  a  single  bound  ;  and  the  tardy  convictions 
of  the  one  have  been  assimilating,  through  a  period  of  two  cen- 
turies, to  the  intuitions  of  the  other. 

The  establishment  of  free  schools  was  one  of  those  grand 
mental  and  moral  experiments  whose  effects  could  not  be  de- 
veloped and  made  manifest  in  a  single  generation.  But  now, 
according  to  the  manner  in  which  human  life  is  computed,  we 
are  the  sixth  generation  from  its  founders  ;  and  have  we  not 
reason  to  be  grateful  both  to  God  and  man  for  its  unnumbered 
blessings?  The  sincerity  of  our  gratitude  must  be  tested  by 
our  efforts  to  perpetuate  and  to  improve  what  they  established. 
The  gratitude  of  the  lips  only  is  an  unholy  offering. 

In  surveying  our  vast  country,  the  rich  savannas  of  the 
South,  and  the  almost  interminable  prairies  of  the  West,  —  that 
great  valley,  where,  if  all  the  nations  of  Europe  were  set  down 
together,  they  could  find  ample  subsistence,  —  the  ejaculation 
involuntarily  bursts  forth,  "  WHY  WERE  THEY  NOT  COLONIZED 
BY  MEN  LIKE  THE  PILGRIM  FATHERS  ?  "  And  as  we  reflect  how 
different  would  have  been  the  fortunes  of  this  nation,  had  those 
States  —  already  so  numerous,  and  still  extending,  circle  beyond 
circle  —  been  founded  by  men  of  high,  heroic,  Puritan  mould ; 
how  different  in  the  eye  of  a  righteous  Heaven,  how  different 
in  the  estimation  of  the  wise  and  good  of  all  contemporary  na- 
tions, how  different  in  the  fortunes  of  that  vast  procession  of 
the  generations  which  are  yet  to  rise  up  over  all  those  wide 
expanses,  and  to  follow  each  other  to  the  end  of  time,  —  as  we 
reflect  upon  these  things,  it  seems  almost  pious  to  repine  at  the 
ways  of  Providence ;  resignation  becomes  laborious,  and  we 
are  forced  to  choke  down  our  murmurings  at  the  will  of 
Heaven.  Is  it  the  solution  of  this  deep  mystery,  that  our 
ancestors  did  as  much  in  their  time  as  it  is  ever  given  to 
one  generation  of  men  to  accomplish,  and  have  left  to  us  and 


EEPORT   FOR    1846.  531 

to  our  descendants  the  completion  of  the  glorious  work  they 
began  ? 

The  alleged  ground  upon  which  the  founders  of  our  free- 
school  system  proceeded,  when  adopting  it,  did  not  embrace 
the  whole  argument  by  which  it  may  be  defended  and  sus- 
tained. Their  insight  was  better  than  their  reason.  They 
assumed  a  ground,  indeed,  satisfactory  and  convincing  to  Prot- 
estants ;  but,  at  that  time,  only  a  small  portion  of  Christen- 
dom was  Protestant,  and  even  now  only  a  minority  of  it  is  so. 
The  very  ground  on  which  our  free  schools  were  founded, 
therefore,  if  it  were  the  only  one,  would  have  been  a  reason, 
with  more  than  half  of  Christendom,  for  their  immediate  abo- 
lition. 

In  later  times,  and  since  the  achievement  of  American  inde- 
pendence, the  universal  and  ever-repeated  argument  in  favor  of 
free  schools  has  been,  that  the  general  intelligence  which  they 
are  capable  of  diffusing,  and  Avhich  can  be  imparted  by  no 
other  human  instrumentality,  is  indispensable  to  the  continu- 
ance of  a  republican  government.  This  argument,  it  is  obvi- 
ous, assumes,  as  a  postulatum,  the  superiority  of  a  republican 
over  all  other  forms  of  government ;  and,  as  a  people,  we  re- 
ligiously believe  in  the  soundness  both  of  the  assumption-  and 
of  the  argument  founded  upon  it.  But  if  this  be  all,  then  a 
sincere  monarchist,  or  a  defender  of  arbitrary  power,  or  a  be- 
liever in  the  divine  right  of  kings,  would  oppose  free  schools 
for  the  identical  reasons  we  offer  in  their  behalf.  A  perfect 
demonstration  of  our  doctrine  —  that  free  schools  are  the  only 
basis  of  republican  institutions  —  would  be  the  pei'fection  of 
proof,  to  his  mind,  that  they  should  be  immediately  extermi- 
nated. 

Admitting,  nay,  claiming  for  ourselves,  the  substantial  just- 
ness and  soundness  of  the  general  grounds  on  which  our  sys- 
tem was  originally  established,  and  has  since  been  maintained, 
yet  it  is  most  obvious,  that,  unless  some  broader  and  more  com- 
prehensive principle  can  be  found,  the  system  of  free  schools 
will  be  repudiated  by  whole  nations  as  impolitic  and  dangerous  ; 


532  ANNUAL   REPORTS    ON   EDUCATION. 

aud,  even  among  ourselves,  all  who  deny  our  premises  will,  of 
course,  set  at  nought  the  conclusions  to  which  they  lead. 

Again  :  the  expediency  of  free  schools  is  sometimes  advo- 
cated on  grouuds  of  political  economy.  An  educated  people 
is  always  a  more  industrious  and  productive  people.  Knowl- 
edge aud  abundance  sustain  to  each  other  the  relation  of  cause 
and  effect.  Intelligence  is  a  primary  ingredient  in  the  wealth 
of  nations.  Where  this  does  not  stand  at  the  head  of  the  inven- 
tory, the  items  in  a  nation's  valuation  will  be  few,  aud  the  sum 
at  the  foot  of  the  column  insignificant. 

The  moralist,  too,  takes  up  the  argument  of  the  economist. 
He  demonstrates  that  vice  aud  crime  are  not  only  prodigals  and 
spendthrifts  of  their  own,  but  defrauders  and  plunderers  of  the 
means  of  others ;  that  they  would  seize  upon  all  the  gains  of 
honest  industry,  and  exhaust  the  bounties  of  Heaven  itself, 
without  satiating  their  rapacity  for  new  means  of  indulgence  ; 
and  that  often,  in  the  history  of  the  world,  whole  generations 
might  have  been  trained  to  industry  and  virtue  by  the  wealth 
which  one  euemy  to  his  race  has  destroyed. 

And  yet,  notwithstanding  these  views  have  been  presented  a 
thousand  times  with  irrefutable  logic,  and  with  a  divine  elo- 
quence of  truth  which  it  would  seem  that  nothing  but  combined 
stolidity  and  depravity  could  resist,  thei'e  is  not  at  the  present 
time,  with  the  exception  of  the  States  of  New  England  and 
a  few  small  communities  elsewhere,  a  country  or  a  state  in 
Christendom  which  maintains  a  system  of  free  schools  for  the 
education  of  its  children.  Even  in  the  State  of  New  York, 
with  all  its  noble  endowments,  the  schools  are  not  free.* 

I  believe  that  this  amazing  dereliction  from  duty,  especially 
in  our  own  country,  originates  more  in  the  false  notions  which 
men  entertain  respecting  the  nature  of  their  rigid  to  property  than 
in  any  thing  else.  In  the  district-school-rneetiug,  in  the  town- 
meeting,  in  legislative  halls,  everywhere,  the  advocates  for  a 

*  By  an  act  of  the  New-York  legislature,  passed  at  its  last  session,  the  question 
whether  free  schools  shall  be  established  throughout  the  State  is  to  be  submitted 
to  the  decision  of  the  people,  to  be  determined  Dy  ballot,  at  theirprimary  meetings, 
during  the  current  year. 


REPORT   FOR    1846.  533 

more  generous  education  could  carry  their  respective  audiences 
with  them  in  behalf  of  increased  privileges  for  our  children, 
were  it  not  instinctively  foreseen  that  increased  privileges  must 
be  followed  by  increased  taxation.  Against  this  obstacle,  argu- 
ment falls  dead.  The  rich  man  who  has  no  children  declares 
that  the  exaction  of  a  contribution  from  him  to  educate  the 
children  of  his  neighbor  is  an  invasion  of  his  rights  of  property. 
The  man  who  has  reared  and  educated  a  family  of  children 
denounces  it  as  a  double  tax  when  he  is  called  upon  to  assist 
in  educating  the  children  of  others  also  ;  or,  if  he  has  reared 
his  own  children  without  educating  them,  he  thinks  it  pecu- 
liarly oppressive  to  be  obliged  to  do  for  others  what  he  re- 
frained from  doing  even  for  himself.  Another,  having  children, 
but  disdaining  to  educate  them  with  the  common  mass,  with- 
draws them  from  the  public  school,  puts  them  under  what  he 
calls  "  selecter  influences,"  and  then  thinks  it  a  grievance  to  be 
obliged  to  support  a  school  which  he  contemns.  Or  if  these 
different  parties  so  far  yield  to  the  force  of  traditionary  senti- 
ment and  usage,  and  to  the  public  opinion  around  them,  as  to 
consent  to  do  something  for  the  cause,  they  soon  reach  the  limit 
of  expense  at  which  their  admitted  obligation  or  their  alleged 
charity  terminates. 

It  seems  not  irrelevant,  therefore,  in  this  connection,  and  for 
the  purpose  of  strengthening  the  foundation  on  which  our  free- 
school  system  reposes,  to  inquire  into  the  nature  of  a  man's 
right  to  the  property  he  possesses ;  and  to  satisfy  ourselves  re- 
specting the  question,  whether  any  man  has  such  an  indefeasi- 
ble title  to  his  estates,  or  such  an  absolute  ownership  of  them, 
as  renders  it  unjust  in  the  government  to  assess  upon  him  his 
share  of  the  expenses  of  educating  the  children  of  the  commu- 
nity up  to  such  a  point  as  the  nature  of  the  institutions  under 
which  he  lives,  and  the  well-being  of  society,  require. 

I  believe  in  the  existence  of  a  great,  immortal,  immutable 
principle  of  natural  law,  or  natural  ethics,  —  a  principle  ante- 
cedent to  all  human  institutions,  and  incapable  of  being  abro- 
gated by  any  ordinance  of  man,  —  a  principle  of  divine  origiu, 


534  ANNUAL   REPORTS   ON  EDUCATION. 

clearly  legible  in  the  ways  of  Providence  as  those  ways  are 
manifested  in  the  order  of  Nature  and  in  the  history  of  the  race, 
which  proves  the  absolute  right  to  an  education  of  every  human 
being  that  comes  into  the  world ;  and  which,  of  course,  proves 
the  correlative  duty  of  every  government  to  see  that  the  means 
of  that  education  are  provided  for  all. 

In  regard  to  the  application  of  this  principle  of  natural  law, 
—  that  is,  in  regard  to  the  extent  of  the  education  to  be  pro- 
vided for  all  at  the  public  expense,  —  some  differences  of  opinion 
may  fairly  exist  under  different  political  organizations ;  but, 
under  our  republican  government,  it  seems  clear  that  the  mini- 
mum of  this  education  can  never  be  less  than  such  as  is  suffi- 
cient to  qualify  each  citizen  for  the  civil  and  social  duties  he 
will  be  called  to  discharge,  —  such  an  education  as  teaches  the 
individual  the  great  laws  of  bodily  health,  as  qualifies  for  the 
fulfilment  of  parental  duties,  as  is  indispensable  for  the  civil 
functions  of  a  witness  or  a  juror,  as  is  necessary  for  the  voter 
in  municipal  and  in  national  affairs,  and,  finally,  as  is  requisite 
for  the  faithful  and  conscientious  discharge  of  all  those  duties 
which  devolve  upon  the  inheritor  of  a  portion  of  the  sovereignty 
of  this  great  Republic. 

The  will  of  God,  as  conspicuously  manifested  in  the  order  of 
Nature,  and  in  the  relations  which  he  has  established  among 
men,  founds  the  right  of  every  child  that  is  born  into  the  world, 
to  such  a  degree  of  education  as  will  enable  him,  and,  as  far 
as  possible,  will  predispose  him,  to  perform  all  domestic,  social, 
civil,  and  moral  duties,  upon  the  same  clear  ground  of  natural 
law  and  equity  as  it  founds  a  child's  right,  upon  his  first  com- 
ing into  the  world,  to  distend  his  lungs  with  a  portion  of  the 
common  air,  or  to  open  his  eyes  to  the  common  light,  or  to 
receive  that  shelter,  protection,  and  nourishment,  which  are 
necessary  to  the  continuance  of  his  bodily  existence.  And  so 
far  is  it  from  being  a  wrong  or  a  hardship  to  demand  of  the 
possessors  of  property  their  respective  shares  for  the  prosecu- 
tion of  this  divinely-ordained  work,  that  they  themselves  are 
guilty  of  the  most  far-reaching  injustice  when  they  seek  to 


REPORT   FOR   1846.  535 

resist  or  to  evade  the  contribution.  The  complainers  are  the 
wrong-doers.  The  cry,  "Stop  thief!"  comes  from  the  thief 
himself. 

To  any  one  who  looks  beyond  the  mere  surface  of  things,  it 
is  obvious  that  the  primary  and  natural  elements  or  ingredients 
of  all  property  consist  in  the  riches  of  the  soil,  in  the  treasures 
of  the  sea,  in  the  light  and  warmth  of  the  sun,  in  the  fertilizing 
clouds  and  streams  and  dews,  in  the  winds,  and  in  the  chemi- 
cal and  vegetative  agencies  of  Nature.  In  the  majority  of  cases, 
all  that  we  call  property,  all  that  makes  up  the  valuation  or 
inventory  of  a  uatiou's  capital,  was  prepared  at  the  creation, 
and  was  laid  up  of  old  in  the  capacious  storehouses  of  Nature. 
For  every  unit  that  a  man  earns  by  his  own  toil  or  skill,  he 
receives  hundreds  and  thousands,  without  cost  and  without 
recompense,  from  the  all-bountiful  Giver.  A  proud  mortal, 
standing  in  the  midst  of  his  luxuriant  wheat-fields  or  cotton- 
plantations,  may  arrogantly  call  them  his  own ;  yet  what  bar- 
ren wastes  would  they  be,  did  not  Heaven  send  down  upon 
them  its  dews  and  its  rains,  its  warmth  and  its  light,  and  sus- 
tain, for  their  growth  and  ripening,  the  grateful  vicissitude  of 
the  seasons  !  It  is  said  that  from  eighty  to  ninety  per  cent  of 
the  very  substance  of  some  of  the  great  staples  of  agriculture 
are  not  taken  from  the  earth,  but  are  absorbed  from  the  air ;  so 
that  these  productions  may  more  properly  be  called  fruits  of 
the  atmosphere  than  of  the  soil.  Who  prepares  this  elemental 
wealth?  Who  scatters  it,  like  a  sower,  through  all  the  regions 
of  the  atmosphere,  and  sends  the  richly-freighted  winds,  as  His 
messengers,  to  bear  to  each  leaf  in  the  forest,  and  to  each  blade 
in  the  cultivated  field,  the  nourishment  which  their  infinitely- 
varied  needs  demand  ?  Aided  by  machinery,  a  single  manufac- 
turer performs  the  labor  of  hundreds  of  men.  Yet  what  could 
he  accomplish  without  the  weight  of  the  waters  which  God 
causes  ceaselessly  to  flow,  or  without  those  gigantic  forces 
which  he  has  given  to  steam?  And  how  would  the  commerce 
of  the  world  be  carried  on,  were  it  not  for  those  great  laws  of 
Nature  —  of  electricity,  of  condensation,  and  of  rarefaction  — 


536  ANNUAL    REPORTS    ON   EDUCATION. 

that  give  birth  to  the  winds,  which,  in  conformity  to  the  will  of 
Heaven,  and  not  in  obedience  to  any  power  of  man,  forever 
traverse  the  earth,  and  offer  themselves  as  an  unchartered  me- 
dium for  interchanging  the  products  of  all  the  zones?  These  few 
references  show  how  vast  a  proportion  of  all  the  wealth  which 
men  presumptuously  call  their  own,  because  they  claim  to  have 
earned  it,  is  poured  into  their  lap,  unasked  and  unthanked  for, 
by  the  Being  so  infinitely  gracious  in  his  physical  as  well  as  in 
his  moral  bestowments. 

But  for  whose  subsistence  and  benefit  were  these  exhaustless 
treasuries  of  wealth  created?  Surely  not  for  any  one  man, 
nor  for  any  one  generation,  but  for  the  subsistence  and  benefit 
of  the  whole  race  from  the  beginning  to  the  end  of  time. 
They  were  not  created  for  Adam  alone,  nor  for  Noah  alone, 
nor  for  the  first  discoverers  or  colonists  who  may  have  found 
or  have  peopled  any  part  of  the  earth's  ample  domain.  No. 
They  were  created  for  the  race  collectively,  but  to  be  possessed 
and  enjoyed  in  succession,  as  the  generations,  one  after  another, 
should  come  into  existence, — equal  rights,  with  a  successive 
enjoyment  of  them.  If  we  consider  the  earth  and  the  fulness 
thereof  as  one  great  habitation  or  domain,  then  each  generation, 
subject  to  certain  modifications  for  the  encouragement  of  indus- 
try and  frugality, —  which  modifications  it  is  not  necessary  here 
to  specify,  —  has  only  a  life-lease  in  them.  There  are  certain 
reasonable  regulations,  indeed,  in  regard  to  the  outgoing  and 
the  incoming  tenants,  —  regulations  which  allow  to  the  out- 
going generations  a  brief  control  over  their  property  after  they 
are  called  upon  to  leave  it,  and  which  also  allow  the  incoming 
generations  to  anticipate  a  little  their  full  right  of  possession. 
But,  subject  to  these  regulations,  Nature  ordains  a  perpetual 
entail  and  transfer,  from  one  generation  to  another,  of  all  prop- 
erty in  the  great,  substantive,  enduring  elements  of  wealth,  — 
in  the  soil ;  in  metals  and  minerals  ;  in  precious  stones,  and  in 
more  precious  coal  and  iron  and  granite  ;  in  the  waters  and 
winds  and  sun,  —  and  no  one  man,  nor  any  one  generation  of 
men,  has  any  such  title  to  or  ownership  in  these  ingredients 


REPORT   FOR    1846.  537 

and  substantiate  of  all  wealth,  that  his  right  is  invaded  when  a 
portion  of  them  is  taken  for  the  benefit  of  posterity. 

This  great  principle  of  natural  law  may  be  illustrated  by  a 
reference  to  some  of  the  unstable  elements,  in  regard  to  which 
each  individual's  right  of  property  is  strongly  qualified  in  rela- 
tion to  his  contemporaries,  even  while  he  has  the  acknowledged 
right  of  possession.  Take  the  streams  of  water,  or  the  wind, 
for  an  example.  A  stream,  as  it  descends  from  its  sources  to  its 
mouth,  is  successively  the  property  of  all  those  through  whose 
laud  it  passes.  My  neighbor  who  lives  above  me  owned  it 
yesterday,  while  it  was  passing  through  his  lands  ;  I  own  it  to- 
day, while  it  is  descending  through  mine  ;  and  the  contiguous 
proprietor  below  will  own  it  to-morrow,  while  it  is  flowing 
through  his,  as  it  passes  onward  to  the  next.  But  the  rights 
of  these  successive  owners  are  not  absolute  and  unqualified. 
They  are  limited  by  the  rights  of  those  who  are  entitled  to  the 
subsequent  possession  and  use.  While  a  stream  is  passing 
through  my  lands,  I  may  not  corrupt  it,  so  that  it  shall  be 
offensive  or  valueless  to  the  adjoining  proprietor  below.  I  may 
not  stop  it  in  its  downward  course,  nor  divert  it  into  any  other 
direction,  so  that  it  shall  leave  his  channel  dry.  I  may  law- 
fully use  it  for  various  purposes,  —  for  agriculture,  as  in  irrigat- 
ing lands,  or  watering  cattle  ;  for  manufactures,  as  in  turning 
wheels,  &c.,  —  but,  in  all  my  uses  of  it,  I  must  pay  regard  to 
the  rights  of  my  neighbors  lower  down.  So  no  two  proprietors, 
nor  any  half-dozen  proprietors,  by  conspiring  together,  can  de- 
prive an  owner,  who  lives  below  them  all,  of  the  ultimate  right 
which  he  has  to  the  use  of  the  stream  in  its  descending  course. 
We  see  here,  therefore,  that  a  man  has  certain  qualified  rights 
—  rights  of  which  he  cannot  lawfully  be  divested  without  his 
own  consent — in  a  stream  of  water,  before  it  reaches  the 
limits  of  his  own  estate  ;  at  which  latter  point,  he  may  some- 
what more  emphatically  call  it  his  own.  And,  in  this  sense, 
a  man  who  lives  at  the  outlet  of  a  river,  on  the  margin  of  the 
ocean,  has  certain  incipient  rights  in  those  fountain-sources  that 
well  up  from  the  earth  at  the  distance  of  thousands  of  miles. 


538  ANNUAL    REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

So  it  is  with  the  ever-moving  winds.  No  man  lias  a  perma- 
nent interest  in  the  breezes  that  blow  by  him,  and  bring  heal- 
ing and  refreshment  on  their  wings.  Each  man  has  a  temporary 
interest  in  them.  From  whatever  quarter  of  the  compass  they 
may  come,  I  have  a  right  to  use  them  as  they  are  passing  by 
me  ;  yet  that  use  must  always  be  regulated  by  the  rights  of  j 
those  other  participants  and  co-owners  whom  they  are  moving 
forward  to  bless.  It  is  not  lawful,  therefore,  for  me  to  corrupt 
them,  —  to  load  them  with  noxious  gases  or  vapors  by  which 
they  will  prove  valueless  or  detrimental  to  him,  whoever  he 
may  be,  towards  whom  they  are  moving. 

In  one  respect,  indeed,  the  winds  illustrate  our  relative  rights 
and  duties  even  better  than  the  streams.  In  the  latter  case, 
the  rights  are  not  only  successive,  but  always  in  the  same  order 
of  priority ;  those  of  the  owner  above  necessarily  preceding 
those  of  the  owner  below  :  and  this  order  is  unchangeable,  ex- 
cept by  changing  the  ownership  of  the  land  itself  to  which  the 
rights  are  appurtenant.  In  the  case  of  the  winds,  however, 
which  blow  from  every  quarter  of  the  heavens,  I  may  have  the 
prior  right  to-day ;  but,  with  a  change  in  their  direction,  my 
neighbor  may  have  it  to-morrow.  If,  therefore,  to-day,  when 
the  wind  is  going  from  me  to  him,  I  should  usurp  the  right  to 
use  it  to  his  detriment,  to-morrow,  when  it  is  coming  from  him 
to  me,  he  may  inflict  retributive  usurpation  upon  me. 

The  light  of  the  sun,  too,  is  subject  to  the  same  benign  and 
equitable  regulations.  As  the  waves  of  this  ethereal  element 
pass  by  me,  I  have  a  right  to  bask  in  their  genial  warmth,  or  to 
employ  their  quickening  powers  ;  but  I  have  no  right,  even  on 
my  own  land,  to  build  up  a  wall,  mountain-high,  that  shall 
eclipse  the  sun  to  my  neighbor's  eyes. 

Now,  all  these  great  principles  of  natural  law  which  define 
and  limit  the  rights  of  neighbors  and  contemporaries  are  incor- 
porated into  and  constitute  a  part  of  the  civil  law  of  every 
civilized  people  ;  and  they  are  obvious  and  simple  illustrations 
of  the  great  proprietary  laws  by  which  individuals  and  genera- 
tions hold  their  rights  in  the  solid  substance  of  the  globe,  in 


REPORT   FOR    1846.  539 

the  elements  that  move  over  its  surface,  and  in  the  chemical 
and  vital  powers  with  which  it  is  so  marvellously  endued.  As 
successive  owners  on  a  river's  bank  have  equal  rights  to  the 
waters  that  flow  through  their  respective  domains,  subject  only 
to  the  modification  that  the  proprietors  nearer  the  stream's 
source  must  have  precedence  in  the  enjoyment  of  their  rights 
over  those  lower  down,  so  the  rights  of  all  the  generations  of 
mankind  to  the  earth  itself,  to  the  streams  that  fertilize  it,  to 
the  winds  that  purify  it,  to  the  vital  principles  that  animate  it, 
and  to  the  reviving  light,  are  common  rights,  though  subject  to 
similar  modifications  in  regard  to  the  preceding  and  succeeding 
generations  of  men.  They  did  not  belong  to  our  ancestors  in 
perpetuity  ;  they  do  not  belong  to  us  in  perpetuity ;  and  the 
right  of  the  next  generation  in  them  will  be  limited  and  de- 
feasible like  ours.  As  we  hold  these  rights  subject  to  the 
claims  of  the  next  generation,  so  will  they  hold  them  subject 
to  the  claims  of  their  immediate  successors,  and  so  on  to  the 
end  of  time  ;  and  the  savage  tribes  that  roam  about  the  head- 
springs of  the  Mississippi  have  as  good  a  right  to  ordain  what 
use  shall  be  made  of  its  copious  waters  when  in  their  grand 
descent  across  a  continent  they  shall  reach  the  shores  of  arts 
and  civilization,  as  any  of  our  predecessors  had,  or  as  we  our- 
selves have,  to  say  what  shall  be  done,  in  perpetuity,  with  the 
soil,  the  waters,  the  winds,  the  light,  and  the  invisible  agencies 
of  Nature,  which  must  be  allowed,  on  all  hands,  to  constitute  the 
primary  and  indispensable  elements  of  wealth. 

Is  not  the  inference  irresistible,  then,  that  no  man, .by  what- 
ever means  he  may  have  come  into  possession  of  his  property, 
has  any  natural  right,  any  more  than  he  has  a  moral  one,  to 
hold  it,  or  to  dispose  of  it,  irrespective  of  the  needs  and  claims 
of  those,  who,  in  the  august  processions  of  the  generations,  are 
to  be  his  successors  on  the  stage  of  existence  ?  Holding  his 
rights  subject  to  their  rights,  he  is  bound  not  to  impair  the 
value  of  their  inheritance  either  by  commission  or  by  omission. 

Generation  after  generation  proceeds  from  the  creative 
energy  of  God.  Each  one  stops  for  a  brief  period  upon  the 


540  ANNUAL  REPORTS   ON  EDUCATION. 

earth,  resting,  as  it  were,  only  for  a  night,  —  like  migratory 
birds  upon  their  passage,  —  and  then  leaving  it  forever  to  others 
whose  existence  is  as  transitory  as  its  own ;  and  the  migratory 
flocks  of  water-fowl  which  sweep  across  our  latitudes  in  their 
passage  to  another  clime  have  as  good  a  right  to  make  a  per- 
petual appropriation,  to  their  own  use,  of  the  lands  over  which 
they  fly,  as  any  one  generation  has  to  arrogate  perpetual  domin- 
ion and  sovereignty,  for  its  own  purposes,  over  that  portion  of 
the  earth  which  it  is  its  fortune  to  occupy  during  the  brief 
period  of  its  temporal  existence. 

Another  consideration,  bearing  upon  this  arrogant  doctrine 
of  absolute  ownership  or  sovereignty,  has  hardly  less  force 
than  the  one  just  expounded.  We  have  seen  how  insignificant 
a  portion  of  any  man's  possessions  he  can  claim,  in  any  proper 
and  just  sense,  to  have  earned ;  and  that,  in  regard  to  all  the 
residue,  he  is  only  taking  his  turn  in  the  use  of  a  bounty  be- 
stowed, in  common,  by  the  Giver  of  all,  upon  his  ancestors, 
upon  himself,  and  upon  his  posterity,  —  a  line  of  indefinite 
length,  in  which  he  is  but  a  point.  But  this  is  not  the  only 
deduction  to  be  made  from  his  assumed  rights.  The  present 
wealth  of  the  world  has  an  additional  element  in  it.  Much  of 
all  that  is  capable  of  being  earned  by  man  has  been  earned  by 
our  predecessors,  and  has  come  down  to  us  in  a  solid  and  en- 
during form.  We  have  not  erected  all  the  houses  in  which 
we  live,  nor  constructed  all  the  roads  on  which  we  travel, 
nor  built  all  the  ships  in  which  we  carry  on  our  commerce 
with  the  Avorld.  We  have  not  reclaimed  from  the  wilderness 
all  the  fields  whose  harvests  we  now  reap  ;  and  if  we  had  no 
precious  metals  or  stones  or  pearls  but  such  as  we  ourselves 
had  dug  from  the  mines,  or  brought  up  from  the  bottom  of  the 
ocean,  our  coffers  and  our  caskets  would  be  empty  indeed. 
But,  even  if  this  were  not  so,  whence  came  all  the  arts  and  sci- 
ences, the  discoveries  and  the  inventions,  without  which,  and 
without  a  common  right  to  which,  the  valuation  of  the  prop- 
erty of  a  whole  nation  would  scarcely  equal  the  inventory  of 
a  single  man,  —  without  which,  indeed,  we  should  now  be  in  a 


REPORT   FOR    1846.  541 

state  of  barbarism  ?  Whence  canie  a  knowledge  of  agriculture, 
without  winch  we  should  have  so  little  to  reap?  or  a  knowl- 
edge of  astronomy,  without  which  we  could  not  traverse  the 
oceans?  or  a  knowledge  of  chemistry  and  mechanical  philoso- 
phy, without  which  the  arts  and  trades  could  not  exist?  Most 
of  all  this  was  found  out  by  those  who  have  gone  before  us ; 
and  some  of  it  has  come  down  to  us  from  a  remote  antiquity. 
Surely  all  these  boons  and  blessings  belong  as  much  to  poster- 
ity as  to  ourselves.  They  have  not  descended  to  us  to  be  ar- 
rested and  consumed  here,  or  to  be  sequestrated  from  the  ages 
to  come.  Cato  and  Archimedes,  and  Kepler  and  Newton,  and 
Franklin  and  Arkwright  and  Fulton,  and  all  the  bright  host 
of  benefactors  to  science  and  art,  did  not  make  or  bequeath 
their  discoveries  or  inventions  to  benefit  any  one  generation, 
but  to  increase  the  common  enjoyments  of  mankind  to  the  end 
of  time.  So  of  all  the  great  lawgivers  and  moralists  who  have 
improved  the  civil  institutions  of  the  state,  who  have  made  it 
dangerous  to  be  wicked,  or,  far  better  than  this,  have  made  it 
hateful  to  be  so.  Resources  developed  and  property  acquired 
after  all  these  ages  of  preparation,  after  all  these  facilities  and 
securities,  accrue,  not  to  the  benefit  of  the  possessor  only,  but  to 
that  of  the  next  and  of  all  succeeding  generations. 

Surely  these  considerations  limit  still  more  extensively  that 
absolutism  of  ownership  which  is  so  often  claimed  by  the  pos- 
sessors of  wealth. 

But  sometimes  the  rich  farmer,  the  opulent  manufacturer,  or 
the  capitalist,  when  sorely  pressed  with  his  natural  and  moral 
obligation  to  contribute  a  portion  of  his  means  for  the  educa- 
tion of  the  young,  replies,  —  either  in  form  or  in  spirit,  —  "  My 
lands,  my  machinery,  my  gold,  and  my  silver,  are  mine :  may 
I  not  do  what  I  will  with  my  own?"  There  is  one  supposa- 
ble  case,  and  ouly  one,  where  this  argument  would  have  plau- 
sibility. If  it  were  made  by  an  isolated,  solitary  being,  —  a 
being  having  no  relations  to  a  community  around  him,  having 
no  ancestors  to  whom  he  had  been  indebted  for  ninety-nine 
parts  in  every  hundred  of  all  he  possesses,  and  expecting  to 


542  ANNUAL   REPORTS    ON   EDUCATION. 

leave  no  posterity  after  him,  —  it  might  not-  be  easy  to  answer 
it.  If  there  were  but  one  family  in  this  Western  hemisphere, 
and  only  one  in  the  Eastern  hemisphere,  and  these  two  families 
bore  no  civil  and  social  relations  to  each  other,  and  were  to  be 
the  first  and  last  of  the  whole  race,  it  might  be  difficult,  except 
on  very  high  and  almost  transcendental  grounds,  for  either  one 
of  them  to  show  good  cause  why  the  other  should  contribute 
to  help  educate  children  not  his  own.  And  perhaps  the  force 
of  the  appeal  for  such  an  object  would  be  still  further  dimin- 
ished if  the  nearest  neighbor  of  a  single  family  upon  our  planet 
were  as  far  from  the  earth  as  Uranus  or  Sirius.  In  self-defence 
or  in  selfishness,  one  might  say  to  the  other,  "  AVhat  are  your 
fortunes  to  me?  You  can  neither  benefit  nor  molest  me.  Let 
each  of  us  keep  to  his  own  side  of  the  planetary  spaces."  But 
is  this  the  relation  which  any  man  amongst  us  sustains  to  his 
fellows?  In  the  midst  of  a  populous  community  to  which  he 
is  bound  by  innumerable  ties,  having  had  his  own  fortune  and 
condition  almost  predetermined  and  fore-ordained  by  his  prede- 
cessors, and  being  about  to  exert  upon  his  successors  as  com- 
manding an  influence  as  has  been  exerted  upon  himself,  the 
objector  can  no  longer  shrink  into  his  individuality,  and  dis- 
claim connection  and  relationship  with  the  world  at  large.  He 
cannot  deny  that  there  are  thousands  around  him  on  whom  he 
acts,  and  who  are  continually  re-acting  upon  him.  The  earth 
is  much  too  small,  or  the  race  is  far  too  numerous,  to  allow  us 
to  be  hermits ;  and  therefore  we  cannot  adopt  either  the  phi- 
losophy or  the  morals  of  hermits.  All  have  derived  benefits 
from  their  ancestors,  and  all  are  bound,  as  by  an  oath,  to  trans- 
mit those  benefits,  even  in  an  improved  condition,  to  posterity. 
We  may  as  well  attempt  to  escape  from  our  own  personal  iden- 
tity as  to  shake  off  the  threefold  relation  which  \ve  bear  to 
others,  —  the  relation  of  an  associate  with  our  contemporaries  ; 
of  a  beneficiary  of  our  ancestors  ;  of  a  guardian  to  those  who, 
in  the  sublime  order  of  Providence,  are  to  succeed  us.  Out  of 
these  relations,  manifest  duties  are  evolved.  The  society  of 
which  we  necessarily  constitute  a  part  must  be  preserved ;  and, 


REPORT   FOR    1846.  543 

in  order  to  preserve  it,  we  must  not  look  merely  to  what  one 
individual  or  one  family  needs,  but  to  what  the  whole  commu- 
nity needs ;  not  merely  to  what  one  generation  needs,  but  to 
the  wants  of  a  succession  of  generations.  To  draw  conclusions 
without  considering  these  facts  is  to  leave  out  the  most  im- 
portant part  of  the  premises. 

A  powerfully  corroborating  fact  remains  untouched.  Though 
the  earth  and  the  beneficent  capabilities  with  which  it  is  endued 
belong  in  common  to  the  race,  yet  we  find  that  previous  and 
present  possessors  have  laid  their  hands  upon  the  whole  of  it,  — 
have  left  no  part  of  it  unclaimed  and  unappropriated.  They 
have  circumnavigated  the  globe  ;  they  have  drawn  lines  across 
every  habitable  portion  of  it,  and  have  partitioned  amongst 
themselves  not  only  its  whole  area  or  superficial  contents,  but 
have  claimed  it  down  to  the  centre,  and  up  to  the  concave,  — 
a  great  inverted  pyramid  for  each  proprietor,  —  so  that  not  an 
unclaimed  rood  is  left,  either  in  the  caverns  below  or  in  the 
aerial  spaces  above,  where  a  new  adventurer  upon  existence  can 
take  unresisted  possession.  They  have  entered  into  a  solemn 
compact  with  each  other  for  the  mutual  defence  of  their  respec- 
tive allotments.  They  have  created  legislators  and  judges  and 
executive  officers,  who  denounce  and  inflict  penalties  even  to 
the  taking  of  life  ;  and  they  have  organized  armed  bands  to 
repel  aggression  upon  their  claims.  Indeed,  so  grasping  and 
rapacious  have  mankind  been  in  this  particular,  that  thev  have 
taken  more  than  they  could  use,  more  than  they  could  perambu- 
late and  survey,  more  than  they  could  see  from  the  top  of  the 
masthead,  or  from  the  highest  peak  of  the  mountain.  There 
was  some  limit  to  their  physical  power  of  taking  possession, 
but  none  to  the  exorbitancy  of  their  desires.  Like  robbers,  who 
divide  their  spoils  before  they  know  whether  they  shall  find  a 
victim,  men  have  claimed  a  continent  while  still  doubtful  of  its 
existence,  and  spread  out  their  title  from  ocean  to  ocean  before 
their  most  adventurous  pioneers  had  ever  seen  a  shore  of  the 
realms  they  coveted.  The  whole  planet,  then,  having  been  ap- 
propriated,—  there  being  no  waste  or  open  lands  from  which 


544  ANNUAL   REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

the  new  generations  may  be  supplied  as  they  come  into  exist- 
ence, —  have  not  those  generations  the  strongest  conceivable 
claim  upon  the  present  occupants  for  that  which  is  indispensable 
to  their  well-being?  They  have  more  than  a  pre-emptive,  they 
have  a  possessory,  right  to  some  portion  of  the  issues  and  profits 
of  that  general  domain,  all  of  which  has  been  thus  taken  up 
and  appropriated.  A  denial  of  this  right  by  the  present  pos- 
sessors is  a  breach  of  trust,  a  fraudulent  misuse  of  power 
given  and  of  confidence  implied.  On  mere  principles  of  polit- 
ical economy,  it  is  folly  ;  on  the  broader  principles  of  duty  and 
morality,  it  is  embezzlement. 

It  is  not  at  all  in  contravention  of  this  view  of  the  subject 
that  the  adult  portion  of  society  does  take,  and  must  take,  upon 
itself  the  control  and  management  of  all  existing  property 
until  the  rising  generation  has  arrived  at  the  age  of  majority. 
Nay,  one  of  the  objects  of  their  so  doing  is  to  preserve  the 
rights  of  the  generation  which  is  still  in  its  minority.  Society, 
to  this  extent,  is  only  a  trustee  managing  an  estate  for  the 
benefit  of  a  part-owner,  or  of  one  who  has  a  reversionary  inter- 
est in  it.  This  civil  regulation,  therefore,  made  necessary  even 
for  the  benefit  of  both  present  and  future  possessors,  is  only  in 
furtherance  of  the  great  law  under  consideration. 

Coincident,  too,  with  this  great  law,  but  in  no  manner  super- 
seding or  invalidating  it,  is  that  wonderful  provision  which  the 
Creator  has  made  for  the  care  of  offspring  in  the  affection  of 
their  parents.  Heaven  did  not  rely  merely  upon  our  percep- 
tions of  duty  towards  our  children,  and  our  fidelity  in  its  per- 
formance. A  powerful,  all-mastering  instinct  of  love  was 
therefore  implanted  in  the  parental,  and  especially  in  the  ma- 
ternal breast,  to  anticipate  the  idea  of  duty,  and  to  make  duty 
delightful.  Yet  the  great  doctrine  founded  upon  the  will  of 
God  as  made  known  to  us  in  the  natural  order  and  relation  of 
things  would  still  remain  the  same,  though  all  this  beautiful 
portion  of  our  moral  being,  whence  parental  affection  springs, 
were  a  void  and  a  nonentity.  Emphatically  would  the  obli- 
gations of  society  remain  the  same  for  all  those  children  who 


REPORT    FOR    1846.  545 

have  been  bereaved  of  parents ;  or  who,  worse  than  bereave- 
ment, have  only  monster  parents  of  intemperance  or  cupidity, 
or  of  any  other  of  those  forms  of  vice  that  seem  to  suspend  or 
to  obliterate  the  law  of  love  in  the  parental  breast.  For  these, 
society  is  doubly  bound  to  be  a  parent,  and  to  exercise  all  that 
rational  care  and  providence  which  a  wise  father  would  exer- 
cise for  his  own  children. 

If  the  previous  argument  began  with  sound  premises,  and 
has  been  logically  conducted,  then  it  has  established  this  posi- 
tion, —  that  a  vast  portion  of  the  present  wealth  of  the  world 
either  consists  in,  or  has  been  immediately  derived  from,  those 
great  natural  substances  and  powers  of  the  earth  which  were 
bestowed  by  the  Creator  alike  on  all  mankind ;  or  from  the 
discoveries,  inventions,  labors,  and  improvements  of  our  ances- 
tors, which  were  alike  designed  for  the  common  benefit  of  all 
their  descendants.  The  question  now  arises,  At  what  time  is 
this  wealth  to  be  transferred  from  a  preceding  to  a  succeeding 
generation  ?  At  what  point  are  the  latter  to  take  possession  of 
it,  or  to  derive  benefit  from  it  ?  or  at  what  time  are  the  former 
to  surrender  it  in  their  behalf?  Is  each  existing  generation, 
and  each  individual  of  an  existing  generation,  to  hold  fast  to 
his  possessions  until  death  relaxes  his  grasp  ?  or  is  something 
of  the  right  to  be  acknowledged,  and  something  of  the  benefit 
to  be  yielded,  beforehand?  It  seems  too  obvious  for  argument, 
that  the  latter  is  the  only  alternative.  If  the  incoming  genera- 
tion have  no  rights  until  the  outgoing  generation  have  actu- 
ally retired,  then  is  every  individual  that  enters  the  world  liable 
to  perish  on  the  day  he  is  born.  According  to  the  very  consti- 
tution of  things,  each  individual  must  obtain  sustenance  and 
succor  as  soon  as  his  eyes  open  in  quest  of  light,  or  his  lungs 
gasp  for  the  first  breath  of  air.  His  wants  cannot  be  delayed 
until  he  himself  can  supply  them.  If  the  demands  of  his 
nature  are  ever  to  be  answered,  they  must  be  answered  years 
before  he  can  make  any  personal  provision  for  them,  either  by 
the  performance  of  any  labor,  or  by  any  exploits  of  skill.  The 
infant  must  be  fed  before  he  can  earn  his  bread,  he  must  be 

35 


546  ANNUAL   EEPORTS   ON  EDUCATION. 

clothed  before  he  can  prepare  garments,  he  must  be  protected 
from  the  elements  before  he  can  erect  a  dwelling ;  and  it  is 
just  as  clear  that  he  must  be  instructed  before  he  can  engage 
or  reward  a  tutor.  A  course  contrary  to  this  would  be  the 
destruction  of  the  young,  that  we  might  rob  them  of  their 
rightful  inheritance.  Carried  to  its  extreme,  it  would  be  the 
act  of  Herod,  seeking,  in  a  general  massacre,  the  life  of  one 
who  was  supposed  to  endanger  his  power.  Here,  then,  the 
claims  of  the  succeeding  generation,  not  only  upon  the  affec- 
tion and  the  care,  but  upon  the  property,  of  the  preceding  one, 
attach.  God  having  given  to  the  second  generation  as  full  and 
complete  a  right  to  the  incomes  and  profits  of  the  world  as  he 
has  given  to  the  first,  and  to  the  third  generation  as  full  and 
complete  a  right  as  he  has  given  to  the  second,  and  so  on  while 
the  world  stands,  it  necessarily  follows  that  children  must 
come  into  a  partial  and  qualified  possession  of  these  rights,  by 
the  paramount  law  of  Nature,  as  soon  as  they  are  born.  No 
human  enactment  can  abolish  or  countervail  this  paramount 
and  supreme  law  ;  and  all  those  positive  and  often  arbitrary 
enactments  of  the  civil  code,  by  which,  for  the  encouragement 
of  industry  and  frugality,  the  possessor  of  property  is  permitted 
to  control  it  for  a  limited  period  after  his  decease,  must  be  con- 
strued and  executed  in  subservience  to  this  sovereign  and 
irrepealable  ordinance  of  Nature. 

Nor  is  this  transfer  always,  or  even  generally,  to  be  made  in 
kind,  but  according  to  the  needs  of  the  recipient.  The  recog- 
nition of  this  principle  is  universal.  A  guardian  or  trustee 
may  possess  lauds,  while  the  ward,  or  owner  under  the  trust, 
may  need  money ;  or  the  former  may  have  money  while  the 
latter  need  raiment  or  shelter.  The  form  of  the  estate  must  be 
changed,  if  need  be,  and  adapted  to  the  wants  of  the  receiver. 

The  claim  of  a  child,  then,  to  a  portion  of  pre-existeut  prop- 
erty, begins  with  the  first  breath  he  draws.  The  new-born  in- 
fant must  have  sustenance  and  shelter  and  care.  If  the  natu- 
ral parents  are  removed,  or  parental  ability  fails  ;  in  a  word,  if 
parents  either  cannot  or  will  not  supply  the  infant's  wants,  — 


REPORT   FOR    1846.  547 

then  society  at  large  —  the  government  having  assumed  to  it- 
self the  ultimate  control  of  all  property  —  is  bound  to  step  in 
and  fill  the  parent's  place.  To  deny  this  to  any  child  would 
be  equivalent  to  a  sentence  of  death,  a  capital  execution  of 
the  innocent,  —  at  \vhich  every  soul  shudders.  It  would  be  a 
more  cruel  form  of  infanticide  than  any  which  is  practised  in 
China  or  in  Africa. 

But  to  preserve  the  animal  life  of  a  child  only,  and  there  to 
stop,  would  be,  not  the  bestowment  of  a  blessing,  or  the  per- 
formance of  a  duty,  but  the  infliction  of  a  fearful  curse.  A 
child  has  interests  far  higher  than  those  of  mere  physical  exist- 
ence. Better  that  the  wants  of  the  natural  life  should  be  dis- 
regarded than  that  the  higher  interests  of  the  character  should 
be  neglected.  If  a  child  has  any  claim  to  bread  to  keep  him 
from  perishing,  he  has  a  far  higher  claim  to  knowledge  to  pre- 
serve him  from  error  and  its  fearful  retinue  of  calamities.  If  a 
child  has  any  claim  to  shelter  to  protect  him  from  the  destroy- 
ing elements,  he  has  a  far  higher  claim  to  be  rescued  from  the 
infamy  and  perdition  of  vice  and  crime. 

All  moralists  agree,  nay,  all  moralists  maintain,  that  a  man 
is  as  responsible  for  his  omissions  as  for  his  commissions  ;  that 
he  is  as  guilty  of  the  wrong  which  he  could  have  prevented, 
but  did  not,  as  for  that  which  his  own  hand  has  perpetrated. 
They,  then,  who  knowingly  withhold  sustenance  from  a  new- 
born child,  and  he  dies,  are  guilty  of  infanticide.  And,  by  the 
same  reasoning,  they  who  refuse  to  enlighten  the  intellect  of 
the  rising  generation  are  guilty  of  degrading  the  human  race. 
They  who  refuse  to  train  up  children  in  the  way  they  should 
go  are  training  up  incendiaries  and  madmen  to  destroy  prop- 
erty and  life,  and  to  invade  and  pollute  the  sanctuaries  of  soci- 
ety. In  a  word,  if  the  mind  is  as  real  and  substantive  a  part 
of  human  existence  as  the  body,  then  mental  attributes,  during 
the  periods  of  infancy  and  childhood,  demand  provision  at  least 
as  imperatively  as  bodily  appetites.  The  time  when  these  re- 
spective obligations  attach  corresponds  with  the  periods  when 
the  nurture,  whether  physical  or  mental,  is  needed.  As  the 


548  ANNUAL   REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

right  of  sustenance  is  of  equal  date  with  birth,  so  the  right  to 
intellectual  and  moral  training  begins  at  least  as  early  as  when 
children  are  ordinarily  sent  to  school.  At  that  time,  then,  by 
the  irrepealable  law  of  Nature,  every  child  succeeds  to  so  much 
more  of  the  property  of  the  community  as  is  necessary  for  his 
education.  He  is  to  receive  this,  not  in  the  form  of  lands,  or 
of  gold  and  silver,  but  in  the  form  of  knowledge  and  a  training 
to  good  habits.  This  is  one  of  the  steps  in  the  transfer  of 
property  from  a  present  to  a  succeeding  generation.  Human 
sagacity  may  be  at  fault  in  fixing  the  amount  of  property  to 
be  transferred,  or  the  time  when  the  transfer  should  be  made, 
to  a  dollar  or  to  an  hour ;  but  certainly,  in  a  republican  gov- 
ernment, the  obligation  of  the  predecessors,  and  the  right  of 
the  successors,  extend  to  and  embrace  the  means  of  such  an 
amount  of  education  as  will  prepare  each  individual  to  perform 
all  the  duties  which  devolve  upon  him  as  a  man  and  a  citizen. 
It  may  go  farther  than  this  point ;  certainly  it  cannot  fall 
short  of  it. 

Under  our  political  organization,  the  places  and  the  pro- 
cesses where  this  transfer  is  to  be  provided  for,  and  its  amount 
determined,  are  the  district-school-meeting,  the  town-meeting, 
legislative  halls,  and  conventions  for  establishing  or  revising 
the  fundamental  laws  of  the  State.  If  it  be  not  done  there,  so- 
ciety is  false  to  its  high  trusts  ;  and  any  community,  whether 
national  or  state,  that  ventures  to  organize  a  government,  or  to 
administer  a  government  already  organized,  without  making 
provision  for  the  free  education  of  all  its  children,  dares  the 
certain  vengeance  of  Heaven  ;  and  in  the  squalid  forms  of 
poverty  and  destitution,  in  the  scourges  of  violence  and  mis- 
rule, in  the  heart-destroying  corruptions  of  licentiousness  and 
debauchery,  and  in  political  profligacy  aud  legalized  perfidy, 
in  all  the  blended  and  mutually-aggravated  crimes  of  civiliza- 
tion and  of  barbarism,  will  be  sure  to  feel  the  terrible  retribu- 
tions of  its  delinquency. 

I  bring  my  argument  on  this  point,  then,  to  a  close  ;  and  I 
present  a  test  of  its  validity,  which,  as  it  seems  to  me,  defies 
denial  or  evasion. 


REPORT   FOR    1846.  549 

la  obedience  to  the  laws  of  G-od  and  to  the  laws  of  all  civ- 
ilized communities,  society  is  bound  to  protect  the  natural  life 
of  children  ;  and  this  natural  life  cannot  be  protected  without 
the  appropriation  and  use  of  a  portion  of  the  property  which 
society  possesses.  We  prohibit  infanticide  under  penalty  of 
death.  We  practise  a  refinement-  in  this  particular.  The  life 
of  an  infant  is  inviolable,  even  before  he  is  born  ;  and  he  who 
feloniously  takes  it,  even  before  birth,  is  as  subject  to  the  ex- 
treme penalty  of  the  law  as  though  he  had  struck  down  man- 
hood in  its  vigor,  or  taken  away  a  mother  by  violence  from 
the  sanctuary  of  home  where  she  blesses  her  offspring.  But 
why  preserve  the  natural  life  of  a  child,  why  preserve  unborn 
embryos  of  life,  if  we  do  not  intend  to  watch  over  and  to  pro- 
tect them,  and  to  expand  their  subsequent  existence  into  use- 
fulness and  happiness?  As  individuals,  or  as  an  organized 
community,  we  have  no  natural  right,  we  can  derive  no  au- 
thority or  countenance  from  reason,  we  can  cite  no  attribute 
or  purpose  of  the  divine  nature,  for  giving  birth  to  any  human 
being,  and  then  inflicting  upon  that  being  the  curse  of  igno- 
rance, of  poverty,  and  of  vice,  with  all  their  attendant  calami- 
ties. We  are  brought,  then,  to  this  startling  but  inevitable 
alternative,  —  the  natural  life  of  an  infant  should  be  extin- 
guished as  soon  as  it  is  born,  or  the  means  should  be  provided 
to  save  that  life  from  being  a  curse  to  its  possessor  ;  and,  there- 
fore, every  State  is  morally  bound  to  enact  a  code  of  laws 
legalizing  and  enforcing  infanticide,  or  a  code  of  laws  estab- 
lishing free  schools. 

The  three  following  propositions,  then,  describe  the  broad 
and  ever-during  foundation  on  which  the  common-school  sys- 
tem of  Massachusetts  reposes  :  — 

The  successive  generations  of  men,  taken  collectively,  con- 
stitute one  great  commonwealth. 

The  property  of  this  commonwealth  is  pledged  for  the  edu- 
cation of  all  its  youth,  up  to  such  a  point  as  will  save  them 
from  poverty  and  vice,  and  prepare  them  for  the  adequate 
performance  of  their  social  and  civil  duties. 


550  ANNUAL    REPORTS   ON    EDUCATION. 

The  successive  holders  of  this  property  are  trustees,  bound 
to  the  faithful  execution  of  their  trust  by  the  most  sacred  obli- 
gations ;  aud  embezzlement  and  pillage  from  children  and 
descendants  have  not  less  of  criminality,  and  have  more  of 
meanness,  tlmu  the  same  offences  when  perpetrated  against  con- 
temporaries. 

Recognizing  these  eternal  principles  of  natural  ethics,  the 
Constitution  of  Massachusetts,  —  the  fundamental  law  of  the 
State,  —  after  declaring  (among  other  things),  in  the  preamble 
to  the  first  section  of  the  fifth  chapter,  that  u  the  encourage- 
ment of  arts  and  sciences,  and  all  good  literature,  tends  to  the 
honor  of  GOD,  the  advantage  of  the  Christian  religion,  and 
the  great  benefit  of  this  and  the  other  United  States  of  Amer- 
ica," proceeds,  in  the  second  section  of  the  same  chapter,  to  set 
forth  the  duties  of  all  future  legislators  and  magistrates  in  the 
following  noble  and  impressive  language  :  — 

"  Wisdom  and  knowledge,  as  well  as  virtue,  diffused  gener- 
ally among  the  body  of  the  people,  being  necessary  for  the 
preservation  of  their  rights  and  liberties  ;  and  as  these  depend 
on  spreading  the  opportunities  and  advantages  of  education  in 
the  various  parts  of  the  country,  and  among  the  different  or- 
ders of  the  people,  —  it  shall  be  the  duty  of  legislatures  and 
magistrates,  in  all  future  periods  of  this  Commonwealth,  to 
cherish  the  interests  of  literature  and  the  sciences,  aud  all  sem- 
inaries of  them,  especially  the  University  of  Cambridge,  public 
schools  and  grammar  schools  in  the  towns ;  to  encourage 
private  societies  and  public  institutions,  rewards  and  immuni- 
ties, for  the  promotion  of  agriculture,  arts,  sciences,  commerce, 
trade,  manufactures,  and  a  natural  history  of  the  country ;  to 
countenance  and  inculcate  the  principles  of  humanity  and  gen- 
c'ral  benevolence,  public  aud  private  charity,  industry  and  fru- 
gality, honesty  and  punctuality  in  their  dealings,  sincerity, 
good  humor,  and  all  social  affections  and  generous  sentiments 
among  the  people."  —  See  also  Rev.  Stat.,  ch.  23,  sect.  7. 

Massachusetts  is  parental  in  her  government.  More  and 
more,  as  year  after  year  rolls  by,  she  seeks  to  substitute  pre- 


REPORT   FOR   1846.  551 

vention  for  remedy,  and  rewards  for  penalties.  She  strives  to 
make  industry  the  antidote  to  poverty,  and  to  counterwork  the 
progress  of  vice  and  crime  by  the  diffusion  of  knowledge  and 
the  culture  of  virtuous  principles.  She  seeks  not  only  to  miti- 
gate those  great  physical  and  mental  calamities  of  which  man- 
kind are  the  sad  inheritors,  but  also  to  avert  those  infinitely 
greater  moral  calamities  which  form  the  disastrous  heritage  of 
depraved  passions.  Hence  it  has  long  been  her  policy  to  endow 
or  to  aid  asylums  for  the  cure  of  disease.  She  succors  and 
maintains  all  the  poor  within  her  borders,  whatever  may  have 
been  the  land  of  their  nativity.  She  founds  and  supports  hos- 
pitals for  restoring  reason  to  the  insane  ;  and,  even  for  those 
violators  of  the  law  whom  she  is  obliged  to  sequestrate  from 
society,  she  provides  daily  instruction  and  the  ministrations  of 
the  gospel  at  the  public  charge.  To  those  who,  in  the  order 
of  Nature  and  Providence,  have  been  bereft  of  the  noble  facul- 
ties of  hearing  and  of  speech,  she  teaches  a  new  language,  and 
opens  their  imprisoned  minds  and  hearts  to  conversation  with 
men  and  to  communion  with  God  ;  and  it  hardly  transcends  the 
literal  truth  to  say  that  she  gives  sight  to  the  blind.  For  the 
remnants  of  those  aboriginal  tribes,  who,  for  so  many  ages, 
roamed  over  this  land  without  cultivating  its  soil,  or  elevating 
themselves  in  the  scale  of  being,  her  annual  bounty  provides 
good  schools  ;  and  when  the  equal,  natural,  and  constitutional 
rights  of  the  outcast  children  of  Africa  were  thought  to  be  in- 
vaded, she  armed  her  courts  of  judicature  with  power  to  pun- 
ish the  aggressors.  The  public  highway  is  not  more  open  and 
free  for  every  man  in  the  community  than  is  the  public  school- 
house  for  every  child ;  and  each  parent  feels  that  a  free  edu- 
cation is  as  secure  a  part  of  the  birthright  of  his  offspring  as 
Heaven's  bounties  of  light  and  air.  The  State  not  only  com- 
mands that  the  means  of  education  shall  be  provided  for  all, 
but  she  denounces  penalties  against  all  individuals,  and  all 
towns  and  cities,  however  populous  or  powerful  they  may  be, 
that  shall  presume  to  stand  between  her  bounty  and  its  recipi- 
ents. In  her  righteous  code,  the  interception  of  knowledge  is 


552  ANNUAL   REPORTS    ON   EDUCATION. 

a  crime  ;  and,  if  parents  are  unable  to  supply  their  children 
with  books,  she  becomes  a  parent,  and  supplies  them. 

The  policy  of  the  State  promotes  not  only  secular  but  reli- 
gious instruction,  yet  in  such  a  way  as  leaves  to  every  indi- 
vidual the  right  of  private  judgment  and  the  sacred  freedom  of 
conscience. 

Public  sentiment  exceeds  and  excels  the  law.  Annually, 
vast  sums  are  given  for  eleemosynary  and  charitable  purposes, 
—  to  promote  the  cause  of  temperance,  to  send  the  gospel  to 
the  heathen,  and  to  diffuse  the  doctrines  of  peace,  which  are 
the  doctrines  of  the  Prince  of  Peace. 

For  public,  free  education  alone,  including  the  direct  outlay 
of  money  and  the  interest  on  capital  invested,  Massachusetts 
expends  annually  more  than  a  million  of  dollars.  To  support 
religious  institutions  for  the  worship  of  God  and  the  salvation 
of  men,  she  annually  expends  more  than  another  million  ;  and 
what  she  gives  away  in  the  various  forms  of  charity  far  ex- 
ceeds a  third  sum  of  equal  magnitude.  She  explores  the  world 
for  new  objects  of  beneficence  ;  and  so  deep  and  common  is  the 
feeling  which  expects  and  prompts  all  this,  that  she  is  grad- 
ually changing  and  ennobling  the  definition  of  a  cardinal  word 
in  the  language  of  morals,  —  doing  what  no  king  or  court  with 
all  their  authority,  nor  royal  academy  with  all  its  sages  and 
literary  men,  can  do :  she  is  changing  the  meaning  of  charity 
into  duty. 

For  the  support  of  the  poor,  nine-tenths  of  whose  cost  origi- 
nate with  foreigners  or  come  from  one  prolific  vice,  whose  last 
convulsive  energies  she  is  now  struggling  to  subdue,  she  annu- 
ally pays  more  than  three  hundred  thousand  dollars  ;  for  the 
support  and  improvement  of  public  highways,  she  pays  a  much 
larger  sum  ;  and,  within  the  last  dozen  or  fourteen  years,  she  has 
invested  a  capital  in  railroads,  within  and  without  the  State,  of 
nearly  or  quite  sixty  millions  of  dollars. 

Whence  come  her  means  to  give,  with  each  returning  year, 
more  than  a  million  of  dollars  to  public  education ;  more  than 
another  million  to  religion  ;  and  more  than  a  third  to  amelio- 


REPORT   FOR    1846.  553 

rate  and  succor  the  afflicted  and  the  ignorant  at  home,  and  to 
bless,  in  distant  lands,  those  who  sit  in  the  region  and  shadow 
of  death  ?  How  does  she  support  her  poor,  maintain  her  public 
ways,  and  contribute  such  vast  sums  for  purposes  of  internal 
improvement,  besides  maintaining  her  immense  commercial 
transactions  with  every  zone  in  the  world? 

Has  she  a  vast  domain?  Her  whole  territory  would  not 
make  a  court-yard  of  respectable  dimensions  to  stand  in  front 
of  many  of  the  States  and  Territories  belonging  to  the  Union. 

Does  she  draw  revenues  from  conquered  provinces  or  subju- 
gated realms?  She  conquers  nothing,  she  subdues  nothing, 
save  the  great  elemental  forces  of  Nature,  which  God  gives 
freely,  whenever  and  wherever  they  are  asked  for  in  the  lan- 
guage of  genius  and  science ;  and  in  regard  to  which  no  profu- 
sion or  prodigality  to  one  can  diminish  the  bounty  always  ready 
for  others. 

Does  she  live  by  the  toil  of  a  race  of  serfs  and  vassals  whom 
she  holds  in  personal  and  hereditary  bondage?  —  by  one  com- 
prehensive and  sovereign  act  of  violence  seizing  upon  both  body 
and  soul  at  once,  and  superseding  the  thousand  acts  of  plunder 
which  make  up  the  life  of  a  common  robber  ?  Every  man  who 
treads  her  sacred  soil  is  free  ;  all  are  free  alike  ;  and  within  her 
borders,  for  any  purpose  connected  with  human  slavery,  iron 
will  not  be  welded  into  a  fetter. 

Has  she  rich  mines  of  the  precious  metals?  In  all  her  cof- 
fers there  is  not  a  drachm  of  silver  or  of  gold  which  has  not 
been  obtained  by  the  sweat  of  her  brow  or  the  vigor  of  her 
brain. 

Has  she  magazines  of  mineral  wealth  embedded  in  the  earth  ? 
or  are  her  soil  and  climate  so  spontaneously  exuberant  that  she 
reaps  luxuriant  harvests  from  uncultivated  fields  ?  Alas  !  the 
orator  has  barbed  his  satire  by  declaring  her  only  natural  pro- 
ductions to  be  granite  and  ice. 

Whence,  then,  I  again  ask,  comes  her  wealth?  I  do  not 
mean  the  gorgeous  wealth  which  is  displayed  in  the  voluptuous 
and  too  often  enervating  residences  of  the  affluent,  but  that 


554  ANNUAL   REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

golden  mean  of  property  —  such  as  Agur  asked  for  iu  his  per- 
fect prayer  —  which  carries  blessings  in  its  train  to  thousands 
of  householders ;  which  spreads  solid  comfort  and  competence 
through  the  dwellings  of  the  land ;  which  furnishes  the  means 
of  instruction,  of  social  pleasures  and  refiuemeut,  to  the  citizens 
at  large  ;  which  saves  from  the  cruel  sufferings  and  the  more 
cruel  temptations  of  penury.  The  families  scattered  over  her 
hills  and  along  her  valleys  have  not  merely  a  shelter  from  the 
inclemencies  of  the  seasons,  but  the  sanctuary  of  a  home.  Not 
only  food,  but  books,  are  spread  upon  their  tables.  Her  com- 
monest houses  have  the  means  of  hospitality  ;  they  have  appli- 
ances for  sickness,  and  resources  laid  up  against  accident  and 
the  infirmities  of  age.  Whether  in  her  rural  districts  or  her 
populous  towns,  a  wandering,  native-born  beggar  is  a  prodigy ; 
and  the  twelve  millions  of  dollars  deposited  in  her  savings  in- 
stitutions do  not  more  loudly  proclaim  the  frugality  and  provi- 
dence of  the  past  than  they  foretell  the  competence  and  enjoy- 
ments of  the  future. 

One  copious,  exhaustless  fountain  supplies  all  this  abun- 
dance. It  is  education,  —  the  intellectual,  moral,  and  religious 
education  of  the  people.  Having  no  other  mines  to  work, 
Massachusetts  has  mined  into  the  human  intellect :  and,  from 
its  limitless  resources,  she  has  won  more  sustaining  and  endur- 
ing prosperity  and  happiness  than  if  she  had  been  founded  on  a 
stratification  of  silver  and  gold,  reaching  deeper  do\vu  than 
geology  has  yet  penetrated.  From  her  high  religious  convic- 
tions, she  has  learned  that  great  lesson,  —  to  set  a  value  upon 
time.  Regarding  the  faculties  as  the  gift  of  God,  she  has  felt 
bound  both  to  use  and  to  improve  them.  Mingling  skill  and 
intelligence  with  the  daily  occupations  of  life,  she  has  made 
labor  honorable  ;  and,  as  a  necessary  consequence,  idleness  is 
disgraceful.  Knowledge  has  been  the  ambition  of  her  sons, 
and  she  has  reverenced  "and  venerated  the  purity  and  chastity 
of  her  matrons  and  her  daughters.  At  the  hearth-stone,  at  the 
family  table,  and  at  the  family  altar,  —  on  all  those  occasions 
where  the  structure  of  the  youthful  character  is  builded  «jj,  — 


REPORT   FOR    1846.  555 

these  sentiments  of  love  for  knowledge,  and  of  reverence  for 
maidenly  virtue,  have  been  builded  in  ;  and  there  they  stand,  so 
wrought  and  mingled  with  the  fibres  of  being,  that  none  but 
God  can  tell  which  is  Nature,  and  which  is  education  ;  which 
we  owe  primarily  to  the  grace  of  Heaven,  and  which  to  the 
co-operating  wisdom  of  the  institutions  of  men.  Verily,  verily, 
not  as  we  ought  have  we  obeyed  the  laws  of  Jehovah,  or  imi- 
tated the  divine  example  of  the  Saviour ;  and  yet,  for  such  im- 
perfect obedience  and  distant  imitation  as  we  have  rendered, 
God  has  showered  down  manna  from  the  heavens,  and  opened 
a  rock  whence  flow  living  waters  to  gladden  every  thirsty  place. 
He  who  studies  the  present  or  the  historic  character  of  Massa- 
chusetts will  see  (and  he  who  studies  it  most  profoundly  will 
see  most  clearly),  that  whatever  of  abundance,  of  intelligence, 
or  of  integrity,  whatever  of  character  at  home  or  of  renown 
abroad,  she  may  possess,  all  has  been  evolved  from  the  en- 
lightened, and,  at  least,  partially  Christianized  mind,  not  of  a 
few,  but  of  the  great  masses,  of  her  people.  They  are  not  the 
result  of  outward  riches  or  art  brought  around  it,  or  laminated 
over  it,  but  of  an  awakened  inward  force,  working  energetically 
outwards,  and  fashioning  the  most  intractable  circumstances  to 
the  dominion  of  its  own  desires  and  resolves  ;  and  this  force 
has  been  awakened,  and  its  unspent  energies  replenished,  more 
than  from  all  things  else,  by  her  common  schools. 

When  we  witness  the  mighty  achievements  of  art,  —  the  loco- 
motive, taking  up  its  burden  of  a  hundred  tons,  and  transport- 
ing it  for  hundreds  of  miles  between  the  rising  and  the  setting 
sun ;  the  steamboat,  cleaving  its  rapid  way,  triumphant  over 
wind  and  tide  ;  the  power-loom,  yielding  products  of  greater 
richness  and  abundance  in  a  single  day  than  all  the  inhabitants 
of  Tyre  could  have  manufactured  in  years ;  the  printing-press, 
which  could  have  replaced  the  Alexandrian  Library  within  a 
week  after  it  was  burnt ;  the  lightning,  not  only  domesticated 
in  the  laboratories  of  the  useful  arts,  but  employed  as  a  messen- 
ger between  distant  cities  ;  and  galleries  of  beautiful  paintings, 
quickened  into  life  by  the  sunbeams,  —  when  we  see  all  these 


556        ANNUAL  REPORTS  ON  EDUCATION. 

marvels  of  power  aud  of  celerity,  we  are  prone  to  conclude  that 
it  is  to  them  we  are  indebted  for  the  increase  of  our  wealth  and 
for  the  progress  of  our  society.  But  were  there  any  statistics 
to  show  the  aggregate  value  of  all  the  thrifty  and  gainful  hab- 
its of  the  people  at  large,  the  greater  productiveness  of  the 
educated  than  of  the  brutified  laborer,  the  increased  power  of 
the  intelligent  hand,  and  the  broad  survey  and  deep  intuition  of 
the  intelligent  eye  ;  could  we  see  a  ledger  account  of  the  profits 
which  come  from  forethought,  order,  aud  system,  as  they  preside 
over  all  our  farms,  in  all  our  workshops,  and  emphatically  in 
all  the  labors  of  our  households,  —  we  should  then  know  how  rap- 
idly their  gathered  units  swell  into  millions  upon  millions.  The 
skill  that  'strikes  the  nail's  head  instead  of  the  fingers'  ends  ; 
the  care  that  mends  a  fence  and  saves  a  cornfield,  that  drives  a 
horseshoe  nail  and  secures  both  rider  and  horse,  that  extin- 
guishes a  light  and  saves  a  house  ;  the  prudence  that  cuts  the 
coat  according  to  the  cloth,  that  lays  by  something  for  a  rainy 
day,  and  that  postpones  marriage  until  reasonably  sure  of  a 
livelihood  ;  the  forethought  that  sees  the  end  from  the  begin- 
ning, and  reaches  it  by  the  direct  route  of  an  hour  instead  of 
the  circuitous  gropings  of  a  day  ;  the  exact  remembrance  im- 
pressed upon  childhood  to  do  the  errand  as  it  was  bidden  ;  and, 
more  than  all,  the  economy  of  virtue  over  vice,  of  restrained 
over  pampered  desires,  —  these  things  are  not  set  down  in  the 
works  on  political  economy  ;  but  they  have  far  more  to  do  with 
the  wealth  of  nations  than  any  laws  which  aim  to  regulate  the 
balance  of  trade,  or  any  speculations  on  capital  aud  labor,  or 
any  of  the  great  achievements  of  art.  That  vast  variety  of 
ways  in  which  an  intelligent  people  surpass  a  stupid  one,  and 
an  exemplary  people  an  immoral  one,  has  infinitely  more  to  do 
with  the  well-being  of  a  nation  than  soil  or  climate,  or  even 
than  government  itself,  excepting  so  far  as  government  may 
prove  to  be  the  patron  of  intelligence  and  virtue. 

From  her  earliest  colonial  history,  the  policy  of  Massachu- 
setts has  been  to  develop  the  minds  of  all  her  people,  and  to 
imbue  them  with  the  principles  of  duty.  To  do  this  work  most 


REPORT   FOR    1846.  557 

effectually,  she  has  begun  it  with  the  young.  If  she  would 
continue  to  mount  higher  and  higher  towards  the  summit  of 
prosperity,  she  must  continue  the  means  by  which  her  present 
elevation  has  been  gained.  In  doing  this,  she  will  not  only 
exercise  the  noblest  prerogative  of  government,  but  will  co- 
operate with  the  Almighty  in  one  of  his  sublimest  works. 

The  Greek  rhetorician  Longinus  quotes  from  the  Mosaic 
account  of  the  creation  what  he  calls  the  sublimest  passage  ever 
uttered  :  "  God  said,  Let  there  be  light,  and  there  was  light." 
From  the  centre  of  black  immensity,  effulgence  burst  forth. 
Above,  beneath,  on  every  side,  its  radiance  streamed  out,  silent, 
yet  making  each  spot  in  the  vast  concave  brighter  than  the  line 
which  the  lightning  pencils  upon  the  midnight  cloud.  Dark- 
ness fled  as  the  swift  beams  spread  onward  and  outward  in  an 
unending  circumfusion  of  splendor.  Onward  and  outward 
still  they  move  to  this  day,  glorifying,  through  wider  and  wider 
regions  of  space,  the  infinite  Author  from  whose  po\ver  and 
beneficence  they  sprang.  But  not  only  in  the  beginning,  when 
God  created  the  heavens  and  the  earth,  did  he  say,  "  Let  there 
be  light."  Whenever  a  human  soul  is  born  into  the  world,  its 
Creator  stands  over  it,  and  again  pronounces  the  same  sublime 
words,  "  Let  there  be  light." 

Magnificent,  indeed,  was  the  material  creation,  when,  sud- 
denly blazing  forth  in  mid-space,  the  new-born  sun  dispelled 
the  darkness  of  the  ancient  night :  but  infinitely  more  mag- 
nificent is  it  when  the  human  soul  rays  forth  its  subtler  and 
swifter  beams  ;  when  the  light  of  the  senses  irradiates  all  out- 
ward things,  revealing  the  beauty  of  their  colors,  and  the  ex- 
quisite symmetry  of  their  proportions  and  forms ;  when  the 
light  of  reason  penetrates  to  their  invisible  properties  and  laws, 
and  displays  all  those  hidden  relations  that  make  up  all  the 
sciences ;  when  the  light  of  conscience  illumines  the  moral 
world,  separating  truth  from  error,  and  virtue  from  vice.  The 
light  of  the  newly-kindled  sun,  indeed,  was  glorious.  It  struck 
upon  all  the  planets,  and  waked  into  existence  their  myriad 
capacities  of  life  and  joy.  As  it  rebounded  from  them,  and 


558  ANNUAL    REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

showed  their  vast  orbs  all  wheeling,  circle  beyond  circle,  in 
their  stupendous  courses,  the  sons  of  God  shouted  for  joy. 
That  light  sped  onward,  beyond  Sirius,  beyond  the  Pole-star, 
beyond  Orion  and  the  Pleiades,  and  is  still  speeding  onward 
into  the  abysses  of  space.  But  the  light  of  the  human  soul 
flies  swifter  than  the  light  of  the  sun,  and  outshines  its  meri- 
dian blaze.  It  can  embrace  not  only  the  sun  of  our  system,  but 
all  suns,  and  galaxies  of  suns  :  ay,  the  soul  is  capable  of  know- 
ing and  of  enjoying  Him  who  created  the  suns  themselves ; 
and,  when  these  starry  lustres  that  now  glorify  the  firmament 
shall  wax  dim  and  fade  away  like  a  wasted  taper,  the  light 
of  the  soul  shall  still  remain ;  nor  time  nor  cloud,  nor  any 
power  but  its  own  perversity,  shall  ever  quench  its  brightness. 
Again  I  would  say,  that,  whenever  a  human  soul  is  born  into 
the  world,  God  stands  over  it,  and  pronounces  the  same  sublime 
fiat,  "  Let  there  be  light ;  "  and  may  the  time  soon  come  when 
all  human  governments  shall  co-operate  with  the  divine  govern- 
ment in  carrying  this  benediction  and  baptism  into  fulfilment ! 


REPORT   FOR   1847. 


GENTLEMEN,  — 

.  .  .  THE  incontestable  progress  which  the  cause  of  popular 
education  is  making  in  Massachusetts,  and  in  some  of  the  other 
States  of  our  Union,  is  a  subject  for  hearty  congratulation 
among  ourselves,  and  for  devout  gratitude  to  Heaven.  It  can- 
not be  denied  that  the  cause  has  won  to  itself  most  able  and 
earnest  advocates,  who  are  in  no  way  officially  connected  with 
it,  but  who  cherish  it  from  the  purest  motives  of  duty  and  phi- 
lanthropy. But  it  happens  to  this,  as  to  all  other  good  causes, 
that  some  of  its  professed  friends  have  attached  themselves  to 
it  from  collateral,  and  some  from  sinister  motives.  It  is  equally 
true  that  the  cause  has  enemies  ;  although,  in  this  community, 
there  are  but  few  who  dare  to  make  open  proclamation  of  their 
hostility.  But  opponents  are  all  the  more  formidable  when 
their  opposition  is  secret.  Their  measures  of  counteraction  are 
not  the  less  efficient  because  they  are  indirect,  and  hide  their 
origin  under  specious  pretences.  There  is  a  third  class,  who 
have  no  faith  in  the  utility  of  education.  They  number  it 
among  what  they  are  pleased  to  call  the  Utopian  schemes  of 
reform  with  which  the  age  is  teeming ;  and  they  regard  with 
an  ill-concealed  suspicion  either  the  honesty  of  purpose  or  the 
soundness  of  intellect  of  those  who  are  laboring  to  uphold  its 
banner,  and  to  bear  it  forward.  There  are  those  also  who  sus- 
pect, in  education,  the  existence  of  some  unknown  and  mys- 

559 


560  ANNUAL    REPORTS   ON    EDUCATION. 

tical  power,  which,  should  it  once  obtain  the  ascendency,  would 
bear  the  community  onward,  they  know  not  whither ;  and 
having  some  ism  or  ology  of  their  own,  by  which,  provided  all 
civil  institutions,  and  Nature  herself,  will  succumb  to  their  dic- 
tation, they  can  forthwith  extricate  the  world  from  all  its  trou- 
bles, and  carry  it  forward  in  the  directest  line,  and  with  the 
swiftest  speed,  to  a  millennial  goal,  they  discard  an  agency 
whose  power  they  can  neither  control  nor  comprehend.  And, 
lastly,  there  are  those  who  array  themselves  against  education 
solely  from  mercenary  motives,  —  because  of  the  one  or  two 
mills  upon  the  dollar  which  its  support  subtracts  from  their 
property. 

To  meet  the  opposition  and  the  indifference  originating  in 
these  and  similar  prejudgments,  the  subject  of  education  has 
been  very  much  "  agitated,"  particularly  in  the  northern  portion 
of  our  country,  within  the  last  dozen  years.  There  can  be  no 
hazard  in  affirming,  that  far  more  has  been  spoken  and  printed, 
heard  and  read,  on  this  theme,  within  the  last  twelve  years, 
than  ever  before,  were  it  all  put  together,  since  the  settlement 
of  the  colonies.  The  consequence  certainly  has  been  a  very 
marked  development  of  the  merits  of  the  subject,  and  a  corre- 
sponding opening  or  expansion  of  the  public  mind  for  their  rec- 
ognition. To  many  sensible  men,  it  has  come  like  a  revela- 
tion, inspiring  hopes  for  the  amelioration  of  mankind,  and  for 
the  perpetuity  of  our  institutions,  which  they  had  never  dreamed 
of  before.  There  are  thousands  of  persons  amongst  us,  whose 
once  darkened  minds  have  been  so  quickened  with  life,  and  il- 
luminated with  wisdom,  on  this  subject,  as  to  beget  an  intole- 
rable impatience  under  old  imperfections,  —  a  perception  of 
which  has  made  rest  impossible,  and  the  pleasures  of  home  un- 
comfortable, until,  within  their  respective  spheres,  they  had 
effected  a  reform. 

In  order  to  make  this  subject  more  intelligible  to  the  com- 
mon mind,  as  well  as  to  conform  to  broad  distinctions  which 
Nature  herself  has  established,  it  has  been  considered  under  a 
threefold  aspect,  —  first,  as  embracing  the  proper  care  and 


REPORT    FOR   1847.  561 

training  of  the  body,  that  its  health  and  longevity  may  be  se- 
cured ;  second,  as  cultivating  the  faculties  by  which  we  per- 
ceive, compare,  analyze  and  combine,  remember,  reason,  and 
perceive  natural  fitness  and  the  beauty  of  things,  so  that  we  may 
know  more  of  the  world  in  which  we  are  placed,  and  of  the 
glorious  attributes  of  its  Maker,  and  so  that,  by  more  faithfully 
harmonizing  our  conduct  with  its  laws,  we  may  the  better  enjoy 
its  exquisite  adaptations  to  our  welfare  ;  and,  thirdly,  as  fash- 
ioning our  moral  nature  into  some  resemblance  to  its  divine 
original,  —  subordinating  our  propensities  to  the  law  of  duty, 
expanding  our  benevolence  into  a  sentiment  of  universal  broth- 
erhood, and  lifting  our  hearts  to  the  grateful  and  devout  con- 
templation of  God. 

In  pursuance  of  these  fundamental  ideas,  it  has  been  shown, 
by  the  authority  of  the  highest  medical  men  in  the  country, 
that,  even  in  the  present  imperfect  state  of  physiological  sci- 
ence, more  than  one-half  of  all  the  cases  of  bodily  disability 
and  disease,  more  than  one-half  of  all  the  pains  and  expendi- 
tures of  sickness,  more  than  one-half  of  all  the  cases  of  prema- 
ture death,  —  that  is,  of  death  under  the  age  of  seventy  years,  — 
are  the  consequence  of  sheer  ignorance,  not  of  any  irrepeala- 
ble  decree  or  fatality  necessitating  their  existence,  independ- 
ently of  our  consent  and  co-operation,  but  of  our  own  brutish 
ignorance  of  the  conditions  of  health  and  life  to  which  our 
bodies  have  been  subjected  by  their  Maker.  And  I  desire,  also,  • 
to  be  here  understood  as  not  including  in  this  moiety  of  unne- 
cessary suffering  and  of  untimely  death  a  single  one  of  that 
extensive  class  of  cases  which  result  from  a  slavish  submission 
to  some  tyrannous  appetite,  —  such  as  intemperance,  for  in- 
stance, —  where  the  knowledge,  even  if  we  possessed  it,  might 
be  overborne  in  a  conflict  with  the  sensual  desire  :  but  I  mean 
maladies,  pains,  and  death,  which  a  bad  man  would  be  as  quick 
to  avoid  as  a  good  one ;  which  every  sane  man  would  desire 
to  escape  from,  as  he  would  from  blindness  or  deafness,  the 
gout  or  the  toothache.  Even  were  ignorance,  then,  to  be 
classed  among  the  greatest  luxuries  of  life,  it  would  be  found 

36 


562  ANNUAL   REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

too  costly  an  indulgence  to  be  borne  by  an  economical  peo- 
ple.* 

The  indispensableness  of  education  to  worldly  prosperity 
has  also  been  demonstrated.  An  ignorant  people  not  only  is, 
but  must  be,  a  poor  people.  They  must  be  destitute  of  sagacity 
and  providence,  and,  of  course,  of  competence  and  comfort. 
The  proof  of  this  does  not  depend  upon  the  lessons  of  history, 
but  on  the  constitution  of  Nature.  No  richness  of  climate,  no 
spontaneous  productiveness  of  soil,  no  facilities  for  commerce, 
no  stores  of  gold  or  of  diamonds  garnered  in  the  treasure-cham- 
bers of  the  earth,  can  confer  even  worldly  prosperity  upon  an 
uneducated  nation.  Such  a  nation  cannot  create  wealth  of 
itself;  and  whatever  riches  may  be  showered  upon  it  will  run 
to  waste.  The  ignorant  pearl-divers  do  not  wear  the  pearls 
they  win.  The  diamond-hunters  are  not  ornamented  by  the 
gems  they  find.  The  miners  for  silver  and  gold  are  not  enriched 
by  the  precious  metals  they  dig.  Those  who  toil  on  the  most 
luxuriant  soils  are  not  filled  with  the  harvests  they  gather.  All 
the  choicest  productions  of  the  earth,  whether  mineral  or  vege- 
table, wherever  found  or  wherever  gathered,  will,  in  a  short 
time,  as  by  some  secret  and  resistless  attraction,  make  their 
way  into  the  hands  of  the  more  intelligent.  Within  the  last 
four  centuries,  the  people  of  Spain  have  owned  as  much  silver 
and  gold  as  all  the  other  nations  of  Europe  put  together ;  yet, 
at  the  present  time,  poor  indeed  is  the  people  who  have  less 
than  they.  The  nation  which  has  produced  more  of  the  raw 
material,  and  manufactured  from  it  more  fine  linen,  than  all 
contemporary  nations,  are  now  the  most  ragged  and  squalid  in 
Christendom.  Let  whoever  will  sow  the  seed  or  gather  the 
fruit,  intelligence  will  consume  the  banquet. 

It  must  be  admitted,  indeed,  that,  when  the  people  composing 
any  particular  state  or  country  are  compared  with  each  other, 
the  wisest  are  not  always  the  wealthiest.  This  natural  law, 
like  others,  is  liable  to  fluctuations  and  disturbances  from  arti- 

*  See  letters  of  eminent  physicians,  in  my  Sixth  Annual  Report.  Also  Common- 
school  Journal,  vol.  v. 


KEPORT   FOR    1847.  563 

ficial  and  arbitrary  institutions.  Primogeniture,  entail,  mo- 
nopoly, may  derange  its  action  ;  yet  even  here,  as  if  to  add 
confirmation  to  the  general  principle,  it  is  always  found  that 
the  families  of  inferior  minds  who  inherit  wealth,  and  the  im- 
becile sovereigns  or  rulers  who  inherit  power,  owe  their  eleva- 
tion to  the  greatness  of  some  ancestor  whose  mental  superiority 
not  only  won  pre-eminence  for  himself,  but  for  his  descendants 
also.  Where  wealth  or  social  position  has  not  been  eai'ned  or 
won  by  the  possessors  themselves,  it  is  the  representative  of 
some  ancestral  talent  whose  force  is  not  yet  expended. 

Who  that  visited  the  late  Mechanics'  Fair  in  the  city  of 
Boston  was  not  bewildered  by  the  number  and  diversity  of  the 
products  of  inventive  genius  and  skill  there  exhibited?  To  the 
common  observer,  it  was  profusion  producing  confusion.  What 
would  be  the  result  and  "  sum  total  "  of  a  Mechanics'  Fair 
among  a  tribe  in  the  interior  of  Africa,  or  among  the  aborigines 
of  our  Western  wilderness  ?  Hardly  more  than  a  stone  hatchet, 
a  flint-headed  arrow,  a  stick  burned  at  the  end,  and  sharpened 
into  a  spear,  and  a  few  yards  of  tawdry  wampum.  Yet  the 
variety  and  richness  of  the  one,  compared  with  the  poverty  and 
rudeness  of  the  other,  would  be  but  feeble  symbols  of  the  rela- 
tive power  and  weakness  of  the  minds  from  which  they  sprung. 
Arid  whence  came  the  vast,  the  wonderful  intellectual  superi- 
ority ?  It  came  from  the  old  slate  and  pencil ;  the  bit  of  chalk 
and  the  bit  of  board,  planed  or  uuplaued ;  the  spelling-book 
and  the  reading-book,  which  have  been  found  in  every  house- 
hold through  all  our  borders,  from  the  time  of  the  first  rude 
huts  that  went  up,  amid  winter  and  storm,  about  Plymouth 
Rock, —  which  have  been  the  companions  and  playthings  of 
every  nursery,  and  the  business-things  of  every  schoolroom,  for 
more  than  two  centuries,  until  the  children,  as  if  by  force  of 
hereditary  instinct,  seem  to  look  round  inquiringly  after  them 
almost  as  soon  as  they  are  born.  These  are  the  acorns  whence 
the  majestic  forest  has  sprung. 

If  the  difference  between  persons  dwelling  in  the  same  com- 
munity, and  living  side  by  side,  be  less  striking  to  the  senses,  it 


564  ANNUAL   EEPORTS    ON   EDUCATION. 

is  not  less  instructive  to  the  reason.  In  my  Fifth  Annual  Re- 
port, I  presented  the  testimony  of  some  of  the  most  eminent 
and  successful  business-men  amongst  us,  proving  from  business- 
data,  and  beyond  controversy,  that  labor  becomes  more  profit- 
able as  the  laborer  is  more  intelligent ;  and  that  the  true  mint 
of  wealth,  the  veritable  coinage  of  the  country,  is  not  to  be 
found  in  magnificent  government  establishments,  at  Philadel- 
phia or  New  Orleans,  but  in  the  humble  schoolhouse. 

On  the  occasion  referred  to,  one  of  our  most  sagacious  manu- 
facturers declared,  not  only  in  accordance  with  the  conclusions 
of  his  own  reason,  but  as  the  result  of  an  actual  experiment, 
that  the  best  cotton-mill  in  New  England,  if  worked  by  opera- 
tives so  low  in  the  scale  of  intelligence  as  to  be  unable  to  read 
and  write,  would  never  yield  the  proprietor  a  profit ;  that  the 
machinery  would  soon  be  worn  out,  the  owner  impoverished, 
and  the  operatives  themselves  left  penniless.  Another  witness, 
for  a  long  time  superintendent  of  many  work-people,  made  the 
following  striking  remark :  "  So  confident  am  I  that  produc- 
tion is  affected  by  the  intellectual  and  moral  condition  of  help, 
that,  whenever  a  mill  or  a  room  should  fail  to  give  the  proper 
amount  of  work,  my  first  inquiry,  after  that  respecting  the  con- 
dition of  the  machinery,  would  be  as  to  the  character  of  the 
help  ;  and,  if  the  deficiency  remained  any  great  length  of  time, 
I  am  sure  I  should  find  many  who  had  made  their  marks  upon 
the  pay-roll,  being  unable  to  write  their  names  ;  and  I  should 
be  greatly  disappointed,  if  I  did  not,  upon  inquiry,  find  a  por- 
tion of  them  of  irregular  habits  and  suspicious  character."  * 

Is  it  not,  in  fact,  most  palpably  demonstrable,  from  a  com- 
parison of  the  nature  of  man  with  the  powers  and  properties  of 
the  material  universe  in  which  he  is  placed,  that  he  was  de- 
signed to  reach  a  point  of  intellectual  and  moral  elevation  far 
higher  than  any  which  the  most  favored  people  on  the  earth 
have  yet  attained?  A  material  world,  active  with  such  invisi- 
ble energies,  and  constantly  displaying  such  fitful  changes,  as 

*  See  Fifth  Aunual  Report,  pp.  86-100.  Also  Common-school  Journal,  vol. 
iv.  p.  361. 


REPORT   FOR    1847.  565 

belong  to  our  planet,  would  be  the  most  cruel  prison-house  to 
beings  capable  of  perceiving  its  aspects,  but  incapable  of  under- 
standing its  laws.  The  superiority  of  our  affective  aud  sympa- 
thetic faculties  over  those  possessed  by  the  lower  orders  of  crea- 
tion would  only  render  us  so  much  the  more  miserable  aud 
defenceless,  if  we  had  not  the  faculties  of  reason  aud  judgment 
also,  by  which  we  are  able  to  bring  ourselves  into  harmony 
with  surrounding  circumstances.  Without  knowledge,  our 
present  lives  would  be  far  more  wretched  than  those  of  the 
brutes  which  perish  ;  for  we  should  be  vulnerable  on  all  sides, 
capable  of  suffering  the  keenest  pain,  while  incapable  of  avoid- 
ing its  causes.  The  revolution  of  the  seasons  would  inflict 
want  and  debasement  upon  the  whole  race,  if  we  could  not 
foresee  their  vicissitudes  and  provide  for  their  varying  neces- 
sities. Comets  and  eclipses  are  fitted,  in  their  very  natures,  to 
shed  consternation  aud  dismay  upon  the  hearts  of  rneu,  until 
the  intellect  comes  in  to  explain  the  sublime  order  that  pro- 
duces them.* 

To  the  savage,  thunder  and  lightning  are  tokens  of  divine 
wrath  ;  while  to  the  Christian  philosopher  they  are  only  em- 
phatic and  vivid  proofs  of  the  greatness  aud  wisdom  of  God. 
To  the  enlightened  mind,  a  tempest  or  a  whirlwind  is  only  a 
tempest  or  a  whirlwind  ;  but  a  barbarian  dreads  them  a  thou- 

*  It  has  been  well  said,  '-No  eye  has  ever  witnessed  the  spectacle  of  a  total 
eclipse  of  the  sun,  even  when  announced  with  every  characteristic  of  accuracy, 
without  a  shudder  of  awe,  a  sensation  of  deep  terror,  which  reason  in  vain  essays 
to  subdue.  The  chilling  and  sombre  darkness  which  spreads  over  Nature;  the 
mamiest  terror  of  birds  and  animals,  their  instinctive  retreat  to  the  abodes  of 
man,  ns  if  some  awful  danger  were  impending;  the  horror  of  the  idea  of  the  de- 
struction of  the  gr-'at  source  of  light  aud  life,  and  the  possible  dissolution  of 
Nature,  —  all  conspire  to  render  this  one  of  the  most  territic  scenes  that  the  eye 
of  man  Im*  ever  witnessed.  What,  then,  must  have  been  the  horror  which  seized 
every  spectator  of  this  awful  .scene  in  those  ages  of  the  world  when  profound 
ignorance  of  its  physical  causes  existed,  and  this  terrible  phenomenon  burse 
suddenly  upon  the  world,  unanticipated  and  unannounced ! 

"  The  great  Roman  historian  and  annalist  has,  in  a  few  graphic  sentences,  de- 
picted the  effect  of  an  eclipse  of  the  moon  on  the  devoted  legions  of  Pannonia. 
These  hardy  veterans,  these  iron  men,  born  and  bred  to  battle  and  to  war,  cowered 
before  the  awful  spectacle,  inarched  in  agony  to  their  contemned  commanders, and 
implored  tneir  forgiveness,  and  deprecated  the  wrath  of  the  avenging  gods,  for 
their  disobedience  and  insubordination." —  Si  Icreal  Messenger. 


563  AXXUAL    REPORTS   ON    EDUCATION. 

sand  titnss  more  for  the  anger  of  the  gods  which  they  denote, 
and  for  the  evils  they  portend,  than  for  any  actual  injuries 
which  they  inflict.  The  auroras  of  the  North,  so  beautiful  to 
the  eye  of  science,  have  shaken  myriads  of  hearts  with  fear. 
That  numerous  and  various  class  of  phenomena  which  we  call 
optical  illusions  are  sources  of  the  direst  terror  to  the  ignorant, 
while  they  gratify  a  philosophic  curiosity  with  the  purest  de- 
light. In  short,  we  know  that  all  the  wonders  and  glories 
:  which  Nature  displays  in  her  majestic  course  are  only  sources 
of  superstition  to  those  who  have  not  learned  her  sublime 
laws,  darkening  the  already  darkened  mind,  debasing  the  de- 
based, and  terrifying  the  affrighted.  It  seems  impossible  that 
a  benevolent  Being  could  have  gifted  the  human  race  with  its 
high  faculties,  if  he  had  not  provided  for  and  ordained  their 
development  and  edification.  All  the  other  orders  of  animated 
Nature  are  adapted  to  their  condition  :  but  a  human  soul,  quick- 
ened by  irrepressible  impulses  of  curiosity,  subject  to  the  illu- 
sions of  hope  and  to  the  agonies  of  fear,  but  with  no  power  to 
unriddle  the  mysteries  by  which  it  is  encompassed  ;  with  no 
power  to  realize  the  hopes  spontaneously  springing  up  within 
it,  or  to  emancipate  itself  from  the  bondage  of  fear,  —  such  a 
soul  would  be  forever  the  trembling  slave  of  Nature ;  while 
Nature  would  be  a  tyrant  over  it,  deaf  and  remorseless.  What- 
ever name  might  be  given  to  the  place  of  its  habitation,  it 
would  be  a  habitation  of  unquenchable  fire. 

__p  Knowledge  and  a  highly-developed  and  highly-trained  rea- 
;  son  are  to  the  temporal  necessities  of  man  what  instinct  is  to 
j  the  brute.  But  instinct  is  complete,  perfect,  self-active  ;  while 
knowledge  and  reason  can  never  reach  any  adequate  height 
without  vigorous  self-effort  and  copious  instruction  from  others. 
Far  better,  therefore,  would  it  have  been  for  mankind,  had  they 
never  been  elevated  in  the  scale  of  existence  above  the  Simla 
tribe,  —  the  ape,  the  monkey,  or  the  baboon,  —  than  that  they 
should  have  been  endowed  with  the  faculties  of  memory,  of 
hope,  of  fear,  and  of  imagination,  without  an  adequate  ability 
to  derive  wisdom  from  past  experience,  and  to  make  provision 


REPORT   FOR   1847.  567 

for  future  necessities.  There  is  uo  earthly  power  but  education, 
which,  by  supplying  these  wants,  can  rescue  the  human  race 
from  sinking  as  much  below  the  brute  creation  as  they  were 
designed  to  rise  above  it. 

So,  too,  if  the  practice  of  equity,  virtue,  and  benevolence,  ^ 
were  not  possible  for  the  race,  its  condition  would  be  far  more 
deplorable  than  that  of  any  horde  of  wild  beasts  that  ever 
prowled  through  a  wilderness,  or  hid  themselves  for  ambush 
in  the  depths  of  a  jungle.  Even  tigers  and  wolves,  with  all 
their  ferocity,  can  inflict  but  a  transitory  pain  upon  each  other, 
or  upon  the  weaker  races  around  them.  The  most  ingenious  of 
all  the  animals  have  never  invented  machines  to  torture  those 
of  their  own  or  of  an  inferior  order.  The  iron  boot,  the  thumb- 
screw, the  rack,  the  fagot,  are  dreadful  realities  in  natural  his- 
tory ;  but  the  infamy  of  their  invention  and  their  use  belongs 
not  to  the  brute  creation.  Brutes  cannot  build  ships,  and  cross 
oceans,  to  despoil  or  enslave  a  defenceless  and  kindred  race  in 
another  hemisphere ;  nor  can  they  forge  any  fetters,  whether 
of  iron  or  of  law,  which  shall  bind  in  remorseless  bondage, 
not  only  the  victim  himself,  but  generations  of  his  descendants. 
Brutes  cannot  bereave  each  other  of  their  natural  instincts, 
make  the  mother  forget  her  young,  the  mated  pair  assail  each 
other's  lives,  or  the  offspring  lay  parricidal  hands  upon  its 
parent  by  transforming  the  choicest  fruits  of  the  earth  into 
poison,  and  selling  this  poison  for  ignominious  gain.  The  most 
selfish  and  ignoble  races  that  ever  flew  through  the  air,  or 
swam  in  the  sea,  never  availed  themselves  of  the  accidental 
possession  of  power  to  establish  orders  of  patrician  and  plebe- 
ian, or  of  lord  and  commoner,  and  thus  to  doom  one  portion 
of  their  number  to  perform  all  the  toil  and  bear  all  the  burdens 
of  the  tribe,  while  they  themselves  monopolized  all  its  leisure 
and  its  luxuries.  What  a  spectacle  would  be  presented,  if  a  ' 
few  individuals  of  some  family  of  insects,  gathering  themselves  « 
into  conclave  upon  some  spire  of  grass  in  the  middle  of  a  vast 
plain,  or  upon  some  leaf  in  a  boundless  forest,  should  there 
presume  not  only  to  adjudicate  upon  all  the  purposes  of  crea- 


568  ANNUAL   REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

tion  and  all  the  mysteries  of  eternity,  but  should  denounce 
imprisonment  and  torture,  the  fagot  and  the  scaffold,  upon  all 
who  would  not  bow  to  their  authority,  and  avow  assent  to  their 
conclusions  !  There  are  tribes  of  the  brute  creation,  it  is  true, 
which  prey  upon  other  tribes  ;  but  it  is  only  for  the  satisfaction 
of  a  physical  want,  and,  when  their  hunger  is  appeased,  their 
fierceness  subsides :  but  not  in  the  north,  where  their  rage  is 
whetted  by  arctic  cold,  nor  in  the  south,  where  their  blood  is 
fevered  by  tropical  heats,  do  they  ever  inflict  upon  a  victim  the 
life-long  solitude  of  a  dungeon,  or  gratuitously  burn  his  body, 
and  heap  contempt  upon  his  ashes,  for  not  believing  as  they  be- 
lieve, or  for  not  acknowledging,  as  the  Great  Spirit  of  the  uni- 
verse, the  idol  which  they  may  have  set  up.  If,  then,  I  say,  it 
had  not  been  a  part  of  the  divine  determination,  in  the  creation 
of  our  race,  that  its  terrible  propensities  should  be  controlled, 
and  its  higher  susceptibilities  advanced  into  supremacy,  zool- 
ogy has  yet  to  discover  the  species  of  animals  so  vile,  so 
wretched,  so  mutually  predaceous,  that  mankind  has  not  rea- 
son to  envy  them.  If  posterity  is  to  be  what  history  shows  us 
that  uineteen-twentieths  of  all  the  preceding  world  have  been, 
what  not  less  than  four-fifths  of  it  now  are,  then  is  man  not  the 
noblest,  but  the  ignoblest,  work  of  creation  ;  the  accursed,  and 
not  the  favored,  of  Heaven.  Not  believing  in  such  a  destiny, 
I  believe  there  is  a  way  to  avoid  it. 

Having  proved,  then,  in  former  Reports,  by  the  testimony  of 
wise  and  skilled  men,  that  disease  may  be  supplanted  by  health, 
bodily  pain  by  enjoyment,  and  premature  death  by  length  of 
life,  merely  by  the  knowledge  and  practice  of  a  few  great  phys- 
iological principles,  such  as  every  person  can  easily  master 
before  the  age  of  sixteen  years  ;  aud  having  also  shown,  by 
testimony  equally  authentic  aud  satisfactory,  that  intelligence, 
co-operating  with  the  bounties  of  Nature,  is  sufficient  to  secure 
comfort  and  competence  to  all  mankind,  —  I  propose  to  myself, 
in  the  residue  of  this  Report,  the  still  more  delightful  task  of 
showing,  by  proofs  equally  unexceptionable  aud  convincing, 
that  the  great  body  of  vices  and  crimes  which  now  sadden 


REPORT   FOR    1847.  539 

and  torment  the  community  may  be  dislodged,  and  driven  out  '• 
from  amongst  us,  by  such  improvements  in  our  present  com- 
mon-school system  as  we  are  abundantly  able  immediately  to 
make. 

During  the  last  summer,  in  order  to  a  clear  and  full  presen- 
tation of  the  subject  to  those  persons  whose  testimony  I  wished 
to  obtain,  I  prepared  a  circular,  setting  forth,  with  as  much  pre- 
cision and  completeness  as  possible,  certain  specific  emenda- 
tions of  our  present  school-system,  —  only  such  emendations, 
however,  as  we  can  readily  make,  —  and  appealing  to  the  expe- 
rience and  judgment  of  the  persons  addressed,  to  know  what 
would  be  the  results,  were  the  system  to  be  so  amended.  This 
circular  was  sent  to  teachers  highly  competent  to  give  evidence 
on  so  important  a  subject,  —  competent  from  their  science  and 
from  their  personal  experience,  from  the  sobriety  of  their  judg- 
ment, and  from  their  freedom  from  any  motive  to  overstate 
facts,  or  to  deduce  inferences  too  broad  for  the  premises  on 
which  they  were  founded.  In  fine,  the  circular  was  sent  to 
persons  whose  elevated  character,  and  whose  extended  personal 
acquaintance  with  the  subject-matter  on  which  they  testify, 
place  them  above  denial,  cavil,  or  suspicion. 

The  circular,  and  the  answers  to  it,  follow  :  — 


CIKCULAR. 

To . 

I  desire  to  obtain  the  opinion  of  teachers  who  are  both  scientific  and  prac- 
tical on  a  subject  of  great  importance  to  the  cause  of  popular  education. 
Your  long  experience  in  school-keeping,  the  great  number  of  children  whom 
you  have  had  under  your  care,  and  your  well-earned  reputation  as  an  in- 
structor and  trainer  of  youth,  prompt  me  to  apply  to  you  for  answers  to  the 
subjoined  inquiries. 

My  general  object  is  to  obtain  such  an  opinion  as  your  experience  will 
authorize  you  to  give  respecting  the  efficiency,  in  the  formation  of  social 
and  moral  character,  of  a  good  common-school  education,  conducted  on  tiie 
cardinal  principles  of  the  New-England  systems.  In  other  words,  how  much 
of  improvement  in  the  upright  conduct  and  good  morals  of  the  community 
might  we  reasonably  hope  and  expect,  if  all  our  common  schools  were  what 


570  ANNUAL    REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

they  should  be,  what  some  of  them  now  arc,  and  what  all  of  them,  by  means 
which  the  public  is  perfectly  able  to  command,  may  soon  be  made  to  be- 
come? 

As  we  look  around  us,  we  see  that  society  is  infested  by  vices,  both  small 
aud  great.  The  value  of  lite  is  diminished,  and  even  life  itself  is  sometimes 
niiiilc  burdensome  and  odious,  by  the  existence  amongst  us  of  pests  and  nui- 
sances in  human  form,  whom  the  law  forbids  us  to  destroy,  and  whom,  with' 
all  our  efforts,  we  are  unable  wholly  to  reform.  Were  we  permitted  to  hunt 
out  and  exterminate  from  society  a  wicked  or  mischievous  man  as  we  would 
a  prowling  wolf  from  the  sheep-fold,  or  could  we  apply  the  sovereign  antidote 
of  extinction  to  a  pestilent  brood  of  children  whom  profligate  parents  are 
about  to  send  forth  into  the  world,  we  might  then  secure  ourselves  in  a  sum- 
mary manner  from  pi'esent  fears  and  from  future  annoyance.  So,  too,  if  we 
could  arrest  the  momentum  of  long  habit,  or  win  back  to  the  paths  of  virtue 
those,  who,  by  their  frequent  tread,  have  worn  the  highways  of  vice  both 
smooth  and  broad,  we  should  then  have  access  to  a  milder,  though  a  more 
laborious  remedy.  But  the  common  sentiments  of  mankind  would  revolt  at 
any  proposal  to  prevent  all  violations  of  the  moral  code  by  extinguishing  the 
life  of  the  violators  ;  and  all  history  and  experience  afford  concurrent  proof 
that  the  inbred  habits  of  grown  men  and  women  —  their  accustomed  trains 
of  thought  and  of  action — are  mainly  beyond  the  control  of  secondary 
causes.  Hence  it  is,  that  a  great  part  of  the  legislation  of  every  state  and 
nation,  a  vast  majority  of  the  decisions  of  all  legal  tribunals,  and  a  still  larger 
proportion  of  all  the  labors  and  expenditures  of  philanthropic  and  Christian 
men,  have  been  devoted  to  the  punishment  of  positive  wrong,  or  to  the  vain 
attempt  to  repair  its  nameless  and  numberless  mischiefs.  Could  these 
wrongs  and  mischiefs  be  prevented,  our  descendants  would  inherit  a  new 
earth. 

The  classes  of  common  offences  by  which  society  is  vexed  and  tormented 
are  numerous ;  but  the  individual  acts  of  commission,  under  the  respective 
classes,  are  absolutely  incomprehensible,  save  by  the  Omniscient. 

There  is  the  detestable  practice  of  profane  swearing,  which  is  motiveless 
and  gratuitous  wickedness.  This  is  a  vice  which  neither  gives  any  property 
to  the  poor  man,  nor  any  luxury  to  the  rich  one.  It  degrades  even  the  clown 
to  a  lower  state  of  vulgarity ;  aud  it  would  render  the  presence  even  of  the 
most  polished  gentleman  offensive  and  disgusting,  if  it  were  ever  possible  for 
a  r/entleman  to  be  guilty  of  it. 

Though  greatly  restricted,  at  the  present  day,  in  its  destructive  agency, 
and  gradually  withdrawing  itself  from  the  more  respectable  and  intelligent 
classes  to  the  two  extremes  of  society,  —  to  the  luxuriously  rich  and  the  self- 
made  poor,  —  yet  the  vice  of  intemperance  still  exists  amongst  us.  Wher- 
ever it  invades,  it  eats  out  the  substance  of  families  ;  not  only  consumes  the 
means  of  educating  children,  but  eradicates  also  the  very  disposition  to  cdu- 


REPORT   FOR    1847.  571 

catc  them ;  involves  the  innocent  in  the  sufferings  of  the  guilty,  even  tortur- 
ing them  with  superadded  pangs  of  shame  which  the  guilty  do  not  feel ;  and, 
according  to  the  divinely-ordained  laws  of  our  physical  being,  it  visits  the 
iniquities  of  the  fathers  upon  the  children,  unto  the  third  and  fourth  genera- 
tion, by  sowing  in  their  constitution  the  seeds  of  inordinate  desires. 

Below  that  degree  of  slander  or  defamation  which  the  law  denounces  as 
punishable,  there  exists  such  an  amount  of  censoriousness  and  detraction  as 
often  estranges  acquaintances,  dissolves  friendships,  introduces  discord  into 
neighborhoods  and  communities,  and  sometimes  entails  hereditary  animosi- 
ties upon  families  and  circles,  which  might  otherwise  be  blessed  by  harmony 
and  peace. 

Nor  can  the  gross  and  cowardly  offence  of  lying  be  omitted  from  this  odi- 
ous catalogue.  This  vice  includes  in  its  very  nature  so  much  of  the  assassin 
and  the  dastard,  that  it  lurks  to  inflict  secret  blows,  or  only  ventures  abroad 
when  large  numbers,  bound  together  by  strong  ties  of  passion  or  of  interest, 
impart  mutual  confidence  and  boldness  in  the  prosecution  of  a  common 
object.  Hence  a  private  individual  who  is  known  as  a  liar  is  detested, 
scorned,  and  shunned ;  while  profligate  political  defamers  and  sectarian 
zealots,  inspired  by  a  common  sentiment  of  ambition  or  of  intolerance,  and 
keeping  themselves  in  countenance  by  their  numbers  and  their  partisanship, 
welcome  this  vice  as  an  ally,  and  rejoice  in  the  successes  obtained  by  its  aid. 
No  patriotism  is  proof  against  the  rancor  of  party  spirit ;  no  piety  or  good 
works,  against  the  rage  and  blindness  of  religious  bigotry. 

In  pecuniary  transactions,  the  temptations  to  overreaching,  to  exorbitance, 
and  to  actual  dishonesty,  arc  yielded  to  with  a  most  lamentable  frequency. 
The  buyer  takes  advantage  of  the  necessities  of  the  seller,  and  obtains  a 
transfer  of  his  property  for  a  small  part  of  its  value  ;  or  sometimes,  by  adroit 
management  and  preliminary  scheming,  he  creates  the  necessity  which  places 
the  victim  within  the  jaws  of  his  avarice.  The  seller  knowingly  overstates 
the  quantity,  the  quality,  or  the  value  of  the  commodities  he  sells  ;  and,  per- 
haps, takes  advantage  of  the  ignorance  or  credulity  of  the  purchaser  to  obtain 
a  price  which  he  knows  to  be  exorbitant  and  inequitable.  The  employer 
often  avails  himself  of  the  necessities  of  the  employed  to  obtain  his  services 
for  less  than  they  are  worth ;  he  summons  in  hunger  and  cold,  and  the  suf- 
ferings of  a  dependent  family,  as  advisers  in  helping  to  make  an  unrighteous 
bargain,  and  as  sureties  for  its  performance.  Men,  without  any  pecuniary 
resources  which  they  can  call  their  own,  embark  in  hazardous  speculations, 
where,  if  the  rash  adventure  should  chance  to  prove  successful,  they  will 
pocket  all  the  gain ;  but,  should  it  turn  out  to  be  disastrous,  their  creditors 
roust  suffer  all  the  loss. 

In  some  of  the  commercial  countries  of  Europe,  a  merchant's  insolvency 
affects  his  moral  character  hardly  less  than  his  pecuniary  credit.  If  a  bank- 
rupt cannot  show  that  his  deficiency  of  means  was  occasioned  by  some  dis- 


572  ANNUAL   REPORTS   ON  EDUCATION. 

aster  which  he  could  not  control,  or  by  some  loss  which  he  could  not  reason- 
ably be  expected  to  foresee,  he  forfeits  his  mercantile  standing  amongst 
honorable  dealers,  and  can  retrieve  his  character  only  by  actual  proof  of 
returning  or  of  newly-created  honesty.  A  second  failure,  unexplained  and 
unatoned  for,  brands  with  disgrace,  and  expels  not  more  from  the  traffic  than 
from  the  companionship  of  honorable  men. 

The  above  classes  of  wrong-doing,  together  with  many  others  of  a  kindred 
nature,  are  regarded  by  the  law  as  minor  offences.  Some  of  them  it  does 
not  undertake  to  punish  ;  yet,  from  their  wide-spread  prevalence  and  great 
frequency,  they  perhaps  inflict  as  large  an  aggregate  of  evil  upon  society 
as  those  of  a  more  heinous  and  formidable  character,  but  of  less  frequent 
occurrence. 

In  regard  to  offences  of  a  graver  nature,  —  such  as  come  under  the  head 
of  crimes  or  felonies,  —  the  condition  of  our  country  compares  favorably  with 
that  of  any  other  part  of  Christendom.  Especially  will  this  remark  appear 
true  if  we  consider  the  slight  amount  of  preventive  force  made  use  of,  in 
any  part  of  our  Union,  to  deter  from  actual  transgression,  and,  as  a  general 
rule,  the  lightness  of  the  penal  sanctions  held  up  as  a  terror  to  evil-doers. 
Yet  that  there  does  exist  amongst  us  an  appalling  amount  of  criminality 
of  this  deeper  dye ;  that  flagrant  offences  against  the  rights  of  property,  of 
person,  of  reputation,  and  of  life,  are  perpetrated,  —  is  proved  by  the  records 
of  our  criminal  courts,  and  by  the  mournful  procession  of  convicts  and  felons 
whom  we  see  on  their  way  to  our  penitentiaries  and  other  receptacles  pre- 
pared for  the  guilty. 

Including  all  classes  of  offenders,  both  the  less  and  the  more  flagitious,  it 
is  undeniable  that  there  exists  amonirst  us  a  multitude  of  men,  of  whom  it 
may  be  truly  said,  that  it  would  be  better  for  the  community  had  they  never 
been  born,  or  had  they  died  in  childhood,  before  their  propensities  for  evil 
had  been  developed,  or  before  they  had  gone  abroad  to  disturb  the  peace  of 
society,  and  to  destroy  that  sense  of  security  which  every  honest  man  is 
entitled  to  feel.  To  thin  the  ranks  of  this  host  of  enemies  to  the  welfare 
of  the  race,  or  to  cripple  the  evil  energies  of  those  who  could  not  be  wholly 
reclaimed,  has  been  the  object  of  philanthropists  and  sages  from  the  begin- 
ning of  time.  Their  efforts,  however,  have  been  expended  a  million-fold 
more  upon  the  old  than  upon  the  young ;  and  a  million-fold  more,  also, 
in  the  way  of  punishment  than  of  prevention. 

Among  the  republics  of  ancient  times,  a  few  wise  and  sagacious  men  did 
clearly  perceive  the  bearing  of  education  upon  character,  and,  of  course, 
upon  innocence  and  guilt,  both  personal  and  public ;  but  among  the  masses 
of  the  people  there  never  existed  any  settled  and  operative  conviction  of 
this  truth :  and  not  a  single  year  can  be  pointed  out  in  all  their  long  annals, 
where  a  majority  of  those  who  held  the  reins  of  government,  and  framed  the 
laws  of  the  State,  rose  to  any  practical  or  even  theoretic  conception  of  the 


REPORT   FOR    1847.  573 

grand  idea,  that  the  vital  intelligence  or  the  stupidity,  the  integrity  or 
the  dishonesty,  of  the  people  at  large,  will  be  measured  and  bounded  by  the 
kind  and  degree  of  the  education  imparted  to  its  children,  just  as  the  zones 
upon  the  earth's  surface  are  measured  and  bounded  by  the  amount  of  sun- 
light which  is  shed  upon  them.* 

In  modern  times,  this  relation  of  early  education  to  adult  character  has 
been  more  clearly  and  generally  recognized  as  being,  what  it  truly,  to  a  very 
great  extent,  is,  a  relation  between  cause  and  effect.  As  one  means  of  estab- 
lishing this  truth,  many  earnest  well-wishers  of  their  race  have  made  exten- 
sive collections  of  what  are  called  the  "  Statistics  of  Education  and  Crime." 
The  inmates  of  large  penal  establishments  have  been  subjected  to  a  personal 
examination  in  order  to  ascertain  whether  a  greater  proportion  of  them 
than  of  the  community  at  large  from  which  they  were  taken  were  wholly 
ignorant  of  letters.  In  this  investigation,  the  comparison  has  been  made 
between  those  who  were  able  both  to  read  and  write,  and  those  who  could 
perform  neither  or  but  one  of  these  operations. 

I  will  not  dwell  here  upon  the  amazing  absurdity  of  any  definition  of  the 
word  "  education,"  whose  spirit  or  whose  terms  are  satisfied  by  the  mere 
ability  to  read  and  write.  Reading  and  writing  may  be,  and,  among  this 
class  of  persons,  they  usually  are,  mere  mechanical  processes  :  and  how  such 
attainments  should  ever  have  been  dignified  by  the  name  of  education,  "or 
confounded  with  that  noble  culture  of  the  soul  which  pours  the  noon-day 
illumination  of  knowledge  upon  the  midnight  darkness  of  ignorance ;  which 
seeks  to  enthrone  the  moral  faculties  over  all  animal  desires  and  propensities, 
and  to  make  the  entire  course  of  instruction  subservient  to  the  great  duties 
of  love  to  God  and  love  to  man,  —  how  an  absurdity  so  extravagant,  and 
now  so  obvious,  could  ever  have  been  committed,  can  be  explained  only  by 
reference  to  the  low  and  unworthy  ideas  of  education  which  once  prevailed. 

The  naked  capacity  to  read  and  write  is  no  more  education  than  a  tool  is 
a  workman,  or  a  telescope  is  a  La  Place  or  a  Le  Verrier.  To  possess  the 
means  of  education  is  not  the  same  as  to  possess  the  lofty  powers  and  im- 
munities of  education,  any  more  than  to  possess  the  pen  of  a  poet  is  to  pos- 
sess a  poet's  skill  and  ''faculty  divine,"  or  than  the  possession  of  the  gos- 
pel is  the  possession  of  that  liberty  wherewith  Christ  maketh  his  disciples 
free ;  and  that  reading  and  writing  are  only  instruments  or  means  to  be 
used  in  education  is  a  truism  now  so  intuitively  obvious  as  to  disdain  argu- 
ment. And  hence  it  is,  that  of  two  persons,  one  of  whom  can  barely  write 
his  name  or  spell  out  a  paragraph  in  a  newspaper,  while  to  the  mind  of  the 
other  the  contents  of  all  manuscripts  and  of  all  libraries  have  no  more  exist- 
ence than  nonentity  has  to  his  senses,  it  would  be  hazardous  to  affirm  that 
the  chances  of  the  former  for  .a  virtuous  life  are  much  superior  to  those  of 

*  Even  Marcus  Aurelius  declared  himself  satisfied  if  he  could  only  improve  a 
few  persons;  and  he  denied  the  possibility  of  establishing  Plato's  republic. 


574.  ANNUAL    REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

the  latter.  Nor  do  the  best  authorities  dispel  all  the  clouds  of  doubt  which 
hang  over  this  question.  Some  writers  maintain  that  crime  actually  in- 
creases in  proportion  to  the  diffusion  of  the  rudiments  of  knowledge,  provid- 
ed the  knowledge  which  is  diffused  stops  with  mere  rudiments.  I  think, 
however,  it  must  be  conceded  that  the  preponderance  of  names  and  of  sta- 
tistical results  does,  on  the  whole,  clearly  favor  the  opinion,  that  crime 
recedes  as  knowledge  advances ;  and  that,  as  the  full-risen  sun  enables  a 
traveller  to  see  his  path,  and  to  avoid  the  dangers  that  beset  it,  so  the  first 
and  faintest  gleaming  of  the  morning  twilight  helps  him  to  discover  his  way, 
and  to  shun  its  perils.  It  must  also  be  remembered,  that  when  great  num- 
bers are  taken  as  the  basis  of  comparison,  all  of  whom  possess  the  rudiments 
of  knowledge,  it  will  always  happen  that  some  of  them  will  possess  more 
than  the  rudiments  Hence,  taking  whole  communities  together,  I  believe 
the  legitimate  and  inevitable  conclusion  to  be,  that  every  advance  in  knowl- 
edge amongst  a  people  is  pro  tanto  an  invasion  of  the  domain  of  crime. 

For  years  past,  however,  although  I  have  carefully  scrutinized  these  so- 
called  "  Statistics  of  Education  and  Crime,"  and  am  convinced  that  they  do 
establish  a  distinction  between  the  two  classes,  —  one  of  which  can  read  and 
write,  while  the  other  can  do  neither  of  these  things,  or  but  one  of  them,  — 
in  regard  to  their  relative  exemption  from  crime  or  exposure  to  it,  yet  I 
have  never  been  able  to  bring  myself  to  present  these  schedules  to  our  peo- 
ple as  an  argument  in  favor  of  that  elevated  and  ennobling  education  to 
which  it  is  their  duty  to  aspire.  I  have  felt,  that,  by  so  doing,  the  argument 
would  be  shorn  of  half  its  power  by  the  feebleness  of  the  proofs  brought  to 
sustain  it.  It  would  be  like  exhibiting  a  taper  to  prove  the  existence  of 
light  while  surrounded  by  the  sun's  effulgence.  Our  present  state  of  socie- 
ty, the  form  of  government  under  which  we  live,  the  improvable  faculties 
with  which  we  have  been  endowed  by  our  Maker,  and  tiie  solemn  destiny 
that  awaits  us,  —  all  demand  vastly  more  than  "  a  knowledge  of  the  nature 
and  power  of  letters,  and  the  just  method  of  spelling  words,"  and  the  me- 
chanical ability  to  imitate,  with  a  pen,  their  written  or  printed  signs. 

Yet  this  degrading  idea  of  education,  which  was  first  conceived  in  refer- 
ence to  the  ignorant  classes  of  Europe,  has  been,  to  some  extent,  adopted 
and  acted  upon  in  our  own  country.  The  last  census  of  the  United  States, 
taken  by  authority  of  a  law  of  Congress,  and  in  compliance  wkh  a  provis- 
ion of  the  Federal  Constitution,  proceeded  upon  this  European  fallacy.  It 
virtually  adopted  the  old  line  of  distinction  between  education  and  igno- 
rance ;  for  it  required  an  enumeration  of  all  persons  over  twenty  years  of  age 
who  were  unable  to  read  and  write.  The  results  have  been  published,  and 
they  arc  now  embodied  with  the  permanent  statistics  of  the  country. 
Towns,  counties,  and  states  are  classed ;  theic  condition  is  mentioned  with 
honor  or  with  opprobrium,  according  to  their  relative  position  above  or 
below  this  absurd  standard  of  knowledge  and  culture.  It  is  inevitable  th-u 


REPORT  FOR   1847.  575 

this  legislative  sanction  of  such  a  standard  —  this  naturalization  of  it,  so  to 
speak  —  should  have  a  most  baneful  effect  in  debasing  public  opinion  upon 
the  subject.  Facts  of  an  interesting  nature  are  presented,  it  is  true ;  but 
their  tendency  is  to  rob  education  of  all  its  noblest  attributes. 

But  though  the  public  mind  always  tends  strongly  to  conform  its  modes 
of  thinking  to  legal  definitions,  and  to  subscribe  to  opinions  sanctioned  by 
high  authority,  yet  the  common  sense  of  the  community,  especially  in  the 
more  educated  States  of  the  Union,  has  outgrown  these  contracted  notions, 
and  has  claimed  for  the  word  "  education  "  a  far  ampler  and  loftier  significance. 
All  intelligent  thinkers  upon  this  subject  now  utterly  discard  and  repudiate 
the  idea  that  reading  and  writing,  with  a  knowledge  of  accounts,  constitute 
education.  The  lowest  claim  which  any  intelligent  man  now  prefers  in  its 
behalf  is,  that  its  domain  extends  over  the  threefold  nature  of  man,  —  over 
his  body,  training  it  by  the  systematic  and  intelligent  observance  of  those 
benign  laws  which  secure  health,  impart  strength,  and  prolong  life  ;  over  his 
intellect,  invigorating  the  inind,  replenishing  it  with  knowledge,  and  culti- 
vating all  those  tastes  which  are  allied  to  virtue ;  and  over  his  moral  and 
religious  susceptibilities  also,  dethroning  selfishness,  enthroning  conscience, 
leading  the  affections  outward  in  good-will  towards  men,  and  upward  in 
gratitude  and  reverence  to  God.  In  thousands  of  reports  prepared  by 
school-committees,  in  frequent  addresses  and  lectures  delivered  on  public 
occasions,  in  all  educational  documents  emanating  from  high  official  sources, 
and  in  every  work  pretending  to  scientific  accuracy,  or  to  any  comprehen- 
sive outline  of  the  subject,  these  sacred  and  m-ijestic  attributes  have  been  set 
forth ;  and  it  has  been  demonstrated,  hundreds  of  times  over,  that  the  effect 
of  a  sound  education  of  the  people  must,  not  accidentally,  but  necessarily, 
not  occasionally,  but  always,  be  to  repress  the  commission  of  crime,  and  to 
promote  the  diffusion  of  human  happiness ;  and  that  to  act  in  conscious 
defiance  or  disregard  of  these  truths  is  treachery  to  the  test  inn-rests  of  our 
fellow-men,  and  impiety  towards  the  Author  of  the  moral  universe. 

But  notwithstanding  all  that  has  been  said,  and  so  well  said,  as  to  the 
moral  power  of  education  in  reforming  the  world,  there  have  still  been  a 
vagueness  and  an  indefiniteness  in  rei/ard  to  the  extent  of  that  power,  which 
have  shorn  argument  and  eloquence  of  much  of  their  strength.  Nowhere  have 
its  advocates  set  forth,  distinctly  and  specifically,  hotv  much  they  believe  can 
be  accomplished  by  it.  When  an  alleged  improvement  is  presented  to  a  ju- 
dicious man,  he  wishes  to  know  whether,  and  to  what  extent,  its  benefit  will 
exceed  its  cost.  A  capitalist  will  not  aid  a  new  enterprise  with  his  money 
until  he  is  satisfied  of  the  profitableness  of  the  investment ;  nor  will  a  manu- 
facturer purchase  new  machinery  unless  he  is  convinced  that  it  will  do  bet- 
ter work  in  the  same  time,  or  equal  work  in  less. 

It  seems  to  me  that  the  time  is  now  arrived  when  the  friends  of  this  cause 
should  plant  themselves  on  a  more  conspicuous  position ;  when,  surveying 


576  ANNUAL    REPORTS   ON    EDUCATION. 

the  infinite  of  wretchedness  and  crime  around  them,  before  which  the  stout, 
est  heart  is  appalled,  and  humanity  stands  aghast,  they  should  proclaim  the 
power  and  the  prerogatives  of  education  to  rescue  mankind  from  their  ca- 
lamities. Founding  themselves  upon  evidence  that  cannot  be  disputed,  and 
fortifying  their  conclusions  by  the  results  of  personal  experience,  they  should 
proclaim  how  far  the  miseries  of  men  can  be  alleviated,  and  how  far  the 
dominion  of  crime  can  be  overthrown,  by  such  a  system  of  education  as  it  is 
perfectly  practicable  for  every  civilized  community  forthwith  to  establish; 
and  thus  they  should  awaken  the  conscience  of  the  public  to  a  sense  of  its 
responsibility. 

The  idea  will  be  more  distinctly  presented  under  an  inquiry  like  the  fol- 
lowing :  — 

Under  the  soundest  and  most  vigorous  system  of  education  which  we  can 
now  command,  what  proportion,  or  percentage,  of  all  the  children  who  are 
born,  can  be  made  useful  and  exemplary  men,  —  honest  dealers,  conscien- 
tious jurors,  true  witnesses,  incorruptible  voters  or  magistrates,  good  par- 
ents, good  neighbors,  good  members  of  society  ?  In  other  words,  with  our 
present  knowledge  of  the  art  and  science  of  education,  and  with  such  new 
fruit  of  experience  as  time  may  be  expected  to  bear,  what  proportion,  or  per- 
centage, of  all  children,  must  be  pronounced  irreclaimable  and  irredeemable, 
notwithstanding  the  most  vigorous  educational  efforts,  which,  in  the  present 
state  of  society,  can  be  put  forth  in  their  behalf?  what  proportion,  or  per- 
centage, must  become  drunkards,  profane  swearors,  detractors,  vagabonds, 
rioters,  cheats,  thieves,  aggressors  upon  the  rights  of  property,  of  person, 
of  reputation,  or  of  life ;  or,  in  a  single  phrase,  must  be  guilty  of  such 
omissions  of  right,  and  commissions  of  wrong,  that  it  would  have  been  bet- 
ter for  the  community  had  they  never  been  born  ?  This  is  a  problem  which 
the  course  of  events  has  evolved,  and  which  society  and  the  government 
must  meet.  If,  with  such  educational  means  and  resources  as  we  can  now 
command,  eighty,  ninety,  ninety-five,  or  ninety-nine  per  cent  of  all  childnn 
can  be  made  temperate,  industrious,  frugal,  conscientious  in  all  their  deal- 
ings, prompt  to  pity  and  instruct  ignorance  instead  of  ridiculing  it  and  tak- 
ing advantage  of  it,  public-spirited,  philanthropic,  and  observers  of  all  things 
sacred ;  if,  I  say,  any  given  proportion  of  our  children,  by  human  efforts, 
and  by  such  a  divine  blessing  as  the  common  course  of  God's  providence 
authorizes  us  to  expect,  can  be  made  to  possess  these  qualities,  and  to  act 
from  them,  —  then,  just  so  far  as  our  posterity  shall  fall  below  this  practi- 
cable exemption  from  vices  and  crimes,  and  just  so  far  as  they  shall  fail  to 
possess  these  attainable  virtues,  just  so  far  will  those  who  frame  and  exe- 
cute our  laws,  shape  public  opinion,  and  lead  public  action,  be  criminally  re- 
sponsible for  the  difference.  I  can  conceive  of  no  moral  proposition  clearer 
than  this.  Society,  in  its  collective  capacity,  is  the  possessor  of  all  the 
knowledge,  and  the  owner  of  all  the  property,  in  existence.  Governments 


REPORT   FOR    1847.  577 

have  been  organized,  and  are  invested  with  power,  to  use  any  needful  amount 
of  this  property  for  purposes  of  education ;  and,  by  holding  out  adequate 
inducements  and  remuneration,  they  can  command  the  services  of  the  high- 
est talent.  Here,  thyn,  duty,  and  the  means  to  perform  it,  come  together. 
The  only  remaining  question  is,  How  much  can  be  done  ?  for,  in  a  cause  and 
for  a  purpose  like  this,  nothing  which  can  actually  be  done  can  be  guilt- 
lessly omitted.  If  it  is  proved,  with  a  reasonable  degree  of  certainty,  that 
ninety-nine,  ninety-five,  ninety,  eighty,  or  any  other  given  percentage  of  all 
children  can  be  rescued  from  vice  and  crime,  and  can  be  so  educated  and 
trained  as  to  become  valuable  citizens,  but  the  State  refuses  or  declines  to 
do  this  work,  then  the  State  itself  becomes  a  culprit;  and,  before  the  great 
moral  Judge  who  is  seated  on  the  throne  of  the  universe,  it  must  stand  a 
spectacle  of  shame  and  guilt,  like  one  of  its  own  inferior  culprits  before  its 
own  judicial  tribunals. 

With  these  preliminary  observations,  which  seemed  to  be  necessarv  in 
order  to  a  full  exposition  of  the  object  I  have  in  view,  I  proceed  to  submit 
the  following  specific  inquiries,  and  to  request  your  answer  to  them  :  — 

1.  How  many  years  have   you  been  engaged   in  school-keeping?  and 
whether  in  the  country,  or  in  populous  towns  or  cities  ? 

2.  About  how  many  children  have  you  had  under  your  care  ?  of  which 
sex  ?  and  between  what  ages  ? 

3.  Should  all  our  schools  be  kept  by  teachers  of  high  intellectual  and 
moral  qualifications,  and  should   all   the  children  in  the  community  be 
brought  within  these  schools  for  ten  months  in  a  year,  from  the  age  of  four 
to  that  of  sixteen  years,  fchen  what  proportion,  what  percentage,  of  such 
children  as  you  have  had  under  your  care,  could,  in  your  opinion,  be  so  edu- 
cated and  trained,  that  their  existence  on  going  out  into  the  world  would 
be  a  benefit,  and  not  a  detriment,  an  honor,  and  not  a  shame,  to  society? 
Or,  to  state  the  question  in  a  general  form,  if  all  children  were  brought 
within  the  salutary  and  auspicious  influences  I  have  here  supposed,  what 
percentage  of  them  should  you  pronounce  to  be  irreclaimable  and  hopeless? 
Of  course,  I  do  not  speak  of  imbeciles  or  idiots,  but  only  of  rational  and 
accountable  beings. 

You  will  perceive,  that,  in  certain  respects,  I  am  supposing  no  change  in 
the  present  condition  of  society.  I  am  taking  families  as  they  now  are,  and 
am  allowing  all  the  unfavorable  as  well  as  the  favorable  influences  of  the  old 
upon  the  young  to  continue  to  operate,  at  least  for  a  time,  as  heretofore. 
Nor  do  I  suppose  any  sudden  or  transforming  change  in  co-operative  or 
auxiliary  institutions,  —  such  as  the  Sabbath  school,  the  pulpit,  and  so 
forth, — although  it  is  certain  that  such  a  state  of  things  as  is  here  out- 
lined would  gradually  impart  new  vigor  to  all  that  advances  the  progress 
of  society,  while  it  would  impair  the  force  of  all  that  retards  it. 
37 


578  ANNUAL   REPORTS   ON  EDUCATION. 

On  the  other  hand,  however,  I  am  supposing  two  great  changes.  I  am 
supposing  all  our  children  to  be  placed  under  the  care  of  such  a  class  of  men 
and  women  as  we  now  honor  by  the  appellation  of  first-class  or  first-rate 
teachers,  —  of  such  teachers  as  are  able,  in  the  schoolroom,  both  to  teach 
and  to  govern ;  and  who,  out  of  the  schoolroom,  will  be  animated  by  a 
missionary  spirit  in  furthering  the  objects  of  their  sacred  vocation.  I  have 
also  supposed  that  all  the  children  in  the  community  shall  be  brought  under 
the  forming  hands  of  such  teachers,  from  the  age  of  four  to  that  of  sixteen, 
for  ten  months  in  each  year. 

,  While,  therefore,  the  above  supposition  leaves  children  exposed,  in  many 
cases,  to  the  pernicious  family  and  social  influences  under  which  they  are 
now  suffering,  it  assumes  that  all  the  children,  when  out  of  school,  shall 
meet  only  such  children  as  are  enjoying  the  same  high  training,  the  same 
daily  instillation  of  moral  principles,  as  themselves.  My  supposition  allows 
a  continuance  of  the  same  family  and  adult  influences  (at  least  until  these 
shall  be  supplanted  by  the  better  influences  of  the  rising  generation, 
action  and  re-action  hastening  results),  because  these  influences  are  facts 
which  no  earthly  power  can  cause  to  be  immediately  changed.  But  I  have 
supposed  this  noble  company  of  teachers,  this  length  of  schools,  and  this 
universality  of  attendance,  because  these  are  reforms  on  the  present  condi- 
tion of  things,  which  can  be  effected  without  any  great  delay,  —  at  the 
farthest,  a  very  few  years  being  an  ample  allowance  for  the  completion  of 
such  a  change. 

To  reduce  my  third  question,  then,  within  its  narrowest  limits,  and  to 
make  it  as  definite  and  precise  as  possible,  suppose  yourself  to  be  stationed 
as  a  school-teacher  in  a  place  similar  to  any  of  those  in  which  you  have 
before  labored ;  suppose  yourself,  too,  to  be  surrounded  by  teachers  fully  as 
capable  and  as  zealous  in  all  respects  as  yourself;  and  suppose,  further, 
that  all  the  children  are  brought  under  your  care  or  theirs,  as  above  speci- 
fied, —  that  is,  for  a  period  of  twelve  years,  or  from  four  to  sixteen,  and  ten 
months  in  each  year,  —  and  will  you  then  please  to  declare  what  proportion, 
or  percentage,  of  those  under  your  own  care,  you  believe  could  be  turned 
out  the  blessing,  and  not  the  bane,  the  honor,  and  not  the  scandal,  of  society  ? 
and  on  what  proportion,  or  percentage,  —  the  complement  of  the  other,  — 
would  your  experience  compel  you  to  pronounce  the  doom  of  hopelessness 
and  irreclaimability  ? 

Very  truly  and  sincerely  yours, 

HOHACE  MANN. 

I  extract  from  the  replies  to  this  circular  only  the  specific 
answers  to  the  circular  :  — 


REPORT   FOR    1847.  579 


LETTER    FROM    JOHX    GRISCOM,    ESQ. 

BURLINGTON,  N.J.,  8  mo.  27th,  1847. 

MY  ESTEEMED  FRIEND, —  .  .  .  My  belief  is,  that,  under  the  conditions 
mentioned  in  the  question,  not  more  than  two  per  cent  would  be  irreclaima- 
ble nuisances  to  society,  and  that  ninety-five  per  cent  would  be  supporters 
of  the  moral  welfare  of  the  community  in  which  they  resided. 

With  teachers  properly  trained  in  normal  schools,  and  with  such  a  pop- 
ular disposition  towards  schools  as  wise  legislation  might  effect,  nineteen- 
twentieths  of  the  immoralities  which  afflict  society  might,  I  verily  believe, 
be  kept  under  hatches,  or  eradicated  from  the  soil  of  our  social  institu- 
tions. 

Every  step  in  such  a  progress  renders  the  next  more  easy.  This  is 
proved  not  only  on  the  grand  scale  of  comparing  country  with  country,  and 
state  with  state,  but  district  with  its  adjacent  district,  and  neighborhood 
with  neighborhood. 

Finally,  in  the  predicament  last  stated  in  the  circular,  and  supposing 
the  teachers  to  be  imbued  with  the  gospel  spirit,  I  believe  there  would  not 
be  more  than  one-half  of  one  per  cent  of  the  children  educated,  on  whom  a 
wise  judge  would  be  "compelled  to  pronounce  the  doom  of  hopelessness 
and  irreclaimability." 

In  nothing  which  I  have  advanced  has  it  been  my  intention  to  advocate 
any  sectarian  instruction  in  our  schools,  or  any  thing  adverse  to  the  statu- 
tory limits  of  the  Massachusetts  school-system.  I  therefore  expressly  dis- 
avow any  intention  to  recommend  truths  or  doctrines,  as  part  of  the  moral 
instruction  to  be  given  in  public  schools,  which  any  believer  in  the  Bible 
would  reasonably  deem  to  be  sectarian. 

I  am,  with  true  esteem,  thy  friend, 

JNO.  GRISCOM. 


LETTER  FROM  D.  P.  PAGE,  ESQ. 

STATE  NORMAL  SCHOOL,  ALBANY,  N.Y.,  Nov.  20,  1847. 
HON.  HORACE  MANN. 

Dear  Sir,  —  ...  Could  I  be  connected  with  a  school  furnished  with 
all  the  appliances  you  name,  where  all  the  children  should  be  constant 
attendants  upon  my  instruction  for  a  succession  of  years,  where  all  my 
fellow-teachers  should  be  such  as  you  suppose,  and  where  all  the  favorable 
influences  described  in  your  circular  should  surround  me  and  cheer  me, 
even  with  my  moderate  abilities  as  a  teacher,  I  should  scarcely  expect,  after 


580         ANNUAL  KEPORTS  ON  EDUCATION. 

the  first  generation  of  children  submitted  to  the  experiment,  to  fail,  in  a 
single  case,  to  secure  the  results  you  have  named. 

.  .  .  But  I  should  not  forgive  myself,  nor  think  myself  longer  fit  to 
be  a  teacher,  if,  with  all  the  aids  and  influences  you  have  supposed,  I  should 
fail,  in  one  case  in  a  hundred,  to  rear  up  children  who,  when  they  should 
hecome  men,  would  be  "honest  dealers,  conscientious  jurors,  true  witnesses, 
incorruptible  voters  or  magistrates,  good  parents,  good  neighbors,  good 
members  of  society;"  or,  as  you  express  it  in  another  place,  who  would 
be  "temperate,  industrious,  frugal,  conscientious  in  all  their  dealings, 
prompt  to  pity  and  instruct  ignorance  instead  of  ridiculing  it  and  taking 
advantage  of  it,  public-spirited,  philanthropic,  and  observers  of  all  things 
sacred  ;  "  and,  negatively,  who  would  not  be  "  drunkards,  profane  swearers, 
detractors,  vagabonds,  rioters,  cheats,  thieves,  aggressors  upon  the  rights 
of  property,  of  person,  of  reputation,  or  of  life,  or  guilty  of  such  omissions 
of  right,  and  commissions  of  wrong,  that  it  would  be  better  for  the  com- 
munity had  they  never  been  born." 

With  sincere  regard,  your  friend, 

D.  P.  PAGE. 


LETTER  FROM  SOLOMON  ADAMS,  ESQ. 

BOSTON,  Nov.  24,  1847. 
HON.  HORACE  MANN. 

My  dear  Sir,  —  ...  1.  I  have  been  engaged  in  this  profession  twenty- 
four  years ;  the  first  five  years  in  the  country,  the  remainder  of  the  time 
in  a  city. 

2.  My  whole  number  of  pupils  is  a  little  below  two  thousand.  The 
last  nineteen  years,  my  pupils  have  been  females.  Previously,  both  sexes. 

If  a  well-conducted  education  produces  benevolence,  justice,  truth,  patriot- 
ism, love  to  God  and  love  to  man,  in  one  case,  the  same  education,  in  the 
same  circumstances,  will  produce  the  same  results  in  all  cases.  The  results 
for  which  we  look  and  labor  sometimes  fail,  not  because  the  great  law  of  uni- 
formity is  at  fault,  but  by  reason  of  counteracting  causes,  which  may  escape 
our  most  careful  scrutiny.  Does  the  failure  impair  our  confidence  in  the  uni- 
formity of  moral  causes  and  effects  ?  The  moment  this  law  fails,  every  cord 
that  binds  society  together  is  sundered  ;  society  is  disintegrated.  Every  social 
enactment  by  which  society  attempts  to  regulate  its  members,  every  motive 
by  which  one  man  hopes  to  influence  another,  assumes  this  uniformity.  It  is 
the  hinge  on  which  all  social  influences  turn.  Without  it,  we  could  not  shape 
moral  means  to  moral  ends.  To  destroy  it,  to  doubt  it,  would  be  the  moral 
unhingement  of  society. 


REPORT    FOR    1847.  581 

In  this  great  law  are  the  teacher's  hopes  ami  encouragements.  The  great 
outline  of  the  means  he  is  to  employ  is  well  defined.  It  is  his  province  to 
bring  all  those  moral  appliances  to  bear  upon  the  soul  which  are  suited  to 
lead  it  into  harmony  with  truth  and  with  God,  to  train  it  to  the  percep- 
tion and  love  of  truth  and  goodness.  In  doing  this,  the  faithful  teacher  is 
a  co-worker  with  God,  and  may  confidently  look  to  the  Author  of  all  good 
to  give  the  crowning  blessing  to  his  strenuous  endeavors.  There  are  those 
(and  I  confess  myself  of  the  nnmher)  who  believe  and  feel  that  all  hnraan 
endeavors,  unaided  by  an  influence  from  on  high,  will  prove  fruitless,  so  far 
as  the  highest  wants  of  the  immortal  spirit  are  concerned.  Yet  those  who 
feel  so  can  tell  us  of  no  way  in  which  they  are  authorized  to  expect  such 
an  influence,  and  of  no  way  in  which  it  is  exerted  even  by  almighty  power, 
except  through  the  instrumentality  of  truth  presented  to  the  mind.  There 
might  as  well  be  a  conflagration  without  fire,  or  a  flood  without  fluid. 

I  confess  I  do  not  see  how  our  different  theological  views  can  essentially 
alter  our  modes  of  instruction.  We  are  all  to  train  the  young  in  the  way 
in  which  they  should  go,  "  giving  line  upon  line,  precept  upon  precept,  here 
a  little  and  there  a  little,"  waiting  for  and  expecting  precious  fruit.  The 
fruit  may  ripen  slowly.  From  day  to  day,  you  may  not  be  able  to  see  any 
progress.  This  holds  true  both  in  moral  and  intellectual  training.  But, 
by  comparing  distant  intervals,  progress  is  perceptible.  At  length  a  result 
comes,  which  repays  all  the  teacher's  labor,  and  inspires  new  courage  for 
new  efforts.  Yon  ask  for  my  own  experience.  This  is  my  apology  for 
alluding  with  freedom  to  myself.  Permit  me  to  say,  that  in  very  many  cases, 
after  laboring  long  with  individuals  almost  against  hope,  and  sometimes  in  a 
manner,  too,  which  I  can  now  see  was  not  always  wise.  I  have  never  had 
a  case  which  has  not  resulted  in  some  good  degree  according  to  my  wishes. 
The  many  kind  and  voluntary  testimonials  given,  years  afterwards,  by  per- 
sons who  remembered  that  they  were  once  my  wayward  pupils,  are  among 
the  pleasantcst  and  most  cheering  incidents  of  my  life.  So  uniform  have 
been  the  results,  when  I  have  had  a  fair  trial  and  time  enough,  that  I  have 
unhesitatingly  adopted  the  motto,  Never  despair.  Parents  and  teachers  are 
apt  to  look  for  too  speedy  results  from  the  labors  of  the  latter.  The  moral 
nature,  like  the  intellectual  and  physical,  is  long  and  slow  in  reaching  the 
full  maturity  of  its  strength.  I  was  told,  a  few  years  since,  by  a  gentleman 
who  knew  the  history  of  nearly  all  my  pupils  for  the  first  five  years  of  my 
labor,  that  not  one  of  them  had  ever  brought  reproach  upon  himself,  or 
mortification  upon  friends,  by  a  bad  life.  I  cannot  now  look  over  the  whole 
list  of  my  pupils,  and  find  one,  who  had  been  with  me  long  enough  to  re- 
ceive a  decided  impression,  whose  life  is  not  honorable  and  useful.  I  find 
them  in  all  the  learned  professions,  and  in  the  various  mechanical  arts.  I 
find  my  female  pupils  scattered  as  teachers  through  half  the  States  of  the 
Union,  and  as  the  wives  and  assistants  of  Christian  missionaries  in  every 
quarter  of  the  globe. 


582  ANNUAL    REPORTS   ON    EDUCATION. 

So  far,  therefore,  as  my  own  experience  goes,  so  f;ir  ns  my  knowledge  of 
the  experience  of  others  extends,  so  far  as  the  statistics  of  crime  throw  any 
light  on  the  subject,  I  should  confidently  expect  that  ninety-nine  in  a  hun- 
dred, and  I  think  even  more,  with  such  means  of  education  as  you  have 
supposed,  and  with  such  divine  favor  as  we  are  authorized  to  expect,  would 
become  good  members  of  society,  the  supporters  of  order  and  law,  and 
truth  and  justice,  and  all  righteousness. 

That  I  may  not  be  misunderstood,  allow  me  to  add  a  few  explanatory 
remarks. 

I  have  no  confidence  in  the  reformatory  power  of  education  into  which 
moral  and  religious  influences  do  not  enter.  I  assume,  —  as  any  one  having 
the  slightest  acquaintance  with  your  writings  and  teachings  on  this  subject 
knows  that  you  do,  —  that  the  three  great  classes  of  powers,  the  physical, 
intellectual,  and  moral,  shall  each  receive  its  proper  training ;  and  then  I  ; 
feel  authorized  to  look  confidently  for  that  providential  blessing  which  will 
secure  the  high  results  already  alluded  to.  Without  such  a  training,  I  have 
no  right  to  expect  the  blessing  of  Heaven,  or  a  good  result.  I  do  not  fulfil 
the  conditions  on  which  such  results  are  promised. 

It  is  to  be  feared,  yea,  to  be  for  a  lamentation,  that  comparatively  few  of 
teachers,  and  still  fewer  of  the  community,  have  looked  upon  a  school-edu- 
cation as  any  thing  more  than  a  very  limited  intellectual  training,  leaving 
physical  and  moral  culture  to  take  care  of  themselves.  The  school-laws  of 
Massachusetts  have  always  contemplated  other  attainments  and  vastly 
higher  ends.  Yet  it  so  happens,  that  that  part  of  the  law  has  been  best 
remembered  and  acted  on  which  speaks  of  reading,  writing,  and  the  ele- 
ments of  arithmetic.  These  have  been  insisted  on  chiefly  with  reference  to 
their  direct  application  to  the  business  and  traffic  of  life  ;  as  if  it  were 
the  chief  end  of  man  to  count  coppers,  pocket  them,  and  keep  them.  While 
the  law  contemplates  these  elementary  attainments  as  merely  the  beginnings 
and  inlets  to  all  the  treasures  of  wisdom,  how  many  have  looked  upon  them 
as  the  education  of  the  boy  and  the  man  ! 

Very  truly  your  obedient  friend  and  servant, 

S.   ADAMS. 


LETTER  FROM  REV.  JACOB  ABBOTT. 

NEW- YORK  CITY,  June  25,  1847. 
Hox.  HORACE  MANN. 

Dear  Sir,  — .  .  .  1.  I  have  been  engaged  in  the  practical  duties  of 
teaching  for  about  ten  years,  chiefly  in  private  schools  in  Boston  and  New 
York. 


REPORT   FOR   1847.  583 

2.  I  have  had  under  my  care,  for  a  longer  or  shorter  time,  probably 
nearly  eight  hundred  pupils.     They  have  been  of  both  sexes,  and  of  all 
ages,  from  four  to  twenty-five. 

3.  If  all  our  schools  were  under  the  charge  of  teachers  possessing  what 
I  regard  as  the  right  intellectual  and  moral  qualifications,  and  if  all  the 
children  of  the  community  were  brought  under  the  influence  of  these  schools 
for  ten  months  in  the  year,  I  think  that  the  work  of  training  up  the  whole 
community  to  intelligence  and  virtue  would  soon  be  accomplished,  as  com- 
pletely as  anv  human  end  can  be  obtained  by  human  means. 

I  do  not  think,  however,  that,  so  far  as  the  formation  of  the  habits  of 
virtue  in  the  young  is  concerned,  the  accomplishment  of  the  result  depends 
either  upon  the  intellectual  powers  or  attainments  of  the  teacher,  or  upon 
the  amount  of  formal  moral  instructions  which  he  gives  his  pupils.  Knowl- 
edge alone  has  but  little  tendency  to  affect  the  feelings  and  principles  of  the 
heart ;  and  formal  moral  instructions,  except  as  auxiliaries  to  other  influ- 
ences, have  very  little  power,  according  to  my  experience,  over  the  con- 
sciences and  characters  of  the  young. 

The  true  power  of  the  teacher  in  giving  to  his  pupils  good  characters  in 
future  life  seems  to  me  to  lie  in  his  forming  them  to  the  practice  of  virtue, 
while  under  his  charge,  by  the  influence  of  his  mm  personal  character  and 
fictions.  To  do  this,  however,  he  must  have  the  right  character  himself. 
He  must  be  governed  in  all  that  he  does  by  high  and  honorable  principles 
of  action.  He  must  be  really  benevolent  and  kind.  He  must  take  an 
honest  interest  in  his  pupils,  —  not  merely  in  their  studies  and  general  char- 
acters, but  in  all  their  childish  thoughts  and  feelings,  in  the  difficulties  they 
encounter,  in  their  temptations  and  trials,  in  their  sports,  in  their  conten- 
tions, in  their  troubles;  in  everything,  in  fact,  that  affects  them.  He 
must,  in  a  word,  feel  a  strong  interest  and  sympathy  for  them  in  the  thou- 
>and  difficulties  and  discouragements  they  must  encounter  in  slowly  finding 
their  way,  with  all  their  ignorance  and  inexperience,  to  their  place  in  the 
complicated  and  bewildering  maze  of  human  life. 

A  teacher  who  takes  this  sort  of  interest  in  his  pupils  will  understand 
them  and  sympathize  with  them  in  a  way  which  will  at  once  command  tbeir 
kind  regard,  and  give  him  a  powerful,  and,  in  the  view  of  others,  a  very 
inysterious,  ascendency  over  their  minds.  They  feel  as  if  he  was  upon 
their  side,  taking  their  part,  as  it  were,  against  the  difficulties  and  dangers 
and  troubles  which  surround  them.  Thus  lie  becomes  one  of  them,  a 
sharer  in  their  enjoyments,  a  partaker  of  their  feelings.  They  come  to 
him  with  confidence.  He  plans  their  amusements,  he  joins  them  in  con- 
versation, he  settles  their  disputes.  They  see  on  what  principles  he  acts; 
and  they  catch,  themselves,  the  same  mode  of  action  from  him  by  a  kind 
of  sympathy.  They  imbibe  his  sentiments  insensibly  and  spontaneously, 
not  because  he  enunciates  them,  or  proves  them  in  lectures,  but  because  he 


584  ANNUAL   REPORTS    ON    EDUCATION. 

exhibits  them  in  living  reality  in  his  conversation  and  conduct.  This  sort 
of  sympathetic  action  between  heart  and  heart  has  far  greater  influence 
among  all  mankind  than  formal  teachings  and  exhortations.  It  is  the  life 
and  spirit  of  virtue  in  contradistinction  from  the  letter  and  the  form. 

...  If  all  the  children  of  this  land  were  under  the  charge  of  such 
teachers  for  six  hours  in  the  day,  and  ten  months  in  the  year,  and  were  to 
continue  under  these  influences  for  the  usual  period  of  instruction  in  schools, 
I  do  not  see  why  the  result  would  not  be,  that,  in  two  generations,  substan- 
tially the  whole  population  would  be  trained  up  to  virtue,  to  habits  of 
integrity,  fidelity  in  duty,  justice,  temperance,  and  mutual  good-will.  It 
seems  to  me  that  this  effect  would  take  place  in  all  cases,  except  where  ex- 
tremely unfavorable  influences  out  of  school  should  counteract  it ;  which, 
I  think,  would  hardly  be  the  case,  except  in  some  districts  in  the  more  popu- 
lous cities. 

I  am,  very  respectfully,  yours, 

JACOB  ABBOTT. 


LETTER  FROM  F.  A.  ADAMS,  ESQ. 

OKAXUK,  N.J.,  Dec.  11,  1847. 
HON.  HORACE  MANN. 

Dear  Sir,  — .  .  .  I  do  not  hesitate  to  express  the  conviction  that  there  is 
no  agency  which  society  can  exert,  through  the  government,  capable  of  ex- 
erting so  great  a  moral  influence  for  the  rising  generation  as  the  steady 
training  of  the  young  in  the  best  schools. 

In  reply  to  the  specific  inquiry,  in  your  circular,  what  proportion  of  our 
youth  would  probably,  under  the  advantages  of  schooling  presupposed  in 
the  cii'cular,  fail  of  fulfilling  honorably  their  social  and  moral  obligations  in 
Society,  I  would  say,  that  in  the  course  of  my  experience,  for  ten  years, 
in  teaching  between  three  and  four  hundred  children,  mostly  boys,  I  have 
been  acquainted  with  not  more  than  two  pupils  in  regard  to  whom  I  should 
not  feel  a  cheerful  and  strong  confidence  in  the  success  of  the  proposed  ex- 
periment. In  regard  to  these  two  cases,  I  should  not  despair,  but  should 
have  a  strong  preponderance  of  fear,  that,  under  the  best  influences  such  as 
you  have  supposed,  they  would  still  remain  wedded  to  low  and  mischievous 
habits.  From  their  peculiar  temperament,  there  was  much  reason  to  sup- 
pose that  a  life  of  steady  and  hard  labor  would  do  for  them  much,  in  a  moral 
point  of  view,  which  the  influences  of  school  could  not  accomplish. 

The  class  of  youth  I  have  had  under  my  care  would,  in  some  respects, 
afford  a  better  than  average  chance  for  the  success  of  the  experiment,  as 


EEPORT   FOR    1847.  685 

they,  in  all  cases,  have  been  exempt  from  the  evils  of  poverty.  In  other 
respects,  however,  this  exemption  was  counterbalanced  by  habits  of  self- 
indulgence,  which  could  not  have  existed  had  the  pecuniary  means  been 
wanting. 

I  remain,  dear  sir,  with  sincere  respect  and  esteem,  yours, 

P.  A.  ADAMS. 


LETTER  FROM  E.  A.  ANDREWS,  ESQ. 

NEW  BRITAIN,  CONN.,  Dec.  8, 1847. 
HON.  HORACE  MANN. 

Dear  Sir,  — ...  In  reply  to  your  first  and  second  questions,  permit  me 
simply  to  remark,  that  I  have  been  connected  with  the  department  of  educa- 
tion, either  as  pupil  or  as  teacher,  for  more  than  fifty  years.  I  have  in- 
structed both  in  the  country  and  in  cities  :  in  the  former  I  have,  for  the  most 
part,  had  the  charge  of  only  a  few  select  pupils ;  in  the  latter,  for  about 
twenty  years,  I  was  connected  with  large  institutions  of  instruction.  I  have 
no  means  of  determining,  with  any  tolerable  approach  to  accuracy,  the  whole 
number  of  my  pupils,  nor  the  proportion  of  each  sex. 

I  do  not  hesitate  to  express  my  conviction,  that  such  an  education  as  your 
question  supposes,  continued  for  so  long  a  period  as  twelve  years,  and  in- 
cluding all  the  children  of  the  community,  would  remove  a  very  large  por- 
tion of  the  evils  with  which  society  is  now  burdened.  I  need  not  say,  that 
I  would  be  far  from  attributing  so  important  results  to  any  system  of  merely 
intellectual  training,  or  even  to  the  most  perfect  combination  of  intellectual, 
physical,  and  moral  discipline,  to  the  exclusion  of  that  which  is  strictly 
religious.  Such  a  qualification  of  my  meaning  might  have  been  necessary, 
on  account  of  the  limited  sense  in  which  the  word  "  education  "  is  often  used, 
had  not  the  necessity  been  removed  by  the  express  terms  of  the  conditions 
annexed  to  the  question  in  your  circular. 

It  may  indeed  be  feared  that  society  is  not  yet  fully  prepared  to  put  forth 
the  effort  necessary  to  accomplish  so  desirable  a  result ;  but  I  cannot  believe 
that  the  time  is  very  remote  when  its  attainment  will  be  considered  an  object 
of  paramount  importance.  It  cannot  be  that  the  millions  of  intelligent  men 
found  in  this  and  in  other  Christian  countries  can  much  longer  permit  their 
feelings  to  be  enlisted,  and  the  resources  of  the  communities  to  which  they 
belong  to  be  employed,  in  promoting  objects  of  far  inferior  value,  while  the 
advantages  of  a  good  system  of  general  education  are,  in  so  great  a  degree, 
overlooked.  If,  as  I  fully  believe,  it  is  in  the  power  of  the  people  of  any 
State,  by  means  so  simple  as  your  question  supposes,  and  so  completelv  in 
their  own  power  as  these  obviously  are,  so  to  change  the  whole  face  of  so- 


586  ANNUAL   REPORTS    ON    EDUCATION. 

ciety  in  a  single  generation  that  scarcely  one  or  two  per  cent  of  really  incor- 
rigible members  shall  be  found  in  it,  it  cannot  be  that  so  great  a  good  will 
continue  to  be  neglected,  and  the  means  for  its  attainment  unemployed. 

In  forming  our  estimate  of  the  probability  of  so  important  a  result  as  I 
have  supposed,  it  must  not  be  forgotten,  that,  simple  as  are  the  means  now 
proposed  for  its  attainment,  they  have  never  been  employed,  so  far  as  I  know, 
in  any  extended  community  whose  experience  is  on  record.  In  Scotland, 
and  of  late  in  Prussia,  a  considerable  approximation  has  been  made  towards 
reaching  the  supposed  conditions,  and  with  benefits,  it  is  believed,  fully  cor- 
iv-itunding  with  the  degree  of  perfection  of  their  respective  systems.  The 
common  schools  of  New  England,  which  have  done  so  much  to  elevate  her 
character,  have  still  fallen  immeasurably  short  of  the  conditions  supposed. 
With  all  their  acknowledged  defects,  however,  the  instances,  I  believe,  are 
few,  in  which  those  who  have  been  trained  in  them,  from  childhood  to  the 
close  of  the  period  usually  allotted  to  education  in  these  schools,  have  after- 
wards, on  mingling  with  the  world,  proved  to  be  incorrigibly  vicious,  a  bur- 
den rather  than  a  benefit  to  society.  The  records  of  our  criminal  courts 
and  the  doors  of  our  penitentiaries  have  seldom  been  opened  to  those  who, 
in  childhood,  had  been  in  regular  daily  attendance  for  ten  or  twelve  years 
upon  the  exercises  of  our  common  schools,  however  imperfect  these  schools 
may  have  been  in  their  organization,  and  notwithstanding  all  the  evil  influ- 
ences of  uneducated  associates  to  which  the  pupils  have  been  exposed  when 
out  of  school.  The  cell  of  the  convict  has,  on  the  contrary,  been  almost 
uniformly  occupied  by  those  who  have  enjoyed  few  of  the  benefits  of  our 
common  schools ;  and  even  the  tenants  of  our  poorhouses,  it  is  believed, 
have,  in  most  instances,  belonged  to  the  same  unfortunate  class. 

Very  truly  yours, 

E.  A.  ANDREWS. 


LETTER  FROM  ROGER   S.   HOWARD,   ESQ. 

THETFORD,  Vx.,  Sept.  1,  1847. 
Hox.  HORACE  MAXX. 

Dear  Sir,  —  ...  Judging  from  what  I  have  seen  and  do  know,  if  the 
conditions  you  have  mentioned  were  strictly  complied  with  ;  if  the  attend- 
ance of  the  scholars  could  be  as  universal,  constant,  and  long-continued  as 
you  have  stated ;  if  the  teachers  were  men  of  those  high  intellectual  and 
moral  qualities,  —  apt  to  teach,  and  devoted  to  their  work,  and  favored  with 
that  blessing  which  the  word  and  providence  of  God  teach  us  always  to 
expect  on  our  honest,  earnest,  and  well-directed  efforts  in  so  good  a  cause, 


REPORT   FOR    1847. 

—  on  these  conditions,  and  under  these  circumstances,  I  do  not  hesitate  to 
express  the  opinion,  that  the  failures  need  not  be,  would  not  he,  one  per 
cent.  Else  what  is  the  meaning  of  that  explicit  declaration  of  the  Bible, 
"  Train  up  a  child  in  the  way  he  should  go ;  and,  when  he  is  old,  he  will  not 
depart  from  it "  ? 

I  am  aware  that  the  opinion  I  have  expressed  above  may  by  some  be 
considered  extravagant.  But  I  have  not  formed  or  expressed  it  without 
deliberation.  During  all  my  experience  as  a  teacher,  I  have  never  known 
the  scholar,  whom,  if  brought  within  the  reach  of  these  salutary  and  auspi- 
cious influences  for  the  length  of  time  named,  I  should  now  be  willing  to 
believe,  or  dare  to  pronounce,  utterly  hopeless  and  irreclaimable.  I  do  not 
mean  to  say  that  I  never  failed.  But  I  do  say,  that  in  some  of  the  most 
difficult  and  desperate  cases  I  have  ever  met  with,  as  a  teacher,  the  result 
of  direct,  special,  and  persevering  effort,  was  such  as  to  create  the  conviction, 
that  with  more  zeal,  patience,  and  perseverance,  and  especially  with  the 
favoring  influences  above  alluded  to,  success  would  have  been  certain  and 
complete.  And  this  conviction  became  more  settled  and  strong  the  longer 
I  continued  to  teach. 

The  power  of  a  truly  enlightened  and  Christian  system  of  common- 
school  education  is  but  little  understood  and  appreciated.  When  parents 
shall  begin  to  feel,  as  they  ought,  its  importance ;  when  the  community 
generally  shall  be  willing  to  make  the  necessary  efforts  and  sacrifices ; 
and  when  teachers  of  the  requisite  literary  qualifications,  and  of  high  moral 
aims,  shall  enter  upon  the  work  with  a  martyr's  zeal,  conscious  that  every 
day  they  are  making  deathless  impressions  upon  immortal  minds,  —  then 
shall  we  see,  as  I  believe,  results  which  will  greatly  surpass  the  highest 
expectations  of  the  most  ardent  and  enthusiastic  advocates  of  popular  edu- 
cation. 

But  I  am  occupying  more  space  than  I  intended,  and  will  only  add  that 
I  am,  dear  sir, 

Very  respectfully  and  truly  yours, 

ROGER  S.  HOWARD. 


LETTER    FROM  MISS   CATHERINE  E.   BEECHER. 

BRATTLEBOROUGH,  Aug.  20, 1847. 
HON.  HORACE  MANN. 

Dear  Sir,  —  In  reference  to  the  questions  you  propose,  I  would  reply, 
that  I  have  been  engaged,  directly  and  personally,  as  a  teacher,  about 
fifteen  years,  in  Hartford,  Conn.,  and  Cincinnati,  O.  I  have  had  a  few 


588  ANNUAL   REPORTS    ON    EDUCATION. 

classes  of  quite  young  children  under  my  care  for  the  purpose  of  making 
some  practical  educational  experiments ;  but  most  of  my  pupils,  in  age,  have 
ranged  from  twelve  to  twenty.  I  have  had  pupils  from  every  State  in  the 
Union ;  and,  though  I  have  no  precise  records,  I  think  the  number  cannot 
be  less  than  a  thousand. 

I  have  ever  considered  intellectual  culture  as  subordinate  to  the  main  end 
of  education,  which  is  the  formation  of  that  character  which  Jesus  Christ 
teaches  to  be  indispensable  to  the  eternal  well-being  of  our  race.  Excepting 
the  few  classes  of  young  children  before  named,  my  efforts  have  been  directed 
to  measures  for  reforming  bad  and  supplying  good  habits  and  principles 
in  minds  already  more  or  less  developed  by  education.  And  this  I  consider 
a  much  more  difficult  work  than  the  right  training  of  minds  as  yet  unin- 
jured by  pernicious  influences. 

In  reference  to  the  work  of  reforming  miseducated  minds,  I  have  found 
that  the  noblest-constructed  minds,  when  greatly  mismanaged,  are  most 
liable  to  become  the  worst ;  while,  at  the  same  time,  they  most  readily  yield 
to  reformatory  measures :  so  that,  as  a  general  rule,  with  exceptions,  of 
course,  I  should  expect  to  do  the  most  good  to  the  worst  class  of  pupils, 
and,  in  some  cases,  to  make  finer  characters  from  this  class  than  from  those 
who,  possessing  less  excitable  temperaments,  have  not  fallen  so  far. 

I  would  also  remark,  that,  in  the  results  I  should  anticipate  in  the  case 
to  be  supposed  hereafter,  my  chief  hope  of  success  would  rest  on  the  proper 
application  of  tho~e  truths  and  motives  which  distinguish  the  teachings  of 
Jesus  Christ  from  what  is  called  "  natural  religion  ; "  and  by  modes  of  pre- 
sentation more  simple  and  practical  than  I  have  ever  seen  fully  adopted,  or 
than  I  ever  adopted  myself  when  a  practical  teacher. 

With  these  preliminaries,  which  I  hope  will  be  carefully  pondered,  and 
borne  in  mind  as  indispensable,  I  will  now  suppose  that  it  could  be  so 
arranged,  that  in  a  given  place,  containing  from  ten  to  fifteen  thousand 
inhabitants,  in  any  part  of  our  country  where  I  ever  resided,  all  the  children 
at  the  age  of  four  shall  be  placed,  six  hours  a  day,  for  twelve  years,  under 
the  care  of  teachers  having  the  same  views  that  I  have,  and  having  received 
that  course  of  training  for  their  office  that  any  State  in  this  Union  can 
secure  to  the  teachers  of  its  children.  Let  it  be  so  arranged,  that  all  these 
children  shall  remain  till  sixteen  under  these  teachers,  and  also  that  they 
shall  spend  their  lives  in  this  city  ;  and  I  have  no  hesitation  in  saying.  I 
do  not  believe  that  one,  no,  rtoi  a  single  one,  would  fail  of  proving  a  respecta- 
ble and  prosperous  member  of  society :  nay,  more,  I  believe  every  one 
would,  at  the  close  of  life,  find  admission  into  the  world  of  endless  peace 
aud  love.  I  say  this  solemnly,  deliberately,  and  with  the  full  belief  that  I 
am  upheld  by  such  imperfect  experimental  trials  as  I  have  made,  or  seen 
made  by  others  ;  but,  more  than  this,  that  I  am  sustained  by  the  authority 
of  Heaven,  which  sets  forth  this  grand  palladium  of  education,  —  "  Train 


REPORT   FOR    1847.  589 

up  a  child  in  the  way  lie  should  go ;  and,  when  he  is  old,  he  will  not  depart 
from  it." 

This  sacred  maxim  surely  presents  the  divine  imprimatur  to  the  doctrine 
that  all  children  can  be  trained  up  in  the  way  they  should  go,  and  that, 
when  so  trained,  they  will  not  depart  from  it.  Nor  does  it  imply  that  edu- 
cation alone  will  secure  eternal  life,  without  supernatural  assistance  ;  but  it 
points  to  the  true  method  of  securing  this  indispensable  aid. 

In  this  view  of  the  case,  I  can  command  no  language  strong  enough  to 
express  my  infinite  longings  that  my  countrymen,  who,  as  legislators,  have 
the  control  of  the  institutions,  the  laws,  and  the  wealth  of  our  physically 
prosperous  nation,  should  be  brought  to  see  that  they  now  have  in  their 
hands  the  power  of  securing  to  every  child  in  the  coming  generation  a  life 
of  virtue  and  usefulness  here,  and  an  eternity  of  perfected  bliss  hereafter. 
How,  then,  can  I  express  or  imagine  the  awful  responsibility  which  rests 
upon  them,  and  which  hereafter  they  must  bear  before  the  great  Judge 
of  nations,  if  they  suffer  the  present  state  of  things  to  go  on,  bearing,  as  it 
does,  thousands  and  hundreds  of  thousands  of  helpless  children  in  our 
country  to  hopeless  and  irretrievable  ruin  ? 

Respectfully  yours, 

C.  E.  BEECHES. 

P.  S.  —  All  I  anticipate,  as  stated  in  my  communication,  may  come  to  pass 
without  any  departure  from  your  statutory  regulations  in  regard  to  religious 
instruction,  as  /  understand  these  statutes,  and  as  I  suppose  them  to  be  under- 
stood by  the  great  body  of  those  who  formed  them,  and  of  those  who  are 
bound  by  them.  C.  E.  B. 

The  above  answers  are  not  choice  specimens  selected  from 
among  many  ;  they  are  all  I  have  received  :  and  every  person 
to  whom  the  circular  was  sent  was  pleased  to  answer  it.  From 
conversations  held  at  different  times  with  many  other  teachers, 
I  believe  the  amount  of  testimony  might  have  been  very  much 
increased,  though  no  confirmation  can  be  needed  of  its  authority. 
The  witnesses  here  introduced  certainly  possess  all  the  requi- 
sites to  entitle  them  to  implicit  credence.  Their  character  for 
honor  and  veracity  repels  the  idea  of  distrust.  Years  of  expe- 
rience in  different  places,  and  the  training  of  children  in  great 
numbers,  qualify  them,  in  point  of  knowledge,  to  speak  with 
authority  ;  and  they  are  exempt  from  any  imaginable  bias  to 
warp  or  to  color  the  truth. 


590  ANNUAL   REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

From  time  immemorial,  it  has  been  customary  for  parlia- 
ments and  other  legislative  bodies  to  commit  important  prac- 
tical subjects  to  committees,  and,  through  their  instrumentality, 
to  obtain  the  testimony  of  learned  and  skilled  men  on  the  mat- 
ter of  inquiry.  Sometimes  witnesses  are  heard  at  the  bar  of 
the  House,  —  that  is,  before  the  legislative  body  by  whom  the 
inquiry  was  instituted.  Xow,  I  have  desired  in  the  present 
case  to  introduce  testimony  of  such  credibility  and  cogency, 
that  no  legislative  committee  could  report  against  it,  and  no 
legislative  body  could  act  against  it,  without  incurring  an 
historic  odium,  either  for  want  of  intelligence  or  want  of  in- 
tegrity. 

So,  too,  by  the  rules  of  the  "  common  law,"  all  questions  of 
fact  are  decided  by  the  intervention  of  a  jury.  In  ancient 
times,  when  the  character  of  juries  was  very  different  from 
what  it  now  is,  they  sometimes  gave  a  corrupt  verdict,  —  that 
is,  a  verdict  so  contradictory  to  evidence  as  to  be  of  itself  proof 
that  they  had  discarded  the  testimony  adduced,  and  been  gov- 
erned by  some  dishonest  motive  in  their  own  breasts.  A  jury 
convicted  of  this  offence  was  said  to  be  "  attainted : "  its  mem- 
bers were  punished  by  a  fine,  and  rendered  infamous  ever  after. 
It  was  my  intention,  in  the  present  case,  to  introduce  evidence 
of  such  authority  and  directness,  as,  if  submitted  to  a  jury  and 
rejected  by  them,  would,  under  the  ancient  law  referred  to, 
subject  them  to  the  penalties  of  an  "  attaint" 

There  is  one  quality  or  characteristic  common  to  all  the  wit- 
nesses whose  testimony  is  above  introduced,  which,  as  it  seems 
to  me,  I  am  not  only  justified  in  stating,  but  which  it  would  be 
inexcusable  to  withhold.  All  of  them,  without  exception,  are 
well-known  believers  in  a  theological  creed,  one  of  whose  fun- 
damental articles  is  the  depravity  of  the  natural  heart.  They 
hold,  in  a  literal  sense  and  with  regard  to  all  mankind,  that 
the  innate  affections  or  dispositions  of  the  soul  are  "•  not  subject 
to  the  law  of  God,  neither  indeed  can  be,"  until  another  influ- 
ence, emanating  from  the  Godhead,  and  equal  in  itself  to  an 
act  of  creation,  .shall  have  renewed  them.  AYith  this  private 


REPORT   FOR    1847.  591 

belief  of  the  witnesses,  of  course,  neither  the  Board  of  Educa- 
tion, nor  any  man  or  body  of  men,  have  aught  to  do,  —  unless, 
indeed,  it  be  to  affirm  their  right  to  hold  it,  in  common  with 
every  other  man's  right  either  to  agree  with  them  or  to  dissent 
from  them.  But,  as  bearing  upon  the  point  under  considera- 
tion, the  fact  is  most  important :  it  adds  great  cogency  to  their 
testimony,  and  invests  it,  as  it  were,  with  a  compulsory  power. 
For  if  those  who  believe  that  the  human  heart  is  by  nature 
alienated  from  God,  that  its  innate  relation  to  the  Holy  One  is 
that  of  natural  repulsion,  and  not  of  natural  attraction,  nor  even 
of  neutrality,  —  if  they,  from  their  own  experience  in  the  educa- 
tion of  youth,  believe  that  our  common-school  system,  under  cer- 
tain practicable  modifications,  can  rear  up  a  generation  of  men 
who  will  practise  towards  their  fellow-men  whatsoever  things 
are  true,  honest,  just,  pure,  lovely,  and  of  good  report,  —  then, 
surely,  a  rational  community  can  need  no  additional  evidence 
or  motive  to  impel  it  to  the  work  of  reform.  And  all  those,  if 
such  there  are,  who  believe  that  moral  evil  comes  from  the 
abuse  or  misuse  of  powers  in  themselves  good,  and  not  from 
any  inborn  and  original  predilection  for  wrong,  may  well  take 
courage,  aud  may  tender  their  heartiest  co-operation  in  further- 
ing an  enterprise,  which,  even  under  fundamental  postulates  the 
most  adverse,  promises  results  so  glorious.  If  they  who  be- 
lieve that  there  is  a  principle  of  evil  in  the  human  soul,  lying 
back  of  consciousness,  incorporated  as  an  original  element  into 
its  constitution,  beginning  to  be  when  the  spirit  itself  began  to 
be,  and  growing  with  it  through  all  the  primordial  stages  of  its 
growth,  —  which,  indeed,  belongs  to  the  ante-natal  period  of 
every  descendant  of  Adam  as  much  as  spottedness  belongs  to 
an  unborn  leopard  before  it  has  a  skin,  or  venom  to  an  un- 
hatched  cockatrice  before  it  has  a  sting,  —  if  those  who  believe 
this  do  nevertheless  believe  that  our  common-school  system, 
with  certain  practicable  modifications,  can  send  out  redeeming 
and  transforming  influences  which  shall  expel  uiuety-nine  hun- 
dredths  of  all  the  vices  and  crimes  under  which  society  now 
mourus  and  agonizes,  then  those  who  dissent  from  the  belief 


592  ANNUAL   REPORTS    ON   EDUCATION. 

that  the  natural  heart  is  thus  organically  intractable  and  per- 
verse will  be  all  the  more  ready  to  proclaim  the  ameliorating 
power  of  education,  and  will  all  the  more  earnestly  labor  for  its 
diffusion.  And  the  crowning  beauty  of  the  whole  is,  that  Chris- 
tian men  of  every  faith  may  cordially  unite  in  carrying  forward 
the  work  of  reform,  however  various  may  be  their  opinions  as 
to  the  cause  which  has  made  that  work  necessary  ;  just  as  all 
good  citizens  may  unite  in  extinguishing  a  conflagration,  though 
there  may  be  a  hundred  conflicting  opinions  as  to  the  means  or 
the  men  that  kindled  it.  In  short,  it  may  be  difficult  to  deter- 
mine which  class  will  act  under  the  more  conscience-moving 
motives,  —  those  who  hold  to  a  total  depravity  or  corruption 
of  the  human  heart,  but  still  believe  it  can  be  emancipated 
from  worldly  vices  and  crimes  by  such  instrumentalities  as  we 
can  readily  command ;  or  those  who  hold  that  heart  to  be  nat- 
urally capable  of  good  as  well  as  evil,  and  who  therefore  be- 
lieve, not  only  that  a  still  larger  proportion  of  the  race  can  be 
rescued  from  the  dominion  of  wrong-doing,  but  that  a  consum- 
mation so  glorious  can  be  reached  at  a  still  earlier  period,  and 
with  a  less  expenditure  of  effort. 

But  this  divine  result  of  staying  the  desolating  torrent  of 
practical  iniquity  by  drying  up  its  fountain-head  in  the  bosoms 
of  the  young  is  promised  only  on  the  antecedence  or  performr 
ance  of  certain  prescribed  conditions.  These  conditions  are 
the  three  following  :  — 

1.  That  the  public  schools  shall  be  conducted  on  the  cardi- 
nal principles  of  the  present  New-England  systems. 

2.  That  they  shall  all  be  taught,  for  a  period  of  ten  months 
in  each  year,  by  persons  of  high  intellectual  and  moral  qualifi- 
cations ;  or,  in  other  words,  that  all  the  teachers  shall  be  equal 
in  capacity  and  in  character  to  those  whom  we  now  call  first- 
class  or  first  rate  teachers.     And, 

3.  That  all  the  children  in  the  Commonwealth  shall  attend 
school  regularly  —  that  is,  for  the  ten  months  each  year  during 
which  they  are  kept  —  from  the  age  of  four  to  that  of  sixteen 
years. 


REPORT   FOR    1847.  593 

As  it  is  on  the  performance  of  these  conditions  that  the  ren- 
ovation of  society  is  predicated,  it  is,  of  course,  necessary  to 
show  that  they  are  practicable  conditions.  I  therefore  proceed 
to  consider,  and,  as  I  trust,  to  establish,  their  practicability. 

I.  The  first  condition  —  namely,  that  the  schools  shall  be 
conducted  on  the  cardinal  principles  of  the  New-England  sys- 
tems—  is  already  satisfied.  The  Massachusetts  school-system 
represents  favorably  the  systems  of  all  the  New-England  States. 
Not  one  of  them  has  an  element  of  prosperity  or  of  permanence, 
of  security  against  decay  within,  or  the  invasion  of  its  rights 
from  without,  which  ours  does  not  possess.  Our  law  requires 
that  a  school  shall  be  sustained  in  every  town  in  the  State,  — 
even  the  smallest  and  the  poorest  not  being  excepted  ;  and 
that  this  school  shall  be  as  open  and  free  to  all  the  children  as 
the  light  of  day  or  the  air  of  heaven.  No  child  is  met  on  the 
threshold  of  the  schoolhouse-door,  to  be  asked  for  money,  or 
whether  his  parents  are  native  or  foreign,  whether  or  not  they 
pay  a  tax,  or  what  is  their  faith.  The  schoolhouse  is  common 
property.  All  about  it  are  enclosures  and  hedges,  indicating 
private  ownership,  and  forbidding  intrusion  ;  but  here  is  a  spot 
which  even  rapacity  dares  not  lay  its  finger  upon.  The  most 
avaricious  would  as  soon  think  of  monopolizing  the  summer 
cloud,  as  it  comes  floating  up  from  the  west  to  shed  its  treas- 
ures upon  the  thirsty  earth,  as  of  monopolizing  these  fountains 
of  knowledge.  Public  opinion  —  that  sovereign  in  representa- 
tive governments  —  is  in  harmony  with  the  law.  Not  unfre- 
queutly  there  is  some  private  opposition,  and  occasionally  it 
avows  itself,  and  assumes  an  attitude  of  hostility  ;  but  persever- 
ance on  the  part  of  the  friends  of  progress  always  subdues  it, 
and  the  success  of  their  measures  eventually  shames  it  out  of 
existence. 

The  law  requires  all  public  schools  to  be  kept  by  a  teacher 
whose  literary  and  moral  qualifications  have  been  examined 
and  approved  by  a  committee  chosen  for  the  purpose  by  the 
people  themselves.  Not  less  than  the  six  following  branches 
of  knowledge  are  to  be  taught  in  every  town  ;  namely,  orthogra- 

38 


594  ANNUAL  REPORTS   ON  EDUCATION. 

phy,  reading,  writing,  English  grammar,  geography  and  arith- 
metic. The  teaching  of  "  good  behavior,"  which  includes  all 
the  courtesies  of  life  aud  all  the  minor  morals,  is  also  expressly 
enjoined.  These  peremptory  requisitions  are  the  minimum,  but 
not  the  maximum.  Any  town  may  enlarge  the  course  of  studies 
to  be  pursued  in  its  schools  as  much  as  it  may  choose,  even  to 
the  preparation  of  young  men  for  the  university,  or  for  any 
branch  of  educated  labor.  It  may  also  bestow  an  equivalent 
education  upon  the  other  sex.  The  law  also  contains  a  further 
provision  (subject,  however,  to  be  set  aside  by  the  express  vote 
of  a  district  or  town),  that,  in  every  school  of  more  than  fifty 
scholars  in  regular  attendance,  an  assistant  teacher  shall  be 
employed.  Although  there  is  no  statutory  provision  to  this 
effect  in  any  other  of  the  New-England  States,  yet  the  good 
sense  of  the  community  everywhere  advocates  this  rule. 

Nor  are  the  needs  of  the  intellect  alone  provided  for.  In  pre- 
scribing the  education  to  be  given  to  the  moral  nature,  the  law 
grows  more  earnest  and  impressive.  Its  beautiful  and  deep- 
toned  language  is,  "  It  shall  be  the  duty  of  the  president,  pro- 
fessors, and  tutors  of  the  University  at  Cambridge,  and  of  the 
several  colleges,  and  of  all  preceptors  and  teachers  of  acade- 
mies, and  all  other  instructors  of  youth,  to  exert  their  best  en- 
deavors to  impress  on  the  minds  of  children  and  youth  commit- 
ted to  their  care  and  instruction  the  principles  of  piety,  justice, 
and  a  sacred  regard  to  truth,  love  to  their  country,  humanity, 
and  universal  benevolence,  sobriety,  industry,  aud  frugality, 
chastity,  moderation,  and  temperance,  and  those  other  virtues 
which  are  the  ornament  of  human  society,  and  the  basis  upon 
which  a  republican  constitution  is  founded ;  and  it  shall  be  the 
duty  of  such  instructors  to  endeavor  to  lead  their  pupils,  as 
their  ages  and  capacities  will  admit,  into  a  clear  understanding 
of  the  tendency  of  the  above-mentioned  virtues  to  preserve  and 
perfect  a  republican  constitution,  and  secure  the  blessings  of 
liberty,  as  well  as  to  promote  their  future  happiness,  and  also 
to  point  out  to  them  the  evil  tendency  of  the  opposite  vices." 
But  lest  any  individual,  or  body  of  individuals,  forgetful  of  the 


REPORT  FOR    1847.  595 

divine  precept  to  do  unto  others  as  they  would  be  done  unto, 
should  seize  upon  this  statutory  injunction,  or  upon  some  part 
of  it,  as  a  pretext  for  turning  the  schools  into  proselytizing 
institutions,  the  law  rears  a  barrier  against  all  sectarian  en- 
croachments. That  which  is  "  calculated  to  favor  the  tenets 
of  any  particular  sect  of  Christians "  is  excluded  from  the 
schools.  The  use  of  the  Bible  in  schools  is  not  expressly  en- 
joined by  the  law,  but  both  its  letter  and  its  spirit  are  in  conso- 
nance with  that  use  ;  and,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  I  suppose  there  is 
not,  at  the  present  time,  a  single  town  in  the  Commonwealth  in 
whose  schools  it  is  not  read.  Whoever,  therefore,  believes 
in  the  Sacred  Scriptures,  has  his  belief,  in  form  and  in  spirit,  in 
the  schools ;  and  his  children  read  and  hear  the  words  them- 
selves which  contain  it.  The  aduiiuistration  of  this  law  is 
intrusted  to  the  local  authorities  in  the  respective  towns.  By 
introducing  the  Bible,  they  introduce  what  all  its  believers  hold 
to  be  the  rule  of  faith  and  practice  ;  and  although,  by  excluding 
theological  systems  of  human  origin,  they  may  exclude  a  pecu- 
liarity which  one  denomination  believes  to  be  true,  they  do  but 
exclude  what  other  denominations  believe  to  be  erroneous. 
Such  is  the  present  policy  of  our  law  for  including  what  all 
Christians  hold  to  be  rfght,  and  for  excluding  what  all,  except- 
iug  some  one  party,  hold  to  be  wrong. 

If  it  be  the  tendency  of  all  parties  and  sects  to  fasten  the 
mind  upon  what  is  peculiar  to  each,  and  to  withdraw  it  from 
what  is  common  to  all,  these  provisions  of  the  law  counterwork 
that  tendency.  They  turn  the  mind  towards  that  which  pro- 
duces harmony,  while  they  withdraw  it  from  sources  of  dis- 
cord ;  and  thus,  through  the  medium  of  our  schools,  that  song 
which  ushered  in  the  Christian  era  —  "  Peace  on  earth  and 
good-will  to  men  "  —  may  be  taken  up  and  continued  through 
the  ages. 

The  first  condition,  then,  not  only  may  be,  but  actually  is, 
complied  with  in  the  school-system  of  Massachusetts,  as  now 
established  and  administered. 

II.  The   second  condition  requires  that  all  our  schools  shall 


596  ANNUAL   REPOETS    ON   EDUCATION. 

be  kept,  for  ten  months  in  each  year,  by  persons  of  high  intel- 
lectual and  moral  qualifications,  —  by  persons  equal  in  capacity 
and  in  character  to  those  whom  we  now  call  first-class  or  first- 
rate  teachers. 

This  condition  supposes  two  things,  which,  as  yet,  we  are 
very  far  from  having  attained.  The  question  is,  Are  they  at- 
tainable ? 

In  regard  to  teachers,  it  supposes  such  an  improvement  as 
shall  advance  all  those  who  are  now  behind  what  we  call  the 
front  rank,  until  they  shall  come  upon  a  line  with  it.  Of  course, 
if  this  be  done,  some  will  be  found  in  advance  of  this  line  ;  for 
it  never  can  happen  with  regard  to  all  the  members  of  any  pro- 
fession, that  they  will  stand  precisely  abreast.  It  supposes, 
also,  that  all  our  schools  shall  be  kept  for  ten  mouths  each  year. 

The  questions,  then,  for  consideration  under  this  head,  are 
two  ;  namely  :  — 

1.  Is    there,  in  the  community  at  large,  sufficient  natural 
endowment  or  capacity,  from  which,  by  appropriate  training 
and  cultivation,  the  requisite  number  of  teachers,  possessing  the 
supposed  qualifications,  can  be  prepared?     And, 

2.  Can  the  towns  and  the  State,  separately  or  as  copartners, 
bear  the  expense  of  maintaining  the  required  class  of  teachers 
for  the  required  length  of  time? 

Is  not  the  first  question  answered  in  the  affrrnative  by  obser- 
vation and  experience?  For  the  last  two  generations,  with 
exceptions  comparatively  few,  all  the  eminent  men  of  our  State, 
whether  men  of  letters,  physicians,  lawyers,  clergymen,  legisla- 
tors, or  judges,  have  taught  school,  more  or  less,  during  the 
early  part  of  their  lives.  Now,  it  is  no  disparagement  to  say, 
respecting  those  who  constitute  at  present  our  best  class  of 
teachers,  that  they  are  not  superior  in  endowments  or  natural 
capacity,  in  industry,  or  iu  versatility  of  genius,  to  a  vast  num- 
ber of  their  predecessors,  who,  having  labored  for  a  limited 
period  in  this  field,  at  length  abandoned  it  in  quest  of  some 
other  occupation,  truly  known  to  be  more  lucrative,  and  falsely 
supposed  to  be  more  honorable.  It  is  no  unauthorized  assunip- 


REPORT   FOR    1847.  597 

tion,  then,  to  say,  that  great  numbers  of  those  who  left  the  em- 
ployment of  school-keeping  for  something  deemed  to  be  more 
eligible,  would,  had  they  continued  in  it,  have  won  the  honor 
of  standing  in  the  foremost  rank  of  this  noble  profession. 

In  the  second  place,  to  prove  that  there  is  no  lack  of  natural 
talent  in  existence  from  which  to  form  the  supposed  class  of 
teachers,  I  may  refer  to  the  general  history  and  experience  of 
mankind  in  all  other  departments  of  human  effort.  No  new 
calling  has  ever  reached  such  an  elevation  as  to  insure  honor 
and  emolument  to  its  professors,  which  has  not,  without  delay, 
attracted  to  itself  an  adequate  number  of  followers.  Witness 
the  intrinsically  odious  profession  of  arms,  —  a  profession  so 
odious,  that  those  have  been  held  worthy  of  especial  reward  who 
resisted  the  natural  love  of  ease,  and  instincts  of  self-preserva- 
tion, to  encounter  its  hardships  and  perils.  So,  also,  has  it 
been  in  regard  to  commerce  and  the  useful  arts.  And  in  those 
truly  dignified  and  honorable  professions,  —  the  legal  and  cleri- 
cal, —  where  mind  is  the  object  to  be  acted  upon,  as  well  as 
the  agent  to  act,  the  supply  has  generally  exceeded  the  demand. 
Now,  could  the  business  of  education  take  its  stand  in  public 
estimation  by  the  side  of  the  most  honorable  and  lucrative  call- 
ings in  life,  we  are  authorized  by  all  the  experience  of  mankind 
to  conclude  that  it  would  soon  cluster  around  itself  an  amount 
of  talent,  erudition,  and  genius,  at  least  equal  to  what  has  ever 
adorned  any  other  avocation  among  civilized  men. 

But,  independently  of  personal  knowledge  and  of  historic  ex- 
perience, may  not  a  conclusive  argument  in  support  of  the  gen- 
eral position  be  drawn  from  the  energy  and  versatility  with 
•\vhich.  as  we  all  know,  Nature  has  gifted  the  minds  of  her  chil- 
dren? In  the  variety  and  strength  of  the  capacities  belonging  to 
the  race,  there  must  be  the  means  or  instruments  by  which  Provi- 
dence can  accomplish  every  good  work.  Somewhere  in  each 
generation,  the  powers  exist  by  which  the  generation  that  is  to 
succeed  it  may  be  advanced  another  stage  along  the  radiant 
pathway  of  improvement.  But  in  the  whole  of  the  past  history 
of  the  world,  no  generation  has  yet  existed,  whose  faculties 


598  ANNUAL   REPORTS    ON   EDUCATION. 

have  not,  to  a  very  great  extent,  lain  dormant,  —  to  say  noth- 
ing of  the  perversion  of  those  which  have  been  developed.  But 
our  free  institutions  cherish  growth.  The  future,  with  us,  is  not 
to  be  measured  by  the  past.  The  mind  of  the  masses,  which 
for  so  many  ages  had  been  crippled,  and  fettered  after  it  was 
crippled,  is  here  unbound.  Under  the  stimulus  applied  to  na- 
tive vigor,  talent  and  genius  start  up  as  naturally  as  vegetation 
in  the  spring.  The  desire  of  bettering  one's  condition  springs 
from  a  universal  instinct  in  the  human  mind.  With  us.  every 
man  sees  that  the  gratification  of  this  desire  is  within  his  reach. 
Including  the  lifetime  of  a  single  generation,  —  that  is,  within 
the  last  forty  or  fifty  years,  —  there  is  not  a  school-district  in 
Massachusetts,  however  obscure,  which  has  shown  any  interest 
in  the  character  of  its  schools,  that  has  not  sent  out  one  or 
more  men  who  have  become  conspicuous  in  some  of  the  hon- 
orable positions  of  society.  They  are  found  throughout  the 
Union,  wherever  enterprise  or  talent  is  rewarded.  Those  dis- 
tricts, and,  still  more,  those  towns,  where  common  schools  have 
been  an  object  of  special  regard,  have  sent  forth  many  such 
men.  While  visiting  different  parts  of  the  State  for  the  last 
ten  years,  facts,  in  sufficient  numbers  to  make  a  most  interest- 
ing and  instructive  book,  have  come  to  my  knowledge,  show- 
ing that  those  districts  and  towns,  where  special  pains  have 
been  exerted  and  special  liberality  bestowed  in  behalf  of  com- 
mon schools,  have  supplied  a  proportion  of  all  the  distinguished 
men  of  the  vicinity,  corresponding  with  the  superior  excellence 
of  the  early  education  afforded  them.  So,  on  the  other  hand, 
neglectful  towns  and  districts  have  beea  comparatively  barren 
of  eminent  men.  The  great  cars  of  corn  will  not  grow  on  sand- 
hills. Great  men  will  not  spring  up  in  au  atmosphere  void  of 
intellectual  nutrition.  Nature  observes  a  law  in  this  respect, 
in  regard  to  her  spiritual  as  well  as  her  physical  productions. 
Now,  although  something  has  been  done  in  Massachusetts  for 
the  culture  and  expansion  of  the  common  mind,  yet  indefinitely 
more  may  be  done.  Even  were  it  admitted,  therefore,  that  the 
State  had  not  been  able  in  past  times  to  supply  the  requisite 


REPORT   FOR    1847.  599 

number  of  teachers  of  the  highest  grade,  it  would  by  no  means 
follow  that  she  could  not  do  so  in  future. 

The  intrinsically  noble  profession  of  teaching  has,  most  un- 
fortunately, been  surrounded  by  an  atmosphere  of  repulsion 
rather  than  of  attraction.  Young  men  of  talent  are  generally 
determined  by  two  things  in  selecting  an  employment  for  life. 
The  first  of  these  is  the  natural  tendency  of  the  mind,  —  its 
predisposition  towards  one  pursuit  rather  than  towards  another. 
In  this  way,  Nature  often  predetermines  what  a  man  shall  do  ; 
and,  to  make  her  purpose  inevitable,  she  kneads  it,  as  it  were, 
into  the  stamina  of  his  existence.  She  does  not  content  herself 
with  standing  before  his  will,  soliciting  or  tempting  him  to  a 
particular  course,  but  she  stands  behind  the  will,  guiding  and 
propelling  it ;  so  that  from  birth  he  seems  to  be  projected 
towards  his  object  like  a  well-aimed  arrow  to  its  mark.  Those 
in  whom  the  love  of  beautiful  forms,  colors,  and  proportions, 
predominates,  are  naturally  won  to  the  cultivation  of  the  fine 
arts,  or  to  some  branch  of  the  useful  arts  most  congenial  to  the 
fine.  Those  who  have  a  great  fondness  for  botany  and  chem- 
istry, and  to  whom  physiological  inquiries  are  especially  grate- 
ful, become  physicians.  Persons  enamoured  of  forensic  contests, 
roused  by  their  excitement?,  and  panting  for  the  eclat  which 
their  victories  confer,  betake  themselves  to  the  study  of  the 
law,  and  become  advocates.  The  clerical  profession  is  com- 
posed of  men  whose  mind?  are  deeply  imbued  and  penetrated 
with  the  religious  sentiment,  and  who  ponder  profoundly  and 
devoutly  upon  the  solemn  concerns  of  an  hereafter.*  This  con- 
stitutional or  moral  affinity  for  one  sphere  of  employment  rather 
than  for  another  predetermines  many  minds  in  choosing  the 
object  of  their  pursuit  for  life.  It  is  like  the  elective  attractions 
of  the  chemist,  existing  beforehand,  and  only  awaiting  the  con- 
tiguity of  the  related  substances  to  make  their  secret  affinities 
manifest. 

*  This  general  remark  must  be  taken  with  the  exception  of  a  few  of  the  very 
worst  men  which  any  age  ever  produces.  These  become  members  of  the  clerical 
profession,  because,  under  the  mask  of  its  sanctity,  they  hope  to  practise  their 
iniquities  with  impunity. 


600  ANNUAL    REPORTS    ON   EDUCATION. 

But  this  natural  tendency  is  often  subjected  to  a  disturbing 
or  modifying  force  ;  and  it  yields  to  this  force  the  more  readily 
as  it  is  itself  less  intense  and  dominant.  All  minds  have  a  de- 
sire, more  or  less  energetic,  for  pleasure,  for  wealth,  for  honor, 
or  for  some  of  that  assemblage  of  rewards  which  obtains  such 
willing  allegiance  from  mankind.  Hence  the  internal,  inborn 
impulse  is  often  diverted  from  the  specific  object  to  which  it 
naturally  points,  and  is  lured  away  to  another  object,  which, 
from  some  collateral  or  adventitious  reason,  promises  a  readier 
gratification. 

There  is  also  a  class  of  minds  of  vigorous  and  varied  capaci- 
ties, which  stand  nearly  balanced  between  different  pursuits, 
and  which,  therefore,  may  be  turned,  by  slight  circumstances, 
in  any  one  of  many  directions.  They  are  like  fountains  of 
water  rising  on  a  table-land,  whose  channels  may  be  so  cut  as 
to  cover  either  of  its  slopes  with  fertility. 

Now,  the  qualities  which  predispose  their  possessor  to  be- 
come the  companion,  guide,  and  teacher  of  children,  are  good 
sense,  lively  religious  sensibilities,  practical,  unaffected  benevo- 
lence, a  genuine  sympathy  with  the  young,  and  that  sunny, 
genial  temperament  which  always  sees  its  own  cheerfulness 
reflected  from  the  ever-open  mirror  of  a  child's  face.  The 
slightest  exercise  of  good  sense  makes  it  apparent  that  any 
one  year  of  childhood  will  exert  a  more  decisive  control  over 
future  destiny  than  any  ten  years  afterwards.  The  religious 
and  benevolent  elements  seize  instinctively  upon  the  promise 
made  to  those  who  train  up  children  in  the  way  they  should  go. 
The  love  of  children  casts  a  pleasing  illusion  over  the  mind  in 
regard  to  every  thing  they  do,  —  if,  indeed,  it  be  an  illusion, 
and  not  a  truth  above  the  reach  of  the  intellect,  —  elevating 
their  puerile  sports  into  dignity,  hailing  each  step  in  their 
progress  as  though  it  were  some  grand  discovery  in  science, 
and  grieving  over  their  youthful  wanderings  or  backslidings 
with  as  deep  a  sorrow  as  is  felt  for  the  turpitude  of  a  full- 
grown  man,  or  for  the  heaven-defying  sins  of  a  nation.  So 
that  genial,  joyous,  ever-smiling  temperament,  which  .sees  only 


REPORT   FOR    1847.  601 

rainbows  where  others  see  clouds,  and  which  is  delighted  by 
the  reflection  of  itself  when  coming  from  one  child's  face,  will 
never  tire  of  its  labors  when  the  same  charming  image  per- 
petually comes  back  from  the  multiplying  glasses  of  group 
after  group  of  happy  children,  —  ever-varying,  but  always 
beautiful. 

Now,  I  think  we  have  abundant  reason  to  believe  that  a 
sufficient  number  of  persons,  bearing  from  the  hand  of  Nature 
this  distinctive  image  and  superscription  of  a  school-teacher, 
are  born  into  the  world  with  every  generation.  But  the  mis- 
fortune is,  that  when  they  arrive  at  years  of  discretion,  and 
begin  to  survey  the  various  fields  of  labor  that  lie  open  before 
them,  they  find  that  the  noblest  of  them  all,  and  the  one,  too, 
for  which  they  have  the  greatest  natural  predilection,  is  neither 
honored  by  distinction  nor  rewarded  by  emolument.  They  see, 
that,  if  they  enter  it,  many  of  their  colleagues  and  associates 
will  be  persons  with  whom  they  have  no  congeniality  of  feeling, 
and  who  occupy  a  far  less  elevated  position  in  the  social  scale 
than  that  to  which  their  own  aspirations  point.  If  they  go 
through  the  whole  country,  and  question  every  man,  they  can- 
not find  a  single  public-school  teacher  who  has  acquired  wealth 
by  the  longest  and  the  most  devoted  life  of  labor.  They  can- 
not find  one  who  has  been  promoted  to  the  presidency  of  a 
college,  or  to  a  professorship  in  it ;  nor  one  who  has  been 
elected  or  appointed  to  fill  any  distinguished  civil  station. 
Hence,  in  most  cases,  the  adventitious  circumstances  which 
surround  the  object  of  their  preference  repel  them  from  it. 
Or,  it  they  enter  the  profession,  it  is  only  for  a  brief  period, 
and  for  some  collateral  purpose  ;  and,  when  their  temporary 
end  is  gained,  they  sink  it  still  lower  by  their  avowed  or  well- 
understood  reasons  for  abandoning  it.  Such  is  the  literal 
history  of  hundreds  and  of  thousands  who  have  shone  or  are 
now  shining  in  other  walks  of  life,  but  who  would  have  shone 
with  beams  more  far  creative  of  human  happiness  had  they 
not  been  struck  from  the  sphere  for  which  Nature  pre-adapted 
them. 


602  ANNUAL   REPORTS    ON    EDUCATION. 

Look  at  the  average  rate  of  wages  paid  to  teachers  in  some 
of  the  pattern  States  of  the  Union.  In  Maine,  it  is  §15.40  per 
month  to  males,  and  $4.80  to  females.  In  New  Hampshire,  it 
is  $13.50  per  month  to  males,  and  $5.65  to  females.  In  Ver- 
mont, it  is  $12.00  per  month  to  males,  and  84.75  to  females. 
In  Connecticut,  it  is  816.00  per  month  to  males,  and  $6.50  to) 
females.  In  New  York,  it  is  $14.96  per  mouth  to  males,  and 
86.69  to 'females.  In  Pennsylvania,  it  is  $17.02  per  month  to 
males,  and  10.09  to  females.  In  Ohio,  it  is  815.42  per  month 
to  males,  and  88.73  to  females.  In  Indiana,  it  is  812.00  per 
mouth  to  males,  and  $6.00  to  females.  In  Michigan,  it  is 
$12.71  per  month  for  males,  and  $5.36  for  females.  Even  in 
Massachusetts,  it  is  only  $24.51  per  month  to  males,  and  $8.07 
to  females.  All  this  is  exclusive  of  board ;  but  let  it  be  com- 
pared with  what  is  paid  to  cashiers  of  banks,  to  secretaries  of 
insurance-companies,  to  engineers  upon  railroads,  to  superin- 
tendents in  factories,  to  custom-house  officers,  navy  agents,  and 
so  forth,  and  so  forth,  and  it  will  then  be  seen  what  pecu- 
niary temptations  there  are  on  every  side,  drawing  enterpris- 
ing and  talented  young  men  from  the  ranks  of  the  teacher's 
profession. 

Nor  does  the  social  estimation  accorded  to  teachers  much 
surpass  the  pecuniary  value  set  upon  their  services.  The 
nature  of  their  calling  debars  them,  almost  universally,  from 
political  honors,  which,  throughout  our  whole  country,  have  a 
factitious  value  so  much  above  their  real  worth.  Without 
entire  faithlessness  to  their  trust,  they  cannot  engage  in  trade 
or  commercial  speculations.  Modes  of  education  have  here- 
tofore been  so  imperfect,  that  I  do  not  know  a  single  instance 
where  a  teacher  has  been  transferred  from  his  school  to  any 
of  those  departments  of  educated  labor  in  which  such  liberal 
salaries  are  now  given.  And  thus  it  is,  that  the  profession  at 
large,  while  it  enjoys  but  a  measured  degree  of  public  respect, 
seems  shut  out  from  all  the  paths  that  lead  to  fortune  or  to 
fame.  No  worldly  prize  is  held  up  before  it ;  and,  in  the 
present  condition  of  mankind,  how  few  there  are  who  will 


REPORT   FOR    1847.  603 

work  exclusively  for  the  immortal  reward  !  It  supposes  the 
possession  only  of  very  low  faculties,  to  derive  pleasure  from 
singing  the  praises  of  a  martyr  ;  but  to  be  the  martyr  one's 
self  requires  very  high  ones. 

Hence  it  is,  as  was  before  said,  that  when  the  aspiring  and 
highly-endowed  youth  of  our  country  arrive  at  years  of  discre- 
tion, and  begin  to  survey  the  varied  employments  which  lie 
spread  out  before  them,  they  find  that  the  noblest  of  them  all 
presents  the  fewest  external  attractions.  Those  whose  natural 
or  acquired  ambition  seeks  for  wealth,  go  into  trade.  The 
mechanical  genius  applies  himself  to  the  useful  arts.  The 
politically  ambitious  connect  themselves  with  some  one  of 
those  classes  from  which  public  officers  are  usually  selected. 
Medicine  attracts  those  who  have  the  peculiar  combination  of 
tastes  congenial  to  it.  Those  who  ponder  most  upon  the  ways 
of  God  to  men,  minister  in  sacred  things.  Who,  then,  are  left 
to  fill  the  most  important  position  known  to  social  life?  A  few 
remain,  whose  natural  tendencies  in  this  direction  are  too  vehe- 
ment to  be  resisted  or  diverted ;  a  somewhat  larger  number, 
who  have  no  strong  predilection  for  one  sphere  of  exertion 
rather  than  for  another,  and  to  whom,  under  the  circumstances 
peculiar  to  each,  school-keeping  is  as  eligible  as  any  other  em- 
ployment :  but  many,  very  many,  the  great  majority,  engage  in 
it,  not  for  its  own  sake,  but  only  to  make  it  subservient  to  some 
ulterior  object,  or  —  with  humiliation  it  is  said  —  perhaps  only 
to  escape  from  manual  labor. 

The  profession  of  school-keeping,  then,  as  a  profession,  has 
never  had  an  equal  chance  with  its  competitors.  On  the  one 
hand,  it  has  been  resorted  to  by  great  numbers,  whose  only  ob- 
ject was  to  make  a  little  money  out  of  it,  and  then  abandon  it ; 
and,  on  the  other,  its  true  disciples,  those  who  might  have  been 
and  should  have  been  its  leaders  and  priesthood,  have  been 
lured  and  seduced  away  from  it  by  all  the  more  splendid  prizes 
of  life. 

Even  though,  therefore,  the  profession  of  school-keeping  has 
not  been  crowded  by  learned  and  able  men,  devoting  their 


604  ANNUAL   REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

energies  and  their  lives  to  its  beneficent  labors,  this  fact  wholly 
fails  to  prove  that  Nature  does  not  produce,  with  each  genera- 
tion, a  sufficient  number  of  fit  persons,  who,  under  an  equitable 
distribution  or  apportionment  of  honors  and  rewards  for  meri- 
torious services,  would  be  found  pre-adapted  for  school-keeping, 
in  the  same  way  that  Newton  was  for  mathematics,  or  Pope 
for  poetry,  or  Franklin  for  the  infallibility  of  his  common 
sense.  Indeed,  the  proportion  of  good  teachers  whom  we  now 
have,  notwithstanding  all  their  discouragements  against  enter- 
ing, and  their  seducements  for  leaving,  the  profession,  seem 
demonstrative  of  the  contrary. 

Thus  far,  the  argument  has  proceeded  upon  the  basis  that 
the  required  number  of  teachers,  possessing  the  high  grade  of 
qualifications  supposed,  must  equal  the  present  number,  such 
as  these  are.  But  it  is  almost  too  obvious  to  need  mentioning, 
that  if  the  qualifications  of  teachers  were  to  be  so  greatly  en- 
hanced, and  the  term  of  the  schools  so  materially  lengthened, 
as  is  proposed,  teaching  would  then  really  become  a  profession, 
and  the  same  teachers  would  keep  school  through  the  year. 
Instead,  therefore,  of  changing  from  male  teachers  in  the  win- 
ter to  females  in  the  summer,  back  again  to  males  in  the  winter, 
and  so  on  alternately,  —  the  children  of  each  school  suffering 
under  a  new  step-father  or  a  new  step-mother  each  half-year, 
—  they  would  enjoy  the  vastly-improved  system  of  continuous 
training  under  the  same  hands.  This  would  diminish,  by 
almost  one-half,  the  required  number  of  teachers  for  our  schools  ; 
the  poorer  half  would  be  discarded,  the  better  half  retained. 
Surely,  under  these  circumstances,  if  a  sufficient  number  of 
the  very  highest  class  of  teachers  could  not  be  found,  it  would 
not  be  owing  to  any  parsimony  of  Nature  in  withholding  the 
endowments,  but  to  our  unpardonable  niggardliness  in  not 
cultivating  and  employing  them. 

Feeling  now  authorized  to  assume  that  the  first  proposition 
has  been  satisfactorily  established,  it  only  remains  to  be  consid- 
ered, under  this  head,  whether  the  community  at  large  —  the 
towns  separately,  or  the  towns  and  the  State  by  joint  contribu- 


REPORT   FOR    1847.  605 

tions  —  cau  afford  to  make  such  compensation  as  shall  attract 
to  this  field  of  labor  the  high  order  of  teachers  supposed,  and 
shall  requite  them  generously  for  their  services. 

To  induce  persons  of  the  highest  order  of  talent  to  become 
teachers,  aud  to  deter  good  teachers  from  abandoning  the  pro- 
fession, its  emoluments  must  bear  some  close  analogy  to  those 
which  the  same  persons  could  command  in  other  employments. 
The  case,  too,  as  presented  in  the  circular,  and  upon  which  the 
evidence  has  been  obtained,  supposes  the  schools  to  continue 
for  ten  months  in  each  year.  Although  in  many  large  towns 
the  schools  are  now  kept  more  than  this  portion  of  the  year, 
yet  their  average  length  for  the  whole  State  is  but  eight  mouths. 
The  increased  expense,  then,  both  of  the  longer  term  and  of 
the  more  liberal  compensation,  must  be  provided  for.  Can  the 
community  sustain  this  expense? 

Let  us  suppose,  for  a  moment,  that  ninety-nine  per  cent  of 
our  whole  community  should  be  temperate,  honest,  industrious, 
frugal  people,  —  conscientious  in  feeling,  and  exemplary  in  con- 
duct, —  is  it  not  certain  that  two  grand  pecuniary  consequences 
would  immediately  follow  ;  namely,  a  vast  gain  in  productive 
power,  and  a  vast  saving  in  the  criminal  destruction  and  loss 
of  property  ?  Either  of  these  sources  of  gain  would  more  than 
defray  the  increased  expenses  of  the  system,  which,  according 
to  the  evidence  I  have  obtained,  would  insure  both.  The  cur- 
rent expenses  last  year,  for  the  education  of  all  the  children  in 
the  State  between  the  ages  of  four  and  sixteen,  was  $3.14,  on 
an  average,  for  each  one.  Look  into  the  police  courts  of  our 
cities  in  the  morning,  and  especially  on  Monday  morning,  when 
the  ghastly  array  of  drunkards  is  marched  in  for  trial.  A  case 
may  not  occupy  ten  minutes  ;  and  yet  the  fine,  costs,  and  ex- 
penses would  educate  two  children,  for  a  year,  in  our  public 
schools,  at  the  present  rate,  or  one  child  at  double  the  present 
rate.  The  expenses  incurred  in  punishing  the  smallest  theft 
that  is  committed  exceed  the  present  cost  of  educating  a  child 
in  our  schools  for  a  year.  A  knave  who  proposes  to  obtain 
goods  by  false  pretences  will  hardly  aim  at  making  less  than  a 


606  ANNUAL    REPORTS    ON   EDUCATION. 

thousand  dollars  by  his  speculation.  There  arc  more  than  one 
hundred  and  fifty  towns  in  Massachusetts,  —  that  is,  about  half 
the  whole  number  in  the  State,  —  in  each  of  which  the  annual 
appropriation  for  all  its  schools  is  less  than  one  thousand  dollars. 
A  burglar  or  highway  robber  will  seldom  peril  his  life  without 
the  prospect  of  a  prize  which  would  educate  five  hundred  or  a 
thousand  children  for  a  year.  An  incendiary  exhibits  fire-works 
at  an  expense  which  would  educate  all  the  children  of  many  a 
school-district  in  the  State,  from  the  age  of  four  to  that  of  six- 
teen ;  while  the  only  reward  he  expects  is  that  of  stealing  a 
few  garments  or  trinkets  during  the  conflagration.  In  a  single 
city  in  the  State,  consisting  of  sixteen  or  seventeen  thousand 
inhabitants,  it  was  estimated  by  a  most  respectable  and  intelli- 
gent committee,  that  the  cost  of  alcoholic  drinks  during  the  last 
year  far  exceeded  the  combined  cost  of  all  the  schools  and  all 
the  churches  in  it,  although,  for  both  religion  and  education,  it 
is  a  highly  liberal  city.  The  police  expenses  alone  of  the  city 
of  New  York  are  about  half  a  million  a  year.  But  all  these 
are  but  a  part  of  the  sluice-ways  through  which  the  hard-earned 
wealth  of  the  people  is  wasted.  What  shall  be  said  of  those 
stock-swindlings  and  bank-failures  whose  capitals  of  hundreds 
of  thousands  of  dollars  are  embezzled  in  "  fair  business  trans- 
actions ;  "  whose  vaults,  sworn  to  be  full  of  specie  or  bullion, 
remind  one,  on  inspection,  not  merely  of  a  pecuniary,  but  of  a 
philosophical,  vacuum?  what  of  those  epidemic  speculations 
in  land  (often  Fairy-land,  though  void  of  both  beauty  and 
poetry),  where  fortunes  change  hands  as  rapidly  as  if  depend- 
ent upon  the  throw  of  a  gambler's  dice?  and  what  of  those 
enormous  peculations  by  government  defaulters,  where  more 
money  is  ingulfed  by  one  stupendous  fraud  than  Massachusetts 
expends  for  the  education  of  all  her  children  in  a  year?  All 
this  devastation  and  loss  the  public  bears  with  marvellous,  with 
most  criminal  composure.  The  people  at  large  stand  by  the 
wreck-covered  shore,  where  so  many  millions  are  dashed  in 
pieces  and  sunk,  and  seem  not  to  recognize  the  destruction  ; 
and,  what  is  infinitely  worse,  there  are  those  who  rejoice  in  iuc 


REPORT   FOR    1847.  607 

howl  of  the  tempest  and  the  shrieks  of  the  sufferers,  because 
they  can  grow  rich  by  plundering  only  here  and  there  a  frag- 
ment of  property  from  the  dead  or  the  defenceless.  By  charity, 
by  direct  taxes,  by  paying  twenty  or  thirty  per  cent  more  for 
every  article  or  necessary  of  life  than  it  is  equitably  worth,  by 
bad  debts,  by  the  occasional  and  involuntary  contribution  of  a 
pocket-book,  a  watch,  a  horse,  a  carriage,  a  ship,  or  a  cargo, 
to  which  the  robber  and  the  barrator  help  themselves  by  paving 
premiums  for  insurance,  and  in  a  hundred  other  ways,  the 
honest  and  industrious  part  of  the  people  not  only  support 
themselves,  but  supply  the  mighty  current  of  wealth  that  goes 
to  destruction  through  these  flood-gates  of  iniquity.  The  peo- 
ple do  not  yet  seem  to  see  that  all  the  cost  of  legislating  against 
criminals  ;  of  judges  and  prosecuting  officers,  of  jurors  and 
witnesses,  to  convict  them ;  of  building  houses  of  correction 
and  jails  and  penitentiaries  for  restraining  and  punishing  them, 
—  is  not  a  hundredth  part  of  the  grand  total  of  expenditure 
incurred  by  private  and  social  immoralities  and  crimes.  The 
people  do  not  yet  seem  to  see  that  the  intelligence  and  the 
morality  which  education  can  impart  is  that  beneficent  kind 
of  insurance,  which,  by  preventing  losses,  obviates  the  necessity 
of  indemnifying  for  them ;  thus  saving  both  premium  and 
risk.  What  is  ingulfed  in  the  vortex  of  crime  in  each  genera- 
tion would  build  a  palace  of  more  than  Oriental  splendor  in 
every  school-district  in  the  laud,  would  endow  it  with  a  library 
beyond  the  ability  of  a  life-time  to  read,  would  supply  it  with 
apparatus  and  laboratories  for  the  illustration  of  every  study 
and  the  exemplification  of  every  art,  and  munificently  requite 
the  services  of  a  teacher  worthy  to  preside  in  such  a  sanctuary 
of  intelligence  and  virtue. 

But  the  prevention  of  all  that  havoc  of  worldly  goods  which 
is  caused  by  vice  transfers  only  one  item  from  the  loss  to  the 
profit  side  of  the  account.  Were  all  idle,  intemperate,  preda- 
tory men  to  become  industrious,  sober,  and  honest,  they  would 
add  vast  sums  to  the  inventory  of  the  nation's  wealth,  instead 
of  subtracting  from  it.  Let  any  person  take  a  single  town,  vil- 


608  ANNUAL    REPORTS    ON    EDUCATION. 

lage,  or  neighborhood,  and  look  at  its  inhabitants  individually, 
with  the  question  in  his  mind,  how  many  of  them  are  produ- 
cers, and  how  many  are  non-producers,  —  that  is,  how  many, 
either  by  the  labor  of  the  body  or  the  labor  of  the  mind,  add 
value  and  dignity  to  life,  and  how  many  barely  support  them- 
selves, —  and  I  think  he 'will  often  be  surprised  at  the  smallness 
of  the  number  by  whose  talent  and  industry  the  storehouses  of 
the  earth  are  mainly  filled,  and  all  the  complicated  business 
of  society  is  principally  managed.  Could  we  convert  into  co- 
workers  for  the  benefit  of  mankind  all  those  physical  and 
spiritual  powers  of  usefulness  which  are  now  antagonists  or 
neutrals,  the  gain  would  be  incalculable. 

Add  the  above  two  items  together,  —  namely,  the  saving  of 
what  the  vicious  now  squander  or  destroy,  and  the  wealth, 
which,  as  virtuous  men,  they  would  amass,  —  and  the  only  dif- 
ficulty presented  would  be  to  find  in  what  manner  so  vast  an 
amount  could  be  beneficially  disposed  of. 

But  it  is  not  to  be  disguised,  whatever  reforms  may  be  insti- 
tuted, that  the  cost  of  crime  cannot,  at  once,  be  prevented. 
For  a  season,  therefore,  and  until  the  expenses  of  education 
shall  arrest  and  supersede  the  expenses  of  guilt,  both  must  be 
borne.  I  wish  to  state  the  difficulty  without  extenuation.  The 
question,  then,  is,  Can  both  be  temporarily  borne? 

The  appropriations  for  which  the  towns  voluntarily  taxed 
themselves  last  year  for  the  current  expenses  of  the  schools  — 
that  is,  for  the  wages  and  board  of  teachers,  and  for  fuel  — 
were  $662,870.57.  Adding  the  income  of  the  surplus  revenue, 
when  appropriated  for  the  support  of  schools,  it  was  $670,628. - 
13.  The  valuation  of  the  State  I  suppose  to  be  not  less  than 
$450,000,000.  Last  year's  tax,  therefore,  for  the  current  ex- 
penses of  the  schools,  was  less  than  one  mill  and  u  half  on  the 
dollar,  —  less  than  one  mill  and  a  half  on  a  thousand  mills. 
Taking  the  average  of  the  State,  then,  no  man  was  obliged  to 
pay  more  than  one  six  hundred  and  sixty-sixth  part  of  his  prop- 
erty for  this  purpose  ;  or,  rather,  such  would  have  been  the 
case  had  there  been  no  poll-tax,  —  had  the  whole  tax  been  lev- 


REPORT    FOR   1847.  609 

led  upon  property  alone.  At  this  rate,  it  would  take  six  hundred 
and  sixty-six  years  for  all  the  property  of  the  State  to  be  once 
devoted  to  this  purpose.  And  does  not  the  portion  of  our 
worldly  interests  which  is  dependent  upon  public  schools  bear 
a  greater  ratio  to  the  whole  of  those  interests  than  one  to  six 
hundred  and  sixty-six?  I  need  not  argue  this  point ;  for  who, 
out  of  an  insane  asylum,  or  even  of  the  curable  classes  in 
it,  will  question  the  fact?  Who  will  say  that  the  importance 
of  this  interest,  as  compared  with  all  the  earthly  interests  of 
mankind,  is  not  indefinitely  greater  than  this?  Who  will  say, 
that,  to  secure  so  precious  an  end  as  the  diffusion  of  almost 
universal  intelligence  and  virtue,  and  the  suppression,  with  an 
equal  degree  of  universality,  of  ignorance  and  vice,  it  would 
not  be  expedient  to  do  as  the  Bishop  of  Laudaff  once  pro- 
posed that  the  British  nation  should  do,  in  an  eventful  crisis  of 
its  affairs, — vote  away,  by  acclamation,  one-half  of  all  the 
wealth  of  the  kingdom?  But  there  is  no  need  of  carrying  our 
feelings  or  our  reason  to  this  pitch  of  exaltation.  There  is  no 
need  of  any  signal  or  unwonted  sacrifice.  There  is  no  need  of 
a  devotion  of  life,  as  is  done  in  battle.  There  is  no  need  of 
perilling  fortunes,  as  is  done  every  day  in  trade.  There  is  no 
need  that  any  man  in  the  community  should  lose  one  day  from 
his  life,  or  an  hour  from  his  sleep,  or  a  comfort  from  his  ward- 
robe or  his  table.  Three  times  more  than  is  now  expended  — 
that  is,  four  and  a  half  mills  on  every  thousand  mills  of  the 
property  of  the  State,  or  only  one  part  in  two  hundred  and 
twenty-two,  instead  of  one  in  six  hundred  and  sixty-six  — 
would  defray  every  expense,  and  insure  the  result.  Regarded 
merely  as  a  commercial  transaction,  —  a  pecuniary  enterprise, 
whose  elements  are  dollars  and  cents  alone,  —  there  is  not  an 
intelligent  capitalist  in  the  State  who  would  not,  on  the  evidence 
here  adduced,  assume  the  whole  of  it,  and  pay  a  bonus  for  the 
privilege.  When  the  State  was  convinced  of  the  lucrativeuess 
or  general  expediency  of  a  railroad  from  Worcester  to  its  west- 
ern border,  it  bound  itself,  at  a  word,  to  the  amount  of  five  mil- 
lions of  dollars  ;  and  I  suppose  it  to  be  now  the  opinion  of  every 

39 


610  ANNUAL   REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

intelligent  man  in  the  Commonwealth,  that,  when  the  day  of 
payment  shall  arrive,  the  road  itself,  in  addition  to  all  the  col- 
lateral advantages  which  it  will  have  conferred,  will  have  paid 
for  itself,  and  will  then  forever  remain,  not  merely  a  monu- 
ment of  wisdom,  but  a  reward  for  sagacity.  Yet  what  is  a  rail- 
road, though  it  does  cut  down  the  mountains  and  lift  up  the 
valleys,  compared  with  an  all-embracing  agency  of  social  and 
moral  reform  which  shall  abase  the  pride  of  power,  and  elevate 
the  lowliness  of  misfortune?  And  those  facilities  for  travel 
which  supersede  the  tediousness  of  former  journeyings  and  the 
labor  of  transportation  —  what  are  they,  when  compared  with 
the  prevention  of  that  "lamentation,  mourning,  and  woe" 
which  come  from  the  perpetration  of  crime  ?  When  the  city  of 
Boston  was  convinced  of  the  necessity  of  having  a  supply  of 
pure  water  from  abroad  for  the  use  of  its  inhabitants,  it  voted 
three  millions  of  dollars  to  obtain  it  ;  and  he  would  be  a  bold 
man  who  would  now  propose  a  repeal  of  the  ordinance,  though 
all  past  expenditures  could  be  refunded.  Yet  all  the  school- 
houses  in  Boston,  which  it  has  erected  during  the  present  cen- 
tury, are  not  worth  a  fourth  part  of  this  sum.  For  the  supply 
of  water,  the  city  of  New  York  lately  incurred  an  expenditure 
of  thirteen  millions  of  dollars.  Admitting,  as  I  most  cheerfully 
do,  that  the  use  of  water  pertains  to  the  moral  as  well  as  to  the 
ceremonial  law,  yet  our  cities  have  pollutions  which  water  can 
never  wash  away,  —  defilements  which  the  baptism  of  a  moral 
and  Christian  education  alone  can  remove.  There  is  not  an 
appetite  that  allies  man  to  the  brutes,  nor  a  passion  for  vain 
display  which  makes  him  more  contemptible  than  any  part  of 
the  irrational  creation,  which  does  not  cost  the  country  m  >re, 
every  year,  than  such  a  system  of  schools  as  would,  according 
to  the  evidence  I  have  exhibited,  redeem  it,  almost  entirely, 
from  its  follies  and  its  guilt.  Consider  a  single  factitious  habit 
of  our  people,  which  no  one  will  pretend  adds  any  degree  to  the 
health,  or  length  to  the  life,  or  decency  to  the  manners,  of  the 
nation  :  I  mean  the  smoking  of  tobacco.  It  is  said,  on  good 
authority,  that  the  annual  expenditure  in  the  country  for  the 


REPORT   FOR    1847.  611 

support  of  this  habit  is  ten  millions  of  dollars  ;  and  if  we  reflect 
that  this  sum,  averaged  upon  all  the  people,  would  be  only  half 
a  dollar  apiece,  the  estimate  seems  by  no  means  extravagant. 
Yet  this  is  far  more  than  is  paid  to  the  teachers  of  all  the  pub- 
lic schools  in  the  whole  United  States. 

Were  nations  to  embark  in  the  cause  of  education  for  the 
redemption  of  mankind,  as  they  have  in  that  of  war  for  their 
destruction,  the  darkest  chapters  in  the  history  of  earthly 
calamities  would  soon  be  brought  to  a  close.  But,  where  units 
have  been  grudged  for  education,  millions  have  been  lavished 
for  war.  While,  for  the  one  purpose,  mankind  have  refused  to 
part  with  superfluities,  for  the  other  they  have  not  only  impov- 
erished themselves,  but  levied  burdensome  taxes  upon  posterity. 
The  vast  national  debts  of  Europe  originated  in  war  ;  and,  but 
for  that  scourge  of  mankind,  they  never  would  have  existed. 
The  amount  of  money  now  owed  by  the  different  European 
nations,  is  said,  on  good  authority,  to  be  $6,387.000,000.  Of 
this  inconceivable  sum,  the  share  of  Great  Britain  is  about 
£4,000,000,000  (in  round  numbers,  800,000,000  pounds  ster- 
ling) ;  of  France,  $780,000,000  ;  of  Russia  and  Austria,  $300,- 
000,000  each  ;  of  Prussia,  $100,000,000  ;  and  the  debts  of  the 
minor  powers  increase  this  sum  to  $6,387,000,000.  The 
national  debt  of  Great  Britain  now  amounts  to  more  than  $140 
for  every  man,  woman,  and  child  in  the  three  kingdoms.  Allow- 
ing six  persons  to  each  family,  it  will  average  more  than  $850 
to  every  household,  —  a  sum  which  would  be  deemed  by  thou- 
sands and  tens  of  thousands  of  families  in  that  country  to  be  a 
handsome  competence,  nay,  wealth  itself,  if  it  were  owing  to 
instead  of  from  them. 

It  is  estimated,  that,  during  the  twenty-two  years  preceding 
the  general  peace  of  1815,  the  unimaginable  sum  of  6,250,- 
000,000  pounds  sterling,  or  $30,000,000,000,  had  been  ex- 
pended in  war  by  nations  calling  themselves  Christian,  —  an 
amount  of  wealth  many  fold  greater  than  has  ever  been 
expended,  for  the  same  purpose,  by  all  the  nations  on  the  globe 
whom  we  call  savage,  since  the  commencement  of  the  Christian 


612  ANNUAL    REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

era.  The  earth  itself  could  not  be  pawned  for  so  vast  a  sum 
as  this,  were  there  any  pawn-broker's  office  which  would  accept 
such  a  pledge.  Were  it  to  be  set  up  at  auction,  in  the  presence 
of  fierce  competitors  for  the  purchase,  it  would  not  sell  for 
enough  to  pay  its  war-bills  for  a  single  century.  The  war- 
estimates  of  the  British  Government,  even  for  the  current  year 
of  peace,  are  $85,000,000  ;  and  the  annual  interest  on  the  na- 
tional debt  incurred  by  war  is  at  least  8120.000,000  more,  or 
more  than  $200,000,000  for  a  common,  and,  on  the  whole,  a 
very  favorable  year.  Well  might  Christ,  in  the  Beatitudes, 
pronounce  his  emphatic  benediction  upon  the  "  peace-makers." 
We  have  emulated,  in  this  country,  the  same  gigantic  scale 
of  expenditure  for  the  same  purpose.  Since  the  organization 
of  the  Federal  Government,  in  1789,  the  expense  of  our  mili- 
tary and  naval  establishments  and  equipments,  in  round  num- 
bers, is  $700,000,000.  Two  of  our  ships  of  the  line  have  cost 
more  than  $2,000,000.  The  value  of  the  arms  accumulated 
at  one  time  at  the  Arsenal  in  Springfield,  in  this  State,  was 
$2,000,000.  The  Military  Academy  at  West  Point  has  cost 
more  than  $4,000,000.  In  our  town-meetings,  and  in  our 
school-district-meetings,  wealthy  and  substantial  men  oppose  the 
grant  of  $15  for  a  school-library,  and  of  $30  for  both  library 
and  apparatus ;  while  at  West  Point  they  spend  $50  in  a 
single  lesson  at  target-firing ;  and  the  government  keeps  a  hun- 
dred horses,  and  grooms  and  blacksmiths  to  take  care  of  them, 
as  an  indispensable  part  of  the  apparatus  of  the  academy.  The 
pupils  at  our  normal  schools,  who  are  preparing  to  become 
teachers,  must  maintain  themselves :  the  cadets  at  the  academy 
receive  $28  a  mouth,  during  their  entire  term,  as  a  compensa- 
tion for  being  educated  at  the  public  expense.  Adding  bounties 
and  pensions  to  wages  and  rations,  I  suppose  the  cost  of  a 
common  foot-soldier  in  the  army  cannot  be  less  than  $250  a 
year.  The  average  cost  of  female  teachers  for  the  public 
schools  of  Massachusetts  last  year  was  only  $13.00  a  mouth, 
inclusive  of  board,  or  at  a  rate  which  would  give  $163.20  for 
the  year ;  but  the  average  length  of  the  schools  was  but  eight 


REPORT   FOR    1847.  613 

months :  so  that  the  cost  of  two  common  soldiers  is  nearly  that 
of  five  female  teachers.  The  annual  salary  of  a  colonel  of 
dragoons  in  the  United-States  army  is  $2,206  ;  of  a  brigadier- 
general,  $2,958  ;  of  a  major-general,  $4,512  ;  that  of  a  captain 
of  a  ship  of  the  line,  when  in  service,  $4,500  ;  and,  even  when 
off  duty,  it  is  $2,500.  There  are  but  seven  towns  in  Massa- 
chusetts where  any  teacher  of  a  public  school  receives  so  high 
a  salary  as  $1,000  ;  and,  in  four  of  these  towns,  one  teacher 
only  receives  this  sum. 

Had  my  purpose  been  simply  to  show  the  pecuniary  ability 
of  the  people  at  large  to  give  the  most  generous  compensation 
to  such  a  company  of  accomplished,  high-minded,  noble  teach- 
ers as  would  lift  the  race,  at  once,  out  of  the  pit  of  vice  and 
ignorance  and  superstition  as  safely  and  as  tenderly  as  a 
mother  bears  her  infant  in  her  arms,  —  had  my  purpose  been 
merely  to  show  this  pecuniary  ability,  then  I  have  already  said 
too  much.  But  my  design  was,  not  merely  to  carry  conviction 
to  the  minds  of  those  who  would  contest  this  fact,  but  to  make 
the  denial  of  it  ridiculous. 

III.  But  the  consummation  of  this  reformatory  work  is  not 
promised,  except  upon  the  performance  of  a  third  condition, — 
namely,  that  all  the  children  in  the  State  between  the  ages  of 
four  and  sixteen  years  shall  be  brought  into  school  for  ten 
mouths  in  each  year.  In  other  words,  while  the  schools  are 
kept,  the  attendance  of  all  the  children  upon  them,  with  one 
or  two  exceptions  to  be  hereafter  noticed,  must  be  regular. 

Since  the  keeping  of  registers  in  our  schools  has  made 
known  the  enormous  amount  of  absences  from  them,  there  is 
but  one  subject  which  has  excited  greater  alarm,  or  given  rise 
to  louder  complaints.  Teachers  complain  of  this  absence, 
because,  while  it  increases  their  labors,  it  diminishes  their 
success ;  indeed,  it  makes  entire  success  an  impossibility. 
Parents  who  do  send  their  children  regularly  to  school  com- 
plain of  it,  because  the  tardy  and  the  occasional  comers  are  a 
dead  weight  upon  the  progress  of  those  who  are  uniformly 
present  and  prompt.  Committees  complain  of  it,  in  behalf  of 


614  ANNUAL    REPORTS    ON    EDUCATION'. 

the  towns  which  they  represent,  because  it  lowers  the  general 
standard  of  intelligence  among  the  people  ;  and  because,  taken 
on  an  average  for  the  whole  State,  it  incurs  a  total  loss  of  from 
one-third  to  one-half  of  all  the  money  which  is  annually  levied 
by  taxation  for  the  support  of  schools.  Men  of  wealth  who 
have  no  children  to  send  to  school,  or  who  for  any  reason  send 
uone,  complain  of  it,  because,  though  they  may  be  willing  to 
be  taxed  for  the  Education  of  all,  yet  they  are  not  willing  to  be 
taxed  to  have  their  money  taken  and  thrown  away.  They 
think  it,  and  with  good  reason  too,  to  be  an  intolerable  hard- 
ship to  be  first  confronted  with  the  argument  that  they  are 
bound  to  secure  the  general  intelligence  and  morality  of  the 
people  through  the  instrumentality  of  schools,  and  when  they 
have  acknowledged  the  validity  of  this  argument,  and  cheerfully 
paid  their  money,  to  have  the  vciy  men  who  so  argued  and  so 
claimed  turn  upon  them,  and  say.  "We  are  still  at  liberty  to 
throw  your  money  away  by  keeping  our  children  at  home  ;  and, 
though  you  must  keep  the  school  regularly  for  us,  we  have  a 
right  to  use  it  irregularly,  or  not  at  all,  as  we  please."  Thus 
the  delinquents,  where  they  owe  apology  and  repentance,  retort 
with  indignity,  and  persevere  in  injustice. 

I  cannot  believe  that  our  people  will  always,  or  even  long, 
submit  to  this  enormous  abuse,  now  made  known  to  them  by 
well-authenticated  documents.  For  an  economical  people,  who 
form  political  parties  on  the  subject  of  expenditures  by  the  gov- 
ernment, and  make  "  retrenchment  "  a  watch-word  ;  for  a 
people  whose  legislature  sometimes  debates  for  days  together 
whether  the  salary  of  an  officer  shall  be  a  few  hundred  dollars 
more  or  less,  —  to  continue  to  throw  away,  as  was  done  last 
year,  more  than  $200,000  on  account  of  voluntary,  gratuitous, 
and,  in  most  cases,  wanton  absences  from  school,  is  not  credible. 
For  a  people  who  are  sufficiently  proud,  to  say  the  least,  of 
their  general  intelligence,  and  who  are  sincerely  anxious  to 
perpetuate  and  improve  their  moral  character,  to  be  willing  to 
forfeit  one-third  part  of  all  the  blessings  of  their  free-school 
system,  without  any  necessity,  or  any  plausible  pretext,  is  not 


REPORT   FOR    1847.  615 

to  be  believed.  This  great  evil  must  be  dealt  with  according 
:o  its  magnitude.  Violent  diseases  demand  energetic  remedies. 
It  would  be  as  unwise  in  a  State  as  in  an  individual  to  allow 
its  precautions  to  diminish  while  its  dangers  increase ;  to  sleep 
more  quietly  as  peril  becomes  more  imminent.  When  we 
know  that  a  malady  is  dangerous,  and  that  a  remedy  is  at 
hand,  wisdom  dictates  its  speedy  application. 

I  propose,  then,  to  consider  the  objections  that  may  possibly 
be  urged  to  the  regular  attendance  of  all  our  children  upon 
school  for  ten  months  in  each  year,  from  the  age  of  four  to  that 
of  sixteen  years.  I  believe  them  to  be  by  no  means  insur- 
mountable ;  nay,  that  their  formidableness  will  wholly  disap- 
pear if  subjected  to  a  candid  examination. 

1.  It  may  be  said  that  there  is  a  class  of  parents  amongst 
us  who  depend  partially  upon  the  labor  of  their  children  for 
the  support  of  their  families,  and  who  are  too  poor  to  forego 
the  earnings  of  these  children  for  ten  months  in  the  year,  and 
for  twelve  years  of  their  minority. 

With  regard  to  a  portion  of  the  class  of  parents  referred  to, 
this  suggestion  would  have  a  foundation  in  fact ;  with  regard 
to  another  portion  of  them,  it  would  have  no  such  foundation. 
It  is  well  known  that  a  class  of  parents  exists  amongst  us,  who 
work  their  children  that  they  may  themselves  be  idle  ;  who 
coin  the  health,  the  capacities,  and  the  future  welfare,  of  their, 
own  offspring  into  money,  which  money,  when  gained,  is  not 
expended  for  the  necessaries  or  the  comforts  of  life,  but  is 
wasted  upon  appetites  that  brutify  or  demonize  their  possessor. 
The  objections  of  this  class  against  permitting  their  children  to 
be  educated  at  the  public  expense  are  not  legitimate.  It  would 
be  infinitely  better  for  them,  for  their  families,  and  for  the  pub- 
lic, if  they  were  cut  off  from  these  means  of  sinful  indulgence. 
It  would  improve  their  condition  still  further,  if  they  were 
obliged  to  be  industrious,  even  though  coerced  to  labor  by  the 
goads  of  hunger  and  cold.  The  best  of  all  conditions  for  them 
would  be,  that  they  should  themselves  labor  for  the  support 
of  their  children  at  school,  where  those  intellectual  and  vir- 


616  ANNUAL   REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

tuous  habits  would  be  formed,  and  that  filial  piety  inculcated, 
which  would  lead  the  children,  in  after-years,  to  return  to 
the  parents,  with  a  generous  requital,  the  favors  they  had 
received. 

There  is,  doubtless,  another  portion  of  this  general  class, 
with  whom  the  alleged  necessity  for  their  children's  earnings 
as  a  part  of  the  means  for  family  support  is  no  pretence.  The 
number  or  age  of  the  family,  sickness,  misfortune,  or  other 
cause,  may  render  this  or  some  other  resource  indispensable  to 
the  procurement  of  the  necessaries  and  decencies  of  life.  I 
would  not  underrate  the  number  or  the  necessities  of  this  class 
of  persons  ;  they  have  claims  upon  our  warmest  sympathies  : 
but  I  have  reason  to  believe  that  the  class  itself  is  not  a  very 
large  one.  Where  the  heads  of  the  family  enjoy  good  health  ; 
where  they  may  have  the  assistance  of  their  children,  who  are 
of  an  age  able  to  render  it,  for  several  hours  each  day,  for  one 
or  two  entire  half-days  each  week,  and  for  two  mouths  unin- 
terruptedly each  year,  —  the  circumstances  must  be  peculiar 
where  industry  and  frugality,  with  such  favors  as  the  honest 
and  praiseworthy  poor  may  always  count  upon  from  their 
better-conditioued  neighbors,  will  not  supply  the  means  of  a 
comfortable  subsistence. 

Still,  cases  of  necessity  do  and  will  exist ;  and,  where  the 
need  is  not  supplied  by  individual  charity,  there  is  no  other 
alternative  but  to  do  it  at  the  public  expense.  This  would 
introduce  no  new  principle  into  our  legislation.  It  would  be 
only  a  moderate  but  highly  beneficial  extension  of  an  existing 
one.  Our  laws  now  provide  for  physical  destitution,  whatever 
may  be  its  cause ;  and  they  enjoin  upon  school-committees  the 
duty  of  furnishing  all  needful  school-books,  at  the  expense  of 
their  respective  towns,  to  all  children  whose  parents  are  unable 
to  procure  them. 

The  question  then  arises,  What  degree  of  destitution  —  and 
there  is  no  propriety  in  restricting  this  to  physical  destitution 
—  makes  it  expedient  for  a  wise  government  to  interfere,  and 
afford  relief?  "  Poor-laws,"  as  we  understand  the  term,  are 


REPORT   FOR    1847.  617 

of  modern  origin.  They  were  not  only  unknown  to  all  bar- 
barous nations,  but  to  most  Christian  and  civilized  ones  until 
a  recent  period.  In  England,  they  date  from  the  reign  of 
Elizabeth.  In  Scotland,  although  in  a  small  class  of  extreme 
cases  legal  relief  may  have  been  rendered,  yet  "poor-laws" 
can  hardly  be  said  ever  to  have  had  an  effective  existence  in 
that  country.  In  Ireland,  they  were  unknown  until  recently. 
In  this  country,  they  are  almost  coeval  with  our  colonial  set- 
tlements. 

But  there  neither  is,  nor  ever  has  been,  any  legal  standard 
of  poverty.  The  degree  of  destitution  Avhich  shall  entitle  the 
sufferer  to  relief  is  not  a  fixed  quantity,  like  the  statutory 
length  of  a  yard,  or  the  Winchester  bushel.  The  general 
notions  of  men  as  to  what  constitutes  poverty  range  between 
wide  extremes,  according  to  their  prevalent-  style  of  living, 
their  enlightenment,  and  their  benevolence.  It  is  said,  that 
when  the  present  king  of  France  heard  that  the  income  of  the 
Jewish  banker  in  London  amounted  only  to  some  hundreds  of 
dollars  each  hour,  he  expressed  his  deep  grief  at  learning  that 
he  was  so  poor.  "With  us,  he  who  can  command  a  comfortable 
shelter,  decent  clothes,  and  a  sufficient  supply  of  wholesome 
food,  for  himself  and  family,  excites  no  special  commisera- 
tion for  his  poverty  ;  while  there  are  places  upon  the  earth 
where  a  potato  a  day  is  considered  an  independent  fortune. 
Now,  between  these  extremes,  what  shall  the  true  definition  of 
poverty  be? 

So  the  line  which  divides  poverty  from  competence  is  not  a 
stationary  but  a  movable  one.  The  laws  themselves  change  ; 
and  the  same  law,  on  a  question  like  this,  will  be  made  to 
speak  a  very  different  language  under  different  administrators. 
In  favor  of  the  militia,  or  of  the  country's  defence,  our  law 
exempts  from  attachment,  execution,  and  distress,  whether  for 
debt  or  for  taxes,  the  uniform,  arms,  ammunition,  and  accou- 
trements which  officers,  non-commissioned  officers,  and  privates, 
are  required  to  possess.  In  favor  of  the  common  sentiments 
of  humanity,  our  law  exempts  also  from  attachment  and  execu- 


618  ANNUAL    REPORTS    ON   EDUCATION. 

tion  not  only  wearing  apparel,  but  a  great  variety  of  articles 
of  household  furniture,  —  bedsteads,  beds,  bedding,  an  iron 
stove,  fuel,  and  other  commodities,  to  the  value  of  fifty  dollars  ; 
also  a  cow,  six  sheep,  one  swine,  and  two  tons  of  hay  ;  also 
the  tools  and  implements  used  by  a  debtor  in  his  trade,  not 
exceeding  fifty  dollars  in  value  ;  and  also  rights  of  burial,  and* 
tombs  used  as  repositories  for  the  dead.  Our  legislatioa  on' 
this  subject  has  been  humanely  progressive,  as  may  be  seen  by 
reference  to  statutes  1805,  ch.  100  ;  1813,  ch.  172  ;  1822,  ch. 
93,  §  8  ;  1832,  ch.  58  ;  1838,  ch.  145,  &c.  In  a  neighboring 
State,  by  a  late  law,  a  portion  of  the  debtor's  homestead  is  also 
brought  within  the  same  rule.  In  favor  of  learning  and  reli- 
gion, all  school-books  and  Bibles  used  in  the  family  are  also 
exempted  from  attachment  and  execution  for  debt :  and,  as  was 
before  said,  all  school-children  destitute  of  school-books  are 
first  supplied  with  them  at  the  public  expense ;  and,  where  the 
parents  are  unable  to  reimburse  the  cost,  the  supply  is  gra- 
tuitous. Massachusetts  has,  from  time  to  time,  founded  and 
endowed  hospitals  for  the  insane  ;  and  she  makes  annual  and 
liberal  appropriations  for  the  education  of  the  blind  and  the 
deaf  and  dumb.  She  is  now  engaged  in  erecting  a  noble  insti- 
tution for  the  reformation  of  juvenile  delinquents  ;  and  a  com- 
mission instituted  by  her  is  inquiring,  at  the  present  time, 
into  the  condition  of  idiots,  —  which  unfortunate,  repulsive, 
and  hitherto  outcast  portion  of  the  community,  it  is  not  to  be 
doubted,  she  will  soon  gather  together,  and,  in  imitation  of  the 
noble  examples  set  by  France,  Switzerland,  and  Prussia,  will 
educate  to  cleanliness,  to  decency,  and  to  no  inconsiderable 
degree  of  positive  enjoyment  and  usefulness.  Each  one,  too, 
of  all  these  great  movements,  when  carried  out  into  execution, 
has  proved  economical  as  well  as  philanthropic  and  Christian. 
What  striking  results,  in  proof  of  this,  are  exhibited  by  the 
statistics  of  the  State  Lunatic  Hospital  at  Worcester  !  Accord- 
ing to  the  last  report  of  that  institution  which  Dr.  Woodward 
made,  the  average  expense  of  twenty-four  old  cases — taking 
the  first  twenty-four  on  the  list,  and  not  selecting  them,  or 


REPORT    FOR    1847.  619 

taking  them  at  random  —  was  $1.945.83  each;  and  their 
aggregate  expense,  $46,700  :  while  the  average  expense  of  the 
same  number  of  recent  cases,  taking  the  last  on  the  list  who 
were  discharged  cured,  was  $41.53  each  ;  and  their  aggregate 
expense,  $996.75  :  so  that  the  whole  expense  of  twenty-four 
recent  cases  was  but  about  one-half  as  much  as  of  one  old  one. 
That  hospital  already  has  far  more  than  paid  for  itself  by  the 
saving  it  has  effected ;  because,  without  it,  all  the  new  cases 
would  have  been  old  ones.  I  preseut  these  economical  aspects 
of  the  subject,  by  no  means  because  I  deem  them  to  be  the 
most  important,  but  because,  all  over  the  world,  there  is  a 
large  class  of  persons  with  whom  the  pecuniary  argument  is 
the  most  persuasive  and  eloquent,  and  who  will  be  induced  to 
lend  their  services  in  aid  of  great  social  ameliorations  only 
when  they  find  that  humanity  is  economy,  and  that  "  godli- 
ness" is  "great  gain"  in  a  worldly  sense.  They  will  then 
enlist  for  the  sake  of  the  "  great  gain,"  though  quite  indifferent 
as  to  the  other  quality.  When  I  have  been  asked  by  persons 
from  the  fertile  and  exuberant  regions  of  our  own  country,  or 
from  transatlantic  nations,  how  it  is,  that,  with  our  ungenerous 
soil  and  uugenial  clime,  we  are  pecuniarily  able  to  support 
these  various  and  costly  establishments,  my  answer  has  been, 
that  we  are  able  because  we  do  support  them. 

But  the  question  recurs,  What  is  poverty?  What  is  that 
straitness  of  circumstances,  which,  for  educational  purposes, 
would  require  a  wise  and  profound  statesman,  and,  of  course, 
the  State  itself,  to  interpose,  and  to  supply  those  means  for  the 
education  of  the  child  which  the  parent  is  unable  to  render?  It 
being  proved,  if  all  our  children  were  to  be  brought  under  the 
benignant  influences  of  such  teachers  as  the  State  can  supply, 
from  the  age  of  four  years  to  that  of  sixteen,  and  for  ten  mouths 
in  each  year,  that  ninety-nine  in  every  hundred  of  them  can  be 
rescued  from  uncharitableness,  from  falsehood,  from  intemper- 
ance, from  cupidity,  licentiousness,  violence,  and  fraud,  and 
reared  to  the  performance  of  all  the  duties,  and  to  the  practice 
of  all  the  kindnesses  and  courtesies,  of  domestic  and  social  lite  ; 


620  ANNUAL   REPORTS  ON   EDUCATION. 

made  promoters  of  the  common  weal,  instead  of  subtracters 
from  it,  —  this  being  proved,  I  respectfully  and  with  deference 
submit  to  the  Board,  and,  through  them,  to  the  legislature,  and 
to  my  fellow-citizens  at  large,  that  every  man  is  POOR,  in  an 
educational  sense,  who  cannot  both  spare  and  equip  his  children 
for  school  for  the  entire  period  above  specified  ;  and  that,  while 
he  remains  thus  poor,  it  is  not  only  the  dictate  of  generosity  and 
Christianity,  but  it  is  the  wisest  policy  and  profoundest  states- 
manship too,  to  supply  from  the  public  treasury  —  municipal 
or  state,  or  both  —  whatever  means  may  be  wanted  to  make 
certain  so  glorious  an  end.  These  principles  and  this  practice 
the  divine  doctrines  of  Christianity  have  always  pointed  at,  and 
a  progressive  civilization  has  now  brought  us  into  proximity  to 
them.  How  is  it  that  we  can  call  a  man  poor  because  his  body 
is  cold,  and  not  because  his  highest  sympathies  and  affections 
have  been  frozen  up  within  him,  in  one  polar  and  perpetual 
winter,  from  his  birth?  Hunger  does  not  stint  the  growth  of 
the  body  half  so  much  as  ignorance  dwarfs  the  capacities  of  the 
mind.  No  wound  upon  the  limbs,  or  gangrene  of  vital  organs, 
is  a  thousandth  part  so  terrible  as  those  maladies  of  the  soul 
that  jeopard  its  highest  happiness,  and  defeat  the  end  for  which 
it  was  created.  And  infinitely  aggravated  is  the  case  where 
children  are  the  sufferers  ;  where  moral  distempers  are  inflicted 
upon  them  by  parents,  or  are  inherited  by  them  from  ancestors  ; 
where  they  are  born  into  an  atmosphere  saturated  with  the  in- 
fection of  crime  ;  where  vice  obtrudes  itself  upon  every  sense, 
and  presses  inward,  through  every  pore,  to  be  imbibed  and 
copied,  just  as  the  common  air  forces  itself  into  the  nostrils  to 
be  breathed  ;  and  where,  in  their  early  imitative  transgressions, 
they  are  no  more  consciously  guilty  than  in  the  heaving  of  their 
lungs  in  an  act  of  respiration. 

Were  a  ship,  in  mid-ocean,  to  be  overtaken  by  a  storm,  to 
be  dismantled,  dismasted,  and  reduced  to  an  unmanageable 
hulk,  and  while  its  crew  were  famishing,  and  in  momentary 
danger  of  foundering,  were  another  ship  to  pass  within  hail, 
but  to  refuse  all  succor  and  deliverance,  should  we  not  justly 


REPORT    FOR    1847.  621 

regard  the  deed  as  an  enormous  atrocity?  But  what  moral 
difference  does  it  make  whether  we  pass  by  our  perishing 
"  neighbor"  on  the  sea  or  on  the  dry  land?  The  pitfalls  of 
perdition  on  shore  are  deeper  and  far  more  terrible,  and  are 
inhabited  by  direr  monsters,  than  any  ocean-caves.  Now,  it  is 
the  children  of  the  man  who,  through  sickness  or  other  misfor- 
tune, has  not  the  means  fully  and  thoroughly  to  educate  them 
for  the  duties  of  life,  who  represent  this  perishing  and  founder- 
ing crew  ;  and  the  man  who  has  superfluities,  or  even  an  inde- 
pendency of  means,  but  refuses  to  aid  in  giving  these  children 
an  education  sufficient  for  all  the  common  responsibilities  of 
life.  —  lie  is  the  hardened  mariner  who  sails  recklessly  by,  and 
sees  the  helpless  sufferers  ingulfed  in  the  wake  of  his  own 
proud  vessel. 

On  this  point,  then,  are  we  not  authorized  to  conclude,  in  the 
first  place,  that  the  cases  are  comparatively  few  where  parents 
cannot  afford  to  forego  the  earnings  of  their  children,  and  to 
send  them  to  school  for  the  length  of  time  and  with  the  regu- 
larity proposed?  and,  in  the  second  place,  were  the  cases  of 
destitution  fur  more  numerous  than  they  are,  that  there  is  still 
an  abundance  of  means,  as  well  as  an  obvious  duty,  on  the  part 
of  the  public,  to  supply  all  deficiencies?  Assuming  the  value 
of  all  the  property  in  the  State  to  be  four  hundred  and  fifty 
millions  of  dollars,  the  simple  interest  upon  it  alone,  at  six  per 
cent,  and  without  any  addition  from  earnings,  is  twenty-seven 
millions  annually.  The  industrial  statistics  of  the  State  show 
that  its  income,  from  all  its  occupations  and  trades,  is  more 
than  a  hundred  millions  of  dollars  annually  ;  and  even  this  does 
not  include  improvements  upon  its  wharves,  bridges,  roads,  or 
lands.  Must  such  a  State  pare  and  clip  and  scrimp,  and  dole 
out  its  means  with  a  niggardly  hand,  when  unfolding  the  mortal 
and  the  immortal  capacities  of  its  children  ? 

2.  But  though  the  means  for  supporting  the  schools  are 
abundant,  and  though  the  earnings  of  children,  as  a  part  of  the 
family's  daily  livelihood,  may  be  forborne  in  one  class  of  cases, 
and  made  up  in  the  other,  a  further  question  still  remains,  — 


622  ANNUAL   REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

Can  the  State  itself  afford  to  forego  these  juveniles  services? 
Can  the  machinery  be  operated,  the  shoes  bound,  the  types  set, 
the  errands  and  "chores"  done,  and  the  door-bells  tended,  if 
all  children  under  sixteen  years  of  age  are  withdrawn  from  the 
performance  of  these  kinds  of  service  for  ten  months  each  year? 
Minors,  under  sixteen,  are  let  out  to  corporations  to  be  em- 
ployed in  manufacturing-  establishments  ;  they  are  taken  into 
the  families  of  the  wealthy  and  forehanded  as  under-servants  ; 
a  few  are  employed  as  errand-boys  in  the  offices  and  shops  of 
cities  ;  and,  in  several  of  the  lighter  handicrafts,  they  are  put 
to  regular  labor.  There  are  no  exact  data  by  which  to  deter- 
mine the  number  of  children  so  employed  in  the  State.  Com- 
pared with  the  whole  number  of  children  in  it  between  the 
ages  of  four  and  sixteen,  I  suppose  it  to  be  inconsiderable  ;  so 
inconsiderable,  indeed,  that,  if  their  services  in  these  employ- 
ments were  henceforth  to  be  wholly  discontinued,  it  would  sub- 
tract hardly  an  appreciable  fraction  from  the  aggregate  products 
of  our  labor  and  machinery.  A  highly-intelligent  gentleman, 
who  has  been  engaged  in  manufacturing  business  for  many 
years,  informs  me  that  the  company  with  which  he  is  associat- 
ed now  employs  3,119  persons,  —  namely,  2,571  in  five  cotton- 
mills,  450  in  two  machine-shops,  and  98  in  one  woollen-mill. 
In  the  cotton-mills,  346  persons  are  employed  who  are  under 
sixteen  years  of  age,  —  equal  to  thirteen  per  cent.  In  the  ma- 
chine-shops, there  are  none.  In  the  woollen-mill,  there  are  six, 
or  six  per  cent.  The  average  for  the  whole  is  about  eleven  per 
cent.  He  adds,  "  I  am  of  the  opinion  that  this  statement  may 
be  taken  as  a  fair  representation,  in  regard  to  age,  of  the  per- 
sons in  these  several  employments.  Very  few  are  under  fifteen. 
.  .  .  This  class  of  labor  is  not  profitable  to  the  employer, 
and,  except  in  particular  cases,  is  only  employed  from  motives 
of  charity.  From  my  recollection  of  the  labor  required  in 
print-works"  [he  was  formerly  extensively  engaged  in  printing 
calicoes],  "  I  am  inclined  to  think  the  proportion  of  persons 
under  sixteen  is  not  greater  than  the  average  in  the  mills  and 
shops  before  mentioned." 


EEPORT   FOE   1847.  623 

Here,  then,  is  a  statement,  worthy  of  implicit  reliance,  re- 
specting the  largest  branch  of  labor  in  which  those  children  are 
employed,  who,  on  the  proposed  reformatory  plan,  would  be 
sent  to  school.  Can  a  substitute  be  found  for  this  juvenile 
labor  ? 

In  the  first  place,  if  that  class  of  parents  who  now  coin  into 
money  their  children's  highest  capacities  for  usefulness  and  en- 
joyment, that  they  themselves  may  live  in  idleness  aud  intem- 
perance, were  peremptorily  deprived  of  this  source  of  gain, 
they  could  perform  a  portion  of  the  labor  now  exacted  of  the 
children  ;  or,  if  not  capable  of  performing  this  particular  kind 
of  labor,  they  could  at  least  do  some  other  work,  and  thus  set 
free  a  class  of  persons  who  could  perform  it. 

In  the  second  place,  manufacturers  could  employ,  at  a 
slightly-enhanced  price,  a  few  more  adults,  or  more  persons 
over  the  age  of  sixteen.  I  trust  that  no  liberal-minded  manu- 
facturer would  object  to  employing  older  help,  at  the  present 
time,  on  the  plea  of  non-remunerating  returns. 

But,  thirdly,  —  a  consideration  of  more  significance  than  all 
the  rest,  —  the  children  who  had  enjoyed  such  a  school  develop- 
ment and  training  as  we  are  now  supposing  would  go  into 
the  mills,  after  the  completion  of  their  educational  course,  with 
physical  and  intellectual  ability  to  help,  and  with  a  moral  in- 
ability to  harm,  which,  of  itself,  would  far  more  than  compen- 
sate for  all  the  loss  of  their  previous  absence.  Take  any  manu- 
facturer whose  mind  has  ever  wandered,  even  by  chance,  to  a 
contemplation  of  the  only  true  sources  and  securities  of  wealth, 
and  what  would  he  not  give  to  have  all  his  operatives  trans- 
formed at  once  into  men  and  women  of  high  intelligence  and 
unswei'ving  morality?  to  have  them  become  so  faithful  and 
honest,  that  they  would  always  turn  out  the  greatest  quantity 
and  the  best  quality  of  work,  without  the  trouble  and  expense 
of  watching  and  weighing  and  counting  and  superintending? 
that  they  would  be  as  careful  of  his  machinery  as  though  it 
were  their  own?  that  they  would  never  ask  or  accept  more  in 
payment  than  their  just  due?  that  they  would  always  consult 


624  ANNUAL   REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

their  employer's  interest,  and  never  sacrifice  it  from  motives  of 
personal  ease  or  gain  or  ill-will? 

I  have  been  told  by  one  of  our  most  careful  and  successful 
manufacturers,  that,  on  substituting  in  one  of  his  cotton-mills 
a  better  for  a  poorer  educated  class  of  operatives,  he  was 
enabled  to  add  twelve  or  fifteen  per  cent  to  the  speed  of  his 
machinery,  without  any  increase  of  damage  or  danger  from  the 
acceleration.  Here  there  was  a  direct  gain  of  twelve  or  fifteen 
per  cent,  —  a  larger  percentage  than  that  of  the  supposed  whole 
number  of  children  under  sixteen  years  of  age  in  all  our  facto- 
ries. And  this  gain  was  effected,  too,  without  any  additional 
investment  of  capital,  or  any  increased  expense  for  board.  The 
gain  from  improved  morals  would  far  exceed  that  from  increased 
intelligence.  On  the  whole,  then,  if  all  children  under  sixteen 
years  of  age  were  withdrawn  from  the  factories  for  ten  months 
of  each  year  in  order  to  be  sent  to  school,  there  is  reason  to 
believe  that  the  aggregate  amount  of  the  fabrics  produced  by 
the  mills  would  not  be  diminished  even  a  yard. 

The  above  considerations  have  special  reference  to  children 
employed  in  factories.  I  have  selected  this  department  of 
labor,  because  I  suppose  that  at  least  as  many  children  under 
sixteen  are  let  out  to  service  in  factories  as  in  all  other 
branches  of  business  taken  together.  The  same  views,  with 
inconsiderable  modifications,  will  apply  to  all  others.  It  will 
be  seen  at  a  glance,  therefore,  that  the  contemplated  diversion 
of  children  from  manual  labor  to  mental  and  moral  pursuits 
will  not  be  such  as  to  impair  the  industrial  resources  of  the 
State,  or  to  diminish  the  marketable  value  of  its  products. 

But  theie  is  one  remark  which  applies  alike  to  all  these 
classes  of  employers.  They  use  the  services  of  children  not 
their  own.  Now,  it  must  be  conceded,  that  there  exists  a  well- 
grounded  reluctance,  on  the  part  of  free  governments,  to  any 
such  interference  with  parental  relations  as  is  not  made  neces- 
sary by  the  nature  of  the  government  itself,  or  by  the  criminal 
conduct  or  culpable  neglect  of  the  parents.  But  those  who 
employ  other  men's  children  for  their  own  profit  cannot 


REPORT    FOR    1847.  625 

intrench  themselves  behind  the  sacredness  of  parental  rights. 
Their  object  is  their  own  personal  gain,  —  a  lawful  and  lauda- 
ble object,  it  is  true,  when  pursued  by  justifiable  means,  but 
one  which  cannot  sanction  for  a  moment  the  infliction  of  a 
positive  injury  upon  any  child,  or  the  deprivation  of  any  privi- 
lege essential  either  to  his  well-being,  or  to  the  permanence  and 
prosperity  of  the  republic.  The  republic,  indeed,  if  true  to 
itself,  can  never  allow  any  of  its  members  to  do  what  will 
redound  to  its  own  injury ;  and,  where  no  parental  title  can  be 
alleged,  the  assertion  of  any  right  over  the  labor  of  children 
has  as  little  foundation  in  natural  justice  or  equity  as  the 
tyrant's  claim  to  the  toil  of  his  vassals.  How  can  any  man, 
having  any  claim  to  the  character,  I  will  not  say  of  a  Chris- 
tian or  a  philanthropist,  but  to  the  vastly  lower  one  of  a  patriot, 
use  the  services  of  a  child  in  his  household,  his  shop,  his  office, 
or  his  mill,  when  he  knows  that  he  does  it  at  the  sacrifice,  to 
say  the  least,  of  that  child's  highest  earthly  interests?  How 
can  any  man  seek  to  enlarge  his  own  gains,  or  to  pamper  his 
own  luxurious  habits,  by  taking  the  bread  of  intellectual  and 
moral  life  from  the  children  around  him? 

I  can  anticipate  but  one  objection  more,  having  the  aspect  of 
plausibility.  It  may  be  said,  that  although  the  schools  should 
be  kept  for  the  proposed  length  of  time  by  teachers  ennobled 
with  all  the  intellectual  and  moral  attributes  contemplated,  yet 
there  are  persons  capable,  like  brutes,  of  bringing  children 
into  the  world,  but  impervious  to  those  moral  considerations 
which  should  impel  them  to  train  up  those  children  in  the  way 
they  should  go  ;  and  that,  in  regard  to  this  class  of  parents, 
some  coercive  measures  will  be  necessary  to  secure  the  attend- 
ance of  their  children  at  school.  I  admit  this.  But  is  coercion 
a  new  idea  in  a  community  where  there  are  houses  of  correc- 
tion and  jails  and  state-prisons  and  the  gallows?  Surely, 
bolts  and  bars,  granite  walls,  and  strangulating  hemp,  are 
strange  emblems  of  the  voluntary  principle.  Massachusetts 
has,  at  the  present  moment,  about  two  thousand  persons  under 
lock  and  key,  nineteen-twentieths  of  whom,  had  they  been 

40 


626  ANNUAL   REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

blessed  with  a  good  common-school  education,  would,  accord- 
ing to  the  testimony  I  have  adduced,  be  now  useful  and  exem- 
plary citizens,  —  building  up,  instead  of  tearing  down,  the 
fabric  of  public  welfare.  With  a  population  of  between  eight 
hundred  thousand  and  nine  hundred  thousand,  she  has  at  least 
flve  thousand  police-officers  and  magistrates,  armed  with  power 
to  seize  and  restrain,  and  bring  to  trial  and  punishment,  any 
transgressors  of  those  laws  which  she  has  paid  many  other 
thousands  for  enacting.  Does  it  not  argue,  then,  a  perversion 
of  intellect,  or  an  obliquity  of  the  moral  sense,  to  contend  that 
a  child,  for  the  purpose  of  being  blessed  by  the  influences  of  a 
good  school,  cannot  be  taken  from  a  parent  who  is  preparing 
him  to  become  at  least  a  private,  if  not  an  officer,  in  the  great 
army  of  malefactors  ;  while  it  is  conceded,  that  by  and  by, 
when  this  same  child  becomes  a  parent,  he  may  then  be  taken 
from  his  children,  imprisoned,  put  to  hard  labor,  or  put  to 
death?  So  far  as  force  is  concerned,  so  far  as  any  supposed 
invasion  of  private  rights  is  concerned,  does  not  the  greater 
contain  the  less  a  thousand  times  over?  If  the  State  can  send 
a  sheriff's  posse  to  take  a  man  from  his  own  bed  at  midnight, 
and  carry  him  to  jail,  to  trial,  and  to  execution,  does  it  require 
a  greater  extension,  or  a  bolder  use,  of  its  prerogatives,  for  the 
same  State  to  send  a  kind  moral  guardian  to  take  a  child  from 
the  temptations  of  the  street,  or  from  the  haunts  of  wickedness, 
and  bring  him  within  the  benign  influences  of  a  good  school? 

Should  it  be  said,  that,  in  the  case  of  the  adult  offender,  there 
has  been  a  forfeiture  of  civil  rights  by  some  overt  act  of  viola- 
tion, while  in  the  case  of  the  child  the  violation  is  prospective 
only,  I  reply,  that  nothing  is  more  commou  than  to  arrest  and 
imprison  men  on  probable  suspicion  merely ;  nothing  is  more 
common  than  to  hold  men  to  bail  in  sums  proportioned  to  the 
suspected  offence  ;  and  when  a  man  gives  proof  that  he  intends 
to  do  a  wrong,  and  is  only  awaiting  a  favorable  opportunity  to 
execute  his  intention,  nothing  is  more  common  than  to  put  him 
under  bonds  for  his  good  behavior.  Every  child  who  is  not 
receiving  a  <jood  education  comes  at  least  within  these  latter 


REPORT    FOE    1847.  627 

categories.  lie  is  aii  object  of  violent  suspicion.  The  pre- 
sumption is  strong  that  he  will  not  make  a  good  citizen  ;  that, 
in  some  form  or  other,  he  will  get  his  living  out  of  the  earnings 
of  his  fellow-men,  or  offend  against  their  welfare.  If  the  Com- 
monwealth, then,  has  a  right  to  imprison  an  adult,  or  hold  him 
to  bail  on  suspicion,  or  to  bind  him  over  to  keep  the  peace  and 
be  of  good  behavior,  has  it  not  an  equal,  nay.  a  superior  right, 
to  demand  guaranties  for  the  child's  appearance  upon  the  stage 
of  manhood,  there  to  answer  to  the  great  duties  that  shall  be 
required  of  him  as  a  citizen?  —  and  a  good  education  is  surely 
better  security  than  any  bail-bond  that  ever  was  executed. 
Has  not  the  State  a  right  to  bind  each  child  to  his  good  be- 
havior by  imparting  to  him  the  instruction,  and  by  instilling 
into  his  mind  the  principles,  of  virtue  and  religion,  by  which  he 
shall  be  twice-bound  or  doubly-fastened  (for  such  is  the  etymo- 
logical meaning  of  the  word  "  religion")  to  perform,  with  in- 
telligence and  uprightness,  his  social  and  political  duties  when 
he  becomes  a  man? 

Nor  is  our  legislation  without  numerous  precedents  in  favor 
of  securing  education,  even  at  the  expense  of  coercive  meas- 
ures. These  precedents  are  scattered  along  our  annals  from 
the  earliest  periods  of  our  colonial  existence.  The  colonial 
law  of  1642,  after  premising  that  "  forasmuch  as  the  good 
education  of  children  is  of  singular  behoof  and  benefit  to  any 
commonwealth."  ordered  "  that  the  selectmen  of  every  town 
.  .  .  shall  have  a  vigilant  eye  over  their  brethren  and  neigh- 
bors, to  see,  first,  that  none  of  them  shall  suffer  so  much  bar- 
barism in  any  of  their  families  as  not  to  endeavor  to  teach,  by 
themselves  or  others,  their  children  and  apprentices  so  much 
learning  as  may  enable  them  perfectly  to  read  the  English 
tongue,  and  knowledge  of  the  capital  laws  ; "  and  it  imposed 
upon  parents  what  in  those  times  was  a  heavy  penalty  for 
neglect. 

By  the  law  of  1671,  the  selectmen  were  again  required  to  see 
that  all  children  and  youth  "  be  taught  to  read  perfectly  the 
English  tongue,  have  knowledge  in  the  capital  laws,"  &c. 


6-8  ANNUAL   REPORTS   OX   EDUCATION. 

So  the  laws  of  the  Plymouth  Colony,  after  setting  forth  that 
"  whereas  many  Parents  &  Masters,  either  through  an  over- 
respect  to  their  own  occasions  and  business,  or  not  duely  con- 
sidering the  good  of  their  Children  &  Servants,  have  too  much 
neglected  their  duty  in  their  Education,  whilest  they  are  young 
&  capable  of  Learning,"  proceeded  to  make  substantially  the 
same  requirements  as  were  made  by  the  above-cited  provisions 
in  the  laws  of  the  Massachusetts  Bay  Colony  ;  and  then  de- 
clared, that  if  any  parents  or  masters,  after  warning  and  ad- 
monition, should  still  remain  negligent  in  their  duty,  "•  whereby 
Children  &  Servants  may  be  in  danger  to  grow  Barberous, 
Rude,  or  Stubborn,  &  so  prove  Pests  instead  of  Blessings  to  the 
Country,"  then  "  a  fine  of  ten  shillings  shall  be  levied  upon  the 
goods  of  such  negligent  Parent  or  Master."  If,  after  three 
months  subsequent  to  the  levying  of  this  fine,  "  no  due  care 
shall  be  taken  &  continued  for  the  Education  of  such  children 
&  apprentices,"  then  a  fine  of  twenty  shillings  was  to  be  levied. 
"  And  Lastly,  if,  in  three  months  after  that,  there  be  no  Reforma- 
tion of  the  said  neglect,  then  the  Select-men,  with  the  help  of 
two  Magistrates,  shall  take  such  children  &  servants  from  them 
[the  parents],  &  place  them  with  some  Masters  for  years, 
(boyes  till  they  come  to  twenty-one,  and  girls  eighteen  years  of 
age),  which  will  more  strictly  educate  and  govern  them,  accord- 
ing to  the  rules  of  the  Order." 

Nor  were  the  above  enactments  a  dead  letter.  The  earlier 
judicial  and  municipal  records  show,  that,  when  the  natural 
parent  broke  from  the  ties  of  consanguinity  and  duty  by  neg- 
lecting the  education  of  his  children,  the  law  interfered,  and 
provided  a  civil  parent  for  them. 

Modern  legislation,  it  is  true,  has  greatly  relaxed  the  strin- 
gency of  these  provisions.  No  adequate  substitute  is  to  be 
found  for  them  in  our  present  educational  code  ;  and  already 
neglected  childhood  is  avenging  itself  upon  society  by  its  man- 
hood of  crime,  —  not  unfrequeutly  by  its  precocity  in  crime 
long  before  the  years  of  manhood  have  beeti  reached. 

Compulsory  enactments,   however,   still   attest   that   all   the 


REPORT   FOR   1847.  629 

spirit  of  our  ancestors  is  not  yet  gone.  Our  laws  provide,  in 
various  cases,  that  minor  children  may  be  bound  out  to  service, 
—  males  to  the  age  of  twenty-one  years,  and  females  to  the 
age  of  eighteen  years  ;  but,  in  all  cases,  it  is  to  be  stipulated  in 
the  contract  that  they  shall  be  taught  to  "  read,  write,  and 
cipher."  "  Stubborn  children  "  may  be  committed  to  the  house 
of  correction.  Children  in  the  city  of  Boston,  under  the  age 
of  sixteen  years,  whose  "  parents  are  dead,  or,  if  living,  do, 
from  vice  or  any  other  cause,  neglect  to  provide  suitable  em- 
ployment for  or  to  exercise  salutary  control  over  "  them,  may 
be  sent  by  the  court  to  the  house  of  reformation.  By  the  late 
act  establishing  the  State  Reform  School,  male  convicts  under 
sixteen  years  of  age  may  be  sent  to  this  school  from  any  part 
of  the  Commonwealth,  to  be  there  "  instructed  in  piety  and 
morality,  and  in  such  branches  of  useful  knowledge  as  shall 
be  adapted  to  their  age  and  capacity."  The  inmates  may  be 
bound  out ;  but,  in  executing  this  part  of  their  duty,  the  trus- 
tees "  shall  have  scrupulous  regard  to  the  religious  and  moral 
character  of  those  to  whom  they  are  to  be  bound,  to  the  end 
that  they  may  secure  to  the  boys  the  benefit  of  a  good  example 
and  wholesome  instruction,  and  the  sure  means  of  improvement 
in  virtue  and  knowledge,  and  thus  the  opportunity  of  becoming 
intelligent,  moral,  useful,  and  happy  citizens  of  the  Common- 
wealth." Manufacturers,  and  overseers  in  manufacturing  es- 
tablishments, are  prohibited,  under  a  penalty,  from  employing 
any  child  in  their  factories  under  fifteen  years  of  age  who  has 
not  attended  some  day-school  for  a  specified  portion  of  the 
year  within  which  he  may  be  so  employed  ;  and  they  are  also 
prohibited  from  employing  any  child  under  twelve  years  of 
age  more  than  ten  hours  a  day,  under  any  circumstances.  In 
the  case  of  fires,  of  explosive  commodities,  of  contagious  dis- 
eases, of  immigrant  passengers  from  infected  countries,  and 
so  forth,  the  law  vests  its  officers  with  plenary  and  summary 
powers  "  to  save  the  republic  from  detriment." 

Paley  has  said,  that  "  to  send  an  uneducated  child  into  the 
world  is  injurious  to  the  rest  of  mankind  :  it  is  little  better  than 


630  ANNUAL    REPORTS    ON   EDUCATION. 

to  turn  out  a  mad  dog  or  a  wild  beast  into  the  streets."  It  is 
difficult  to  conceive  why  he  thought  it  to  be  any  "  better" 
since  one  uneducated,  vicious  man  may  do  infinitely  more 
harm  to  the  world  than  all  the  rabid  dogs  or  wild  beasts  that 
ever  existed.  Much  as  we  may  need  energetic  remedies 
against  contagious  diseases,  we  need  them  against  contagious 
vices  more  ;  and  quarantine-laws  in  favor  of  moral  health  are 
the  most  necessary  of  all  sanitary  regulations. 

But  I  forbear  to  press  further  considerations  of  this  character 
upon  the  attention  of  the  Board.  I  hope  that  the  great  ma- 
jority of  our  people  will  rather  wonder  why  such  an  argument 
should  be  deemed  necessary  than  be  disposed  to  question  its 
conclusions. 

Having  now  surveyed,  somewhat  at  length,  the  various 
points  pertaining  to  this  subject,  a  brief  recapitulation  may 
riot  be  amiss. 

The  basis  on  which  it  is  suggested  that  our  public  school- 
system  shall  be  put  is  carefully  defined  in  the  circular. 

In  some  important  particulars,  no  change  is  necessary,  as 
our  practice  has  already  reached  the  point  of  theoretic  excel- 
lence. Such  arc  the  unconditional  rights  of  all  children  to  enter 
the  school,  —  or  their  entire  exemption  from  rate-bills  or  any 
capitation-tax,  cither  as  a  condition  precedent  or  subsequent  of 
their  attending  school,  —  the  range  of  studies  which  may  be 
taught,  the  provision  for  moral  and  religious  instruction,  with 
guaranties  against  its  abuse,  and  so  forth. 

But,  in  other  respects,  important  improvements  are  contem- 
plated,—  no  cardinal  or  organic  change  in  the  system  itself,  but 
only  progression  in  courses  already  begun.  Such  are,  more  be- 
fitting qualifications  in  teachers  for  the  great  work  they  un- 
dertake ;  the  maintenance  of  the  schools  for  a  period  of  ten 
months  in  each  year,  instead  of  the  present  average  of  eight 
months,  and,  as  a  necessary  consequence,  the  appropriation 
of  moneys  sufficient  to  sustain  the  prolonged  school,  and  to 
pay  the  better-qualified  teachers  ;  and,  finally,  the  gathering 
into  the  schools,  during  their  entire  term,  of  all  the  children 


REPORT  FOR    1847.  631 

in   the   community   between    the    ages    of    four   and    sixteen 
years. 

From  the  comprehensiveness  of  this  last  condition,  it  is  obvi- 
ous that  all  cases  of  sickness,  casualty,  or  other  reasonable 
cause  of  absence,  must  be  excepted.  And  equally  clear  is  it, 
that  when  any  parent  or  guardian  prefers  to  educate  his  chil- 
dren at  home,  or  in  a  private  school,  he  should  be  allowed  to 
do  so,  —  the  means  of  education  to  be  left  wholly  optional  with 
every  one,  provided  assurance  is  given  to  the  State  that  the  end 
is  attained. 

So  far  as  the  proposed  changes  in  \~olve  the  appropriation  of 
more  money,  it  has  been  shown  that  the  State  possesses  not 
only  a  sufficiency,  but  a  redundancy  of  wealth  for  the  purpose. 
Besides,  when  once  in  operation,  the  system  will  be  found 
not  merely  a  self-supporting  one,  but  one  yielding  large  reve- 
nues, —  both  saving  and  producing  many  times  more  than  it 
will  cost,  —  requiting  a  single  expenditure  by  a  manifold  re- 
muneration. 

So  far  as  higher  mental  and  moral  attributes  in  teachers  will 
be  required,  reasons  have  been  offered  to  show  that  Nature, 
or  the  common  course  of  Providence,  supplies  an  abundance  of 
intellectual  power  and  of  moral  capability  ;  but  that,  through 
our  present  misuse  or  mal-administration  of  these  noble  quali- 
ties, they  are  either  lost  by  neglect  of  culture,  or  diverted  to 
less  worthy  pursuits.  There  is  no  more  iron  in  the  world  now 
than  there  ever  was ;  we  have  only  discovered  how  to  use  it 
more  advantageously,  —  for  steamboats,  for  railroads,  for  ma- 
chinery, and  a  thousand  mechanical  purposes  :  and  thus,  in  » 
point  of  mere  pecuniary  value,  we  have  given  it  the  first  rank  ' 
among  the  precious  metals.  There  is  no  more  water  flowing; 
down  our  streams  now  than  there  was  centuries  ago ;  but  we 
have  just  found  out  how  to  make  it  saw  timber,  grind  wheat, 
and  make  cloth  :  and  already  it  does  a  thousand  times  more 
work  than  all  our  twenty  millions  of  people  could  do  by  their 
own  unassisted  strength,  should  every  man  vie  with  his  neigh- 


632  ANNUAL    REPORTS    ON    EDUCATION. 

bor  in  the  severity  of  his  toil  and  in  the  amount  of  his  produc- 
tions. There  are  no  more  individual  particles  of  electricity  in 
the  air  or  in  the  earth  to-day  than  there  always  have  been. 
Forever,  since  the  creation,  there  has  been  an  inconceivable 
host  of  these  particles,  —  a  multitude  deriding  all  human  power 
of  computation,  —  which  have  careered  round  the  earth  by  laws 
of  their  own,  each  one  being  as  distinct  from  all  the  rest,  and 
having  as  separate  and  independent  an  existence,  as  one  wild 
horse  upon  the  prairies  has  from  another.  Long  ago,  science 
learned  how  to  catch  and  confine  these  natural  racers  ;  but  it 
was  not  until  our  day  that  she  discovered  how  to  take  them,  — 
one,  ten,  a  hundred,  or  a  thousand,  —  and  despatch  them  as 
messengers  to  distant  cities ;  to  make  tkem  the  common  car- 
riers of  intelligence,  whom  no  pursuers  can  overtake,  no  bribe 
can  corrupt,  nor  robbers  despoil.  Thus  it  is  with  the  capaci- 
ties of  the  human  mind.  By  the  bounty  of  Providence,  they 
may  be  employed  and  made  sufficient  for  the  greatest  work  of 
reform.  It  is  through  our  blindness  and  perversity  that  they 
are  not  yet  used  to  achieve  their  sublime  purposes.  Like  the 
iron,  like  the  gravity  of  falling  water,  like  the  electric  coursers, 
they,  too,  have  the  power  of  conferring  unimaginable  blessings 
upon  the  race ;  but  as  yet  they  have  only  been  very  partially 
enlisted  in  the  highest  services  of  humanity. 

On  the  third  point, — that  which  contemplates  the  regular 
attendance  of  all  the  children  upon  the  school  (with  certain 
specified  exceptions),  and  even  their  compulsory  attendance  in 
a  class  of  extreme  cases,  —  I  rely  upon  legal  precedents  and 
analogies  ;  upon  the  necessity  which  is  imposed  upon  a  repub- 
lican government,  if  it  means  to  keep  itself  republican  ;  and 
upon  the  broad  principle,  that  a  parent  who  neglects  to  educate 
his  child  up  to  the  point  proposed  proves  that  he  has  taken  the 
parental  relation  upon  himself  without  any  corresponding  idea 
of  its  solemnity,  and  thus,  by  the  non-performance  of  his  pa- 
rental duties,  forfeits  his  parental  rights. 

The  coincidence  of  the  results,  too,  to  which  the  witnesses 


REPORT    FOR    1847.  G33 

have  come,  is,  on  its  face,  a  very  remarkable  circumstance ; 
but  it  is  rendered  still  more  remarkable  by  the  fact,  that 
they  made  their  statements  without  any  concert  or  compari- 
son of  views,  and  in  entire  independence  of  each  other.  The 
proof,  therefore,  is  not  cumulative  merely  ;  but  its  cogency  is 
raised  to  a  mathematical  power  equal  to  the  number  of  the 
witnesses. 

Such,  then,  is  a  condensed  view  or  summary  of  the  testimony 
given  by  credible  and  trustworthy  witnesses  on  a  subject  so 
unspeakably  important.  The  judicial  mind  cannot  fail  to  ob- 
serve that  the  section  of  country  whence  these  results  of  expe- 
rience have  been  gathered  is  large,  embracing  all  the  States 
north  and  east  of  Pennsylvania.  The  schools  have  been  both 
public  and  private,  in  town  and  country  ;  have  consisted  of  both 
sexes  and  of  all  ages  ;  and  have  contained  children  from  all  the 
States  in  the  Union.  They  have  embraced  thousands  and  thou- 
sands of  the  youth  of  the  laud  ;  and,  commencing  at  a  point 
of  time  now  more  than  fifty  years  gone  by,  they  reach  in  un- 
broken continuity  to  the  present  day.  We  have,  therefore,  no 
isolated  or  solitary  case,  illogically  generalized,  and  made  to 
yield  an  inference  too  bi'oad  for  its  premises. 

Nor  is  it  to  be  forgotten  that  each  of  the  witnesses,  in  theo- 
logical character,  is  a  sincere  believer  in  such  an  innate  natural 
condition  of  the  human  heart  as  opposes  the  most  formidable 
obstacles  to  success  in  moral  training.  Sovereign,  indeed,  must 
be  the  influences  which  can  educe  exemplary  lives  and  a  well- 
ordered  society  from  a  race,  each  one  of  whom  could  say  lite- 
rally, u  I  was  shapen  in  iniquity,  and  in  sin  did  my  mother  con- 
ceive me,"  —  in  a  race  whose  alienation  from  the  righteous  law 
of  God  is  supposed  to  antedate  volition,  and  even  consciousness, 
and  to  be  mingled  and  inbred  with  the  primary  corpuscles  of 
being.  It  was  no  disrespect  towards  the  many  able  and  eminent 
teachers  of  a  different  religious  faith  which  deterred  me  from 
propounding  the  same  questions  to  them,  and  soliciting  the  re- 
sults of  their  experience  ;  but  it  was  because  I  wished  to  know 
what  was  deemed  to  be  practicable  by  those  who  saw  the  great- 


634  ANNUAL   REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

est  difficulties  to  be  overcome  before  success  could  be  achieved. 
While,  therefore,  their  statements  were  solicited  respecting  the 
moral  efficacy  or  "potentiality"  of  schools  "  conducted  on  the 
cardinal  principles  of  the  Neiv-England  systems,"  yet  it  was  my 
wish  that  each  one  should  make  his  own  theological  views 
manifest  on  the  face  of  his  communication  ;  so  that  governors  I 
and  legislators,  and  all  leaders  of  public  opinion,  might  see' 
how  much  was  believed  to  be  attainable,  even  while  contending 
against  the  most  formidable  obstacles.  I  reasoned  thus,  —  that 
if  those  who  believe  the  battle-ground  to  be  most  nearly  inac- 
cessible, and  the  enemy's  iutrenchments  to  be  most  nearly  im- 
pregnable, and  his  power  to  be  most  nearly  invincible,  do  still 
believe  that  victory  can  be  won,  then  all  would  say  there 
should  be  no  sleep  in  the  camp  until  the  war-cry  is  rung,  and 
the  hand-to-hand  struggle  is  begun. 

But  I  must  not  disguise  the  fact,  nor  in  any  way  divert 
attention  from  it,  that  universality  of  education  (either  public 
or  private)  is  a  substantive  part  of  the  plan  here  proposed,  and 
indispensable  to  its  successful  working.  Indeed,  I  should  have 
thought  it  nugatory  and  trifling  to  ask  the  opinion  of  any 
teacher  about  attainable  results,  had  this  condition  been  omit- 
ted from  the  scheme.  Had  it  been  stipulated,  or  supposed,  as 
a  preliminary  of  the  plan,  that  one  per  cent  only  of  the  chil- 
dren might  be  left  out  of  the  schools,  doubtless  the  witnesses 
would  have  made  a  deduction  of  at  least  five  per  cent  in  their 
estimate  of  results.  They  would  have  felt  bound  to  make  an 
allowance,  not  only  for  the  abandoned  class  themselves,  but  for 
the  poisonous  influence  of  that  class  upon  all  the  rest.  Doubt- 
less every  advance  in  the  qualification  of  teachers,  and  in 
gathering  more  and  more  of  the  children  within  the  renovating 
influences  of  the  schools,  will  yield  a  great  reward  of  mental 
and  moral  benefits ;  but  universality  in  the  end  to  be  accom- 
plished demands  universality  in  the  means  to  be  employed.  If 
a  contagious  or  infectious  distemper  were  to  break  out  in  any 
quarter  of  a  city,  and  all  its  victims  but  one  were  to  be  re- 
moved, though  this  removal  would  abate  something  from  the 


EEPORT   FOR   1847.  635 

malignant  type  of  the  disease,  and  contract  the  circle  of  its 
ravages,  yet  who  would  feel  secure  while  even  one  should 
remain  to  impart  its  virus  by  contact,  or  radiate  its  noxious 
effluvia?  In  moral,  no  less  than  in  physical  maladies,  the 
security  of  each  is  conditioned  on  the  security  of  all.  The 
confidence  of  every  rational  man  must  be  impaired  respecting 
the  prospective  virtue  of  his  own  children  while  the  children 
of  his  neighbor  are  vicious  ;  and.  for  the  comprehensive  mean- 
ing of  the  word  "  neighbor,"  Christ  is  our  authority.  I 
thank  God  that  there  can  be  no  safety  for  any  until  there  is 
safety  for  all.  Were  the  sky  to  be  opened,  and  a  voice  to  ad- 
dress us  audibly  from  the  heavens,  it  could  not  proclaim  more 
articulately  than  is  done  by  the  common  course  of  Divine 
Providence,  that  God  has  made  of  one  blood  all  nations  of  men 
to  dwell  on  all  the  face  of  the  earth  ;  and  that,  therefore,  being 
by  the  law  of  consanguinity  one  brotherhood  and  one  body, 
no  one  member  of  this  body  can  suffer  but  all  the  members 
must  suffer  with  it,  and  no  one  member  can  be  truly  honored 
but  all  the  members  must  rejoice  with  it.  Where  men  are 
religious,  therefore,  this  principle  appeals  to  their  religion,  and 
enforces  all  its  dictates  ;  where  men  are  not  religious,  but  have 
only  an  enlightened  selfishness,  it  invokes  that  selfishness  to 
do  good  to  others  for  the  reflected  benefits  upon  itself:  and  thus 
it  leaves  only  those  to  pursue  a  different  course  who  are 
morally  selfish  and  intellectually  blind.  Hence,  any  system 
of  education  which  does  violence  to  this  great  principle  of  uni- 
versal benevolence  —  which  circumscribes  itself  within  the 
limits  of  a  family,  a  caste,  a  party,  or  a  sect  —  is  but  human 
weakness  wrestling  against  Divine  Power ;  and,  under  what- 
ever specious  disguises  it  may  mask  itself,  it  is  only  mortal  self- 
ishness, seeking,  by  feigned  and  counterfeited  compliances,  to 
cajole  Heaven  out  of  blessings  promised  only  to  those  who  do 
unto  others  as  they  would  that  others  should  do  unto  them. 
What  right  has  any  man,  or  body  of  men,  to  make  the  second 
table  of  the  law  of  less  account  than  the  first?  or  to  delude 
themselves  with  the  belief  that  they  love  the  Lord  their  God 


636  ANNUAL   REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

with  all  the  heart,  while  they  do  not  love  their  neighbor  as 
themselves?  If  God  is  our  Father,  all  men  must  be  our 
brethren. 

I  believe  it  would  not  be  only  practicable,  but  easy,  for  the 
legislature,  at  its  ensuing  session,  now  so  soon  to  be  com- 
menced, to  initiate  a  series  of  measures,  which,  in  a  very  brief 
period,  would  carry  us  through  the  earlier  stages  of  the  con- 
templated reform,  —  measures  which  would  command  the 
ready  asseut  of  a  vast  majority  of  the  citizens  of  Massachu- 
setts, and  would  thus  leave  but  few  of  those  unnatural  cases  — 
of  those  parents  who  are  not  parents  —  to  be  dealt  with  com- 
pulsively. 

In  concluding  this  Report,  I  shall  not  attempt  to  heighten  the 
effect  of  the  evidence  and  the  argument  which  have  been  sub- 
mitted by  any  effort  to  describe  the  blessedness  of  that  state  of 
society  which  the  universal  application  of  this  reformatory 
agency  would  usher  in.  Such  an  endeavor  would  be  vain.  He 
who  would  do  this  must  first  behold  the  scenes,  and  be  thrilled 
by  the  joys,  he  would  delineate  ;  he  must  borrow  the  language 
of  the  Paradise  he  would  describe.  And,  more  than  this,  he 
must  be  able  to  depict  the  depth  and  fierceness  of  the  pains 
which  have  been  inflicted  by  the  crimes  of  mankind,  not  only 
upon  the  guilty  perpetrators  themselves,  but  upon  the  innocent 
circles  of  their  families  and  friends ;  the  terrors  of  the  con- 
science-stricken malefactor  ;  the  sorrow  and  shame  of  children 
bemoaning  a  parent's  guilt  ;  the  madness  of  the  mother  at  the 
ruin  of  her  child  ;  the  agony  which  brings  down  a  father's  gray 
hairs  with  sorrow  to  the  grave  ;  the  pangs  of  fraternal  and  sis- 
terly affection,  to  which  a  stain  upon  a  brother's  or  a  sister's 
name  is  a  dark  spot  upon  the  sun  of  life,  which  spreads  and 
deepens  until  it  eclipses  all  the  light  of  existence  ;  all  the  va- 
ried cries  of  this  mingled  wail  of  distress,  which  have  been 
heard  in  all  lands  and  at  all  times,  from  the  death  of  Abel  to 
the  present  hour,  —  all  these  he  must  have  power  to  describe 
who  would  describe  the  blessedness  of  a  deliverance  from  them. 

There  is  one  consideratiou,  however,  which  I  cannot  forbear 


REPORT   FOR   1847.  637 

to  introduce,  because  it  appeals  alike  to  all  those  various  and 
oftentimes  conflicting  classes  of  men  who  are  endeavoring  in  so 
many  different  ways  to  ameliorate  the  condition  of  mankind. 
Will  not  a  moment's  reflection  convince  them  all,  that,  so  far 
as  human  instrumentality  is  concerned,  education  encompasses, 
pervades,  and  overrules  all  their  efforts,  grants  them  whatever 
triumphs  they  may  achieve,  and  sets  bounds  to  their  successes 
which  they  cannot  overpass?  Why  does  the  advocate  of  tem- 
perance, every  time  he  returns  upon  his  circuit  of  beneficence, 
find  his  way  again  blocked  up  with  the  prostrate  victims  of 
inebriation  ?  Why  so  long,  in  both  hemispheres,  have  the 
divinest  appeals  of  the  advocate  of  peace  been  drowned  by  the 
din  of  mustering  squadrons  and  the  clarion  of  war  ?  Why  does 
the  opponent  of  slavery,  before  he  can  strike  the  fetters  even  from 
one  victim,  see  other  fetters  riveted  upon  the  limbs  of  many 
more?  Why  do  our  moral-reform  societies  and  our  home- 
mission  societies  call  annually  for  more  money  and  more  labor- 
ers wherewith  to  enter  the  ever-enlarging  fields,  as  they  open 
before  them,  of  licentiousness  and  of  irreligion?  Why  do  those 
rich  and  powerful  associations  formed  for  evangelizing  the 
heathen  world  see  the  very  ships  which  carry  out  the  gospel 
and  its  heralds  freighted  also  with  idols,  made  in  Christian 
lands,  for  those  heathen  to  buy,  and  to  worship  as  true  gods, 
and  laden  with  a  liquid  poison,  too,  which  sinks  its  victims  to 
such  a  depth  of  debasement  as  to  make  common  heathenism 
enviable?  Why  is  it  that  the  political  parties  into  which  our 
country  is  divided,  persist,  year  after  year,  in  solemnly  and  un- 
ceasingly charging  each  other  with  heinous  and  premeditated 
offences  against  the  fundamental  principles  of  our  government 
and  the  highest  welfare  of  the  people?  —  charges  which,  if  true, 
must  brand  the  accused  with  infamy ;  if  untrue,  the  accusers. 
So  far  as  the  members  of  any  one  of  these  various  parties  are 
lovers  of  truth,  of  righteousness,  and  of  peace,  let  them  be 
asked  what  is  the  reason  why  they  accomplish  so  little,  and 
why  so  much  ever  remains  to  be  done,  and  they  will  answer, 
and  answer  truly,  that  they  do  not  fail  through  lack  of  reason 


638  ANNUAL   REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

or  of  authority,  but  because  of  blindness  of  mind,  or  perversity 
of  heart,  in  those  whom  they  address.  The  admonitions  of  his- 
tory, the  precepts  of  the  gospel,  the  attributes  of  the  Deity,  are 
all  on  their  side ;  but  they  are  not  heard,  because  they  speak 
to  adders'  ears ;  they  are  not  felt,  because  their  words  of  fire 
fall  upon  stony  hearts.  It  is  not,  therefore,  better  or  more  ar- 
guments that  they  need,  but  men  capable  of  appreciating  argu- 
ment. Their  eloquence  is  sufficiently  electric  and  powerful, 
were  it  not  for  the  flintiness  of  the  hearts  that  glance  off  its 
lightnings.  They  want  men  whose  intellects  are  not  blind  to 
the  most  radiant  truths,  whose  consciences  are  not  as  the 
nether  mill-stone,  whose  prejudices  have  not  become  fossilized. 
The  merits  of  the  divinest  cause  may  be  all  cancelled  by  the  de- 
merits of  the  hearers  ;  as  the  innocence  of  Christ  was  no  better 
than  guilt  at  the  unholy  tribunal  of  Pilate. 

But,  in  universal  education,  every  "  follower  of  God  and 
friend  of  human  kind  "  will  find  the  only  sure  means  of  carry- 
ing forward  that  particular  reform  to  which  he  is  devoted.  In 
whatever  department  of  philanthropy  he  may  be  engaged,  he 
will  find  that  department  to  be  only  a  segment  of  the  great  cir- 
cle of  beneficence,  of  which  universal  education  is  centre  and 
circumference  ;  and  that  it  is  only  when  these  segments  are  fit- 
ly joined  together  that  the  wheel  of  progress  can  move  harmo- 
niously and  resistlessly  onward.  Whether,  therefore,  he  is 
struggling,  on  the  one  hand,  to  emancipate  society  from  the 
thraldom  of  some  particular  enormity  which  to  him  seems 
more  flagitious  than  all  the  rest,  or  whether,  on  the  other 
hand,  he  is  striving  to  endue  his  age  with  some  special  virtue, 
in  no  way  can  he  pursue  his  own  peculiar  aim  so  directly  and 
so  speedily  as  by  preparing  a  generation  of  men,  ninety-nine 
in  every  hundred  of  whom  —  even  of  the  first  subjects  submit- 
ted to  the  experiment  —  shall  be  trained  "  to  do  justly,  to  love 
mercy,  and  to  walk  humbly  with  God."  And  however  a  por- 
tion of  my  fellow-mortals,  or  I  myself,  may  feel  in  regard  to 
the  highest  religious  concernments  of  the  soul,  I  trust  there  are 
none  who  believe  that  such  an  education  as  is  here  coutemphit- 


REPORT   FOB    1847.  639 

ed  would  be  an  obstacle,  and  not  an  aid,  to  the  reception  of 
divine  truth.  I  trust  there  are  none  who  would  not  readily 
adopt  the  language  of  Mr.  Page,  in  his  letter  above  cited, 
where  he  says,  "  I  am  fully  of  the  opinion  that  the  right  of  ex- 
pectation of  a  religious  character  would  be  increased  very  much 
in  proportion  to  the  excellence  of  the  training  given,  since  God 
never  ordains  means  which  he  does  not  intend  to  bless." 


REPORT   FOR   1848. 


GENTLEMEN,  — 

.  .  .  MASSACHUSETTS  may  be  regarded  either  as  a  State  by 
herself,  or  as  a  member  of  a  mighty  and  yet  increasing  confed- 
eracy of  States.  In  the  former  capacity,  she  has  great  and 
abiding  interests,  which  are  mainly  dependent  upon  her  own 
domestic  or  internal  policy.  In  the  latter  relation,  her  fate  de- 
pends upon  the  will  of  her  partners  in  the  association.  Hence, 
although,  in  regard  to  all  nations,  the  Minister  for  Foreign 
Affairs  is  the  officer  of  first  importance  in  the  State,  yet,  in 
regard  to  our  own  Commonwealth,  the  Home  Department  has 
decided  pi'ecedence. 

As  an  individual  State,  the  geographical  extent  of  Massachu- 
setts, and  her  civil  and  social  interests,  will  remain  the  same ; 
but  when  compared,  or  rather  contrasted,  with  the  vast  do- 
main, and  the  magnificent  and  overshadowing  interests,  of  the 
whole  Union,  she  is,  and  from  year  to  year  must  be,  growing 
relatively  less  and  less  and  less.  At  the  epoch  of  the  Revolu- 
tion, she  was  one  of  thirteen  States.  Now  she  is  one  of  thirty. 
Even  so  late  as  1790,  when  the  first  census  of  the  United  States 
was  taken,  there  were  but  three  States  whose  population  ex- 
ceeded hers.  Deducting  slaves,  of  whom  she  had  none,  there 
were  but  two.  Her  population  at  that  time  amounted  to  about 
one-tenth  part  of  the  population  of  the  whole  Union.  It  is  now 
much  below  one-twentieth.  At  the  time,  too,  of  the  adoption 
of  the  Federal  Constitution,  the  area  of  Massachusetts  bore 

640 


REPORT   FOR   1848.  641 

some  assignable  and  palpable  proportion  to  that  of  the  whole 
United  States.  The  Mississippi  was  then  the  western  boundary 
of  the  nation.  Now  our  domain  not  only  extends  to  the  Pacific, 
but  stretches  through  almost  seventeen  degrees  of  latitude  upon 
that  ocean.  Florida  then  lay  between  us  and  the  Gulf  of 
Mexico ;  and,  the  gates  of  the  Mississippi  River  being  liable 
at  any  time  to  be  closed  against  the  Western  States,  their  only 
unobstructed  egress  to  the  Atlantic  was  through  Eastern  ports. 
Now  the  Gulf  is  our  southern  boundary ;  and  the  Mississippi 
and  its  tributaries,  with  their  more  than  sixteen  thousand  miles 
of  waters  navigable  by  steam,  afford  a  channel  capacious  enough 
to  drain  the  West  of  its  vast  productions,  and  then,  with  the 
refluent  tide  of  commerce,  to  supply  their  demands  for  foreign 
merchandise.  Territorially  considered,  the  loss  of  Cape  Cod, 
or  of  the  few  acres  that  compose  the  Islands  of  Nantucket  and 
the  Vineyard,  would  be  greater  to  Massachusetts  than  the  loss 
of  Massachusetts  would  be  to  the  Union.  Our  native  and  be- 
loved State,  indeed,  seems  contracting  and  dwindling  away  so 
fast  as  to  suggest  the  idea  of  its  more  careful  perambulation 
to  see  if  some  clandestine  and  rapacious  neighbor  has  not  in- 
curred the  curse  of  the  Mosaic  law  by  removing  our  landmarks 
inward  and  inward.  It  is  only  by  taking  Massachusetts  as  a 
unit,  and  comparing  her  area  with  that  of  other  States  in  the 
Union,  that  we  can  realize  how  narrow  and  diminutive  she  is 
becoming.  Ohio  and  Kentucky  could  each  be  divided  into  five 
States,  and  each  of  the  ten  would  be  larger  than  our  own.  New 
York,  Pennsylvania,  North  Carolina,  Alabama,  Louisiana, 
Mississippi,  and  Tennessee  would  each  make  considerably 
more  than  six  States  —  or  the  whole  of  them  more  than  forty- 
two  States  —  of  the  size  of  Massachusetts.  Michigan,  Illinois, 
Iowa,  Wisconsin,  Georgia,  and  Arkansas  are  each  equal  in 
territory  to  seven  such  States  as  ours,  —  amounting  to  another 
group  of  forty-two.  Virginia  and  Florida  are  each  equal  to 
more  than  eight ;  Missouri  is  equal  to  nine  ;  and  Texas  alone, 
according  to  the  boundaries  now  claimed  by  her,  would  make 

forty-four  such  States.     Taking  an  official  estimate  of  the  area 
41 


642 


ANNUAL   REPORTS   ON  EDUCATION. 


of  the  United  States,  exclusive  of  the  portion  lately  acquired 
from  Mexico,  it  is  divisible  into  three  hundred  and  seventy-six 
such  States  as  Massachusetts.  The  territory  ceded  by  the  treaty 
with  Mexico,  which  was  ratified  on  the  thirtieth  day  of  May 
last,  exclusive  of  what  is  claimed  by  Texas,  would  make  more 
than  seventy-two  States  of  equal  dimensions.  Hence  it  is  plain 
that  Massachusetts,  territorially  considered,  constitutes,  not  ex- 
ceeding, in  round  numbers,  one  four-hundred  and  forty-eighth 
part  of  the  Union  to  which  she  belongs,  or  far  less  than  the 
proportion  which  a  single  degree  bears  to  the  three  hundred 
and  sixty  degrees  of  a  circle.  The  bull's  hide  mentioned  in 
Virgil's  epic  would  nearly  enclose  her.* 


Table  exhibiting  the  areas  of  the  several  States  and  Territories  of  the  United 
States  in  square  miles  and  acres. 


FREE 

Maine  .... 

STATES. 
Sq.  Miles. 
.    35,000 

Acres. 
22,400,000 
5,139,200 
5,120,000 
4,640,000 
768,000 
3,040,000 
29,440,000 
4,384,640 
30,080,000 
25,576,960 
21,637,760 
35,459,200 
35,995,520 
32,584,960 
34,511,300 

SLAVE 

Delaware  .... 
Maryland  .    .    .    . 
Virginia    .    .    .    . 
North  Carolina  .    . 
South  Carolina  .    . 

STATES. 
Sq.  Miles. 
2,120 
11,000 
61,352 
45,500 
28,000 
58  000 

Acres. 
1,356,800 
7,040,000 
39,265,280 
29,120,000 
17,920,000 
37,120,000 
24,115,200 
28,160,000 
29,715,840 
30,174,080 
32,402,080 
43,123,200 
33,406,720 
37,931,520 

208,332,800 
32,000 

New  Hampshire 
Vermont  .    .    . 
Massachusetts  . 
Rhode  Island    . 
Connecticut  .    . 
New  York     .    . 
New  Jersey  .    . 
Pennsylvania    . 
Ohio      .... 

.      8,030 
.      8,000 
.      7,250 
.      1,200 
.      4,750 
.    46,000 
.      6,851 
.    47,000 
.    39,964 

Kentucky  .... 
Tennessee     .    .    . 
Louisiana      .    .    . 
Mississippi    .    .    . 
Alabama   .     .     .     . 
Missouri   .     .     .     . 
Arkansas  .    .    .    . 
Florida      .    .    .    . 
Texas  (if  bounded 
by  Rio  Grande)  . 
Dist't  of  Columbia 

Total  .... 

37,680 
44,000 
46,431 
47,147 
50,722 
67,380 
52,198 
59,268 

325,520 
50 

Indiana     .    .    . 
Illinois      .    .    . 
Michigan  .    .    . 
Iowa     .... 

.    33,809 
.    55,405 
.    56,243 
.    50,914 

Wisconsin     .    . 
Total  .    .    . 

.    53,924 
.  454,340 

290,777,600 

936,368 

599,2/0,520 

Territory  north  and  west  of  Mississippi  River,  and  east  of  the  Rocky  Mountains. 

Sq.  Miles.  Acres. 

Bounded  north  by  49°  north  latitude,  east  by  Mississippi 
River,  south  by  the  State  of  Iowa  and  Platte  River, 
and  west  by  the  Rocky  Mountains 723,248 

Indian  Territory,  situated  west  of  Arkansas  and  Missouri, 

and  eouth  of  Platte  River 248,851 


Carried  forward 972,099 


462,878,720 

159,204,640 
622,143,360 


REPOET   FOR    1848.  643 

In  other  elements  of  national  greatness,  —  in  mineral  re- 
sources, in  productiveness  of  soil,  and  in  natural  facilities  for 
internal  intercourse,  —  she  falls  far  below  even  this  insignificant 
fraction.  She  has  not  an  inland  bay,  not  a  navigable  river  ;  no 
gold  is  scattered  among  her  sands  ;  granite  is  her  best  mineral, 
and  ice  the  only  pearl  to  be  found  in  her  waters. 

So  far,  too,  as  political  power,  founded  on  numbers,  is  con- 
cerned, Massachusetts  is  shrinking  hardly  less  rapidly  than  in 
the  relative  compass  of  her  borders.  Out  of  two  hundred  and 
thirty  representatives  in  the  national  Congress,  she  has  but  ten  ; 
and  the  next  census,  now  so  soon  to  be  taken,  will  seriously 
reduce  this  meagre  proportion.  In  the  first  Congress,  she  had 
eight  out  of  sixty-five,  or  one  in  eight  (and  a  fraction),  instead 
of  one  in  twenty-three,  as  at  present,  with  waning  prospects  for 
the  future.  In  the  presidential  election  of  the  current  year,  she 
gives  but  twelve  out  of  two  hundred  and  ninety  votes.  In 
choosing  electors,  therefore  ;  in  declaring  war  and  in  making 
peace ;  and  in  all  the  mighty  interests,  political  and  moral, 
that  depend  upon  war  and  peace  ;  in  the  deep  pecuniary  stake 
which  every  commercial  and  manufacturing  people  have  in 
questions  of  foreign  commerce  and  domestic  currency ;  and  in 
all  civil,  military,  and  diplomatic  appointments  which  require 

Sq.  Miles.  Acres. 

Brought  forward 972,099  622,143,360 

Old  North-west  Territory,  balance  remaining  east  of  Mis- 
sissippi River,  aud  north-west  of  Wisconsin  .        .        .         22,336  14,295,040 
Oregon  Territory  west  of  Rocky  Mountains         .        .        .       341,463  218,536,320 

Total  of  old  territory  not  organized  into  States        .     1,335,898       854,974,7-'0 

California 448,691       287,162,240 

New  Mexico 77,387         49,527,680 

Total 520,078        336,689,920 

Grand  Aggregate. 

Total  in  Free  States 454,340       290,777,600 

Total  in  Slave  States 936,368       599,275,520 

Total  in  States 1,390,708       890,053,120 

Total,  old  territory 1,335,898       854,974,720 

Total,  new  territory 526,078       336,689,920 

Total 3,252,684     2,081,717,7(30 


644  ANNUAL    REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

the  concurrence  of  the  Senate,  —  Massachusetts  is  at  the  mercy 
of  her  sisters  ;  and  if  those  sisters  become  imperious  and  aggres- 
sive, as  some  of  them  give  significant  tokens  of  becoming,  she 
must  succumb  and  suffer,  like  the  abused  Cordelia  among  the 
haughty  Gonerils  and  Regans  of  the  family. 

This  picture  is  no  fancy-sketch.  It  is  drawn  from  the  origi- 
nal without  the  exaggeration  of  a  color  or  a  line.  We  are  con- 
fronted by  these  stern  realities,  these  incontrovertible  facts  :  — 

Miles. 

Length  of  the  Atlantic  Coast  to  the  mouth  of  St.  Mary's  River    .        .         1,450 
From  mouth  of  St.  Mary's  River  to  Cape  of  Florida    ....  450 

Gulf  Coast  to  mouth  of  the  Sabine  Kiver 1,200 

Total • 3,100 

Those  States  where  the  public  lands  are  situated  are  generally  exclusive  of  lakes, 
ponds,  &c.  Marshes  are  estimated. 

The  Territories  include  such  waters  as  are  interior. 

And  no  illusions  of  a  poetic  temperament,  no  complacent  retro- 
spection over  periods  of  past  renown,  can  avert  or  delay  our 
impending  fate.  Like  the  foolish  bird  which  supposes  it  can 
avoid  danger  by  hiding  its  head  from  its  pursuer,  we  may  hide 
our  eyes  and  avert  our  thoughts  from  all  contemplation  of  the 
fortunes  that  await  us  ;  but  those  fortunes  will  nevertheless 
overtake  us  with  a  speed  that  we  cannot  escape  from,  and  a 
resistlessness  that  we  cannot  overcome. 

What,  then,  shall  save  our  native  and  beloved  State  from  van- 
ishing quite  away,  from  being  unknown  in  the  councils  of  the 
nation,  and  lost  to  the  history  of  the  world?  In  our  domestic 
legislation,  and  in  all  our  social  relationships,  what  policy  shall 
prevail,  and  by  what  spirit  shall  we  be  animated,  in  order  to  avert 
so  deplorable  a  fate?  Has  not  every  patriot,  every  worthy  son 
of  a  Pilgrim  sire,  an  answer  at  hand?  If  Massachusetts  can 
no  longer  challenge  respect  on  account  of  her  numbers,  she  must 
challenge  it  on  account  of  her  character.  If  she  is  no  longer 
visible  by  her  magnitude,  she  must  become  so  by  her  light. 
She  must  be,  like  Hesper,  "  fairest  of  all  the  train  of  night," 
and  compensate  for  the  diminutiveuess  of  her  size  by  the  intense- 
ness  of  her  brilliancy. 


REPORT   FOR    1848.  645 

Let  us  reflect,  then,  in  the  first  place,  that  Massachusetts  has 
an  absolute  as  well  as  a  relative  existence.  She  exists  for 
her  present  people  and  for  their  posterity,  as  well  as  for  the 
Union  at  large.  Though  relatively  declining,  when  compared 
with  the  whole  country,  yet  there  is  an  actual  and  constant 
increase  in  her  numbers.  Within  her  narrow  borders  she  will 
soon  have  a  million  of  people  ;  and  what  finite  power  can  ade- 
quately comprehend  the  joys  and  sorrows,  the  hopes  and  fears, 
the  honor  or  shame,  of  a  million  of  human  beings  belonging  to 
the  same  generation,  or  sum  up  the  fearful  aggregate  of  happi- 
ness or  misery  for  themselves  and  their  descendants  ! 

Let  us  thank  Heaven,  too,  that  there  are  other  standards  of 
greatness  besides  vastness  of  territory,  and  other  forms  of 
wealth  besides  mineral  deposits  or  agricultural  exuberance. 
Though  every  hill  were  a  Potosi,  though  every  valley,  like  that 
of  the  Nile,  were  rank  with  fatness,  yet  might  a  nation  be  poor 
in  the  most  desperate  sense, — benighted  in  the  darkness  of 
barbarism,  and  judgment-stricken  of  Heaven  for  its  sins.  A 
State  has  local  boundaries  which  it  cannot  rightfully  transcend  ; 
but  the  realm  of  intelligence,  the  sphere  of  charity,  the  moral 
domain  iu  which  the  soul  can  expand  and  expatiate,  are  illimit- 
able, —  vast  and  boundless  as  the  omnipresence  of  the  Being 
that  created  them.  Worldly  treasure  is  of  that  nature  that  rust 
may  corrupt,  or  the  moth  destroy,  or  thieves  steal ;  but  even 
upon  the  earth  there  are  mental  treasures  which  are  unap- 
proachable by  fraud,  impregnable  to  violence,  and  whose  value 
does  not  perish,  but  is  redoubled  with  the  using.  A  State, 
then,  is  not  necessarily  fated  to  insignificance  because  its  dimen- 
sions are  narrow,  nor  doomed  to  obscurity  and  powerlessuess 
because  its  numbers  are  few.  Athens  was  small ;  yet,  low  as 
were  her  moral  aims,  she  lighted  up  the  whole  earth  as  a  lamp 
lights  up  a  temple.  Judasa  was  small ;  but  her  prophets  and 
her  teachers  were,  and  will  continue  to  be,  the  guides  of  the 
world.  The  narrow  strip  of  half-cultivable  land  that  lies  be- 
tween her  eastern  and  western  boundaries  is  not  Massachusetts  ; 
but  her  noble  and  incorruptible  men,  her  pure  and  exalted 


6-16  ANNUAL   REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

women,  the  children  in  all  her  schools,  whose  daily  lessons  are 
the  preludes  and  rehearsals  of  the  great  duties  of  life,  and  the 
prophecies  of  future  eminence, — THESE  ARE  THE  STATE. 

Under  the  providence  of  God,  our  means  of  education  are 
the  grand  machinery  by  which  the  "  raw  material  "  of  human 
nature  can  be  worked  up  into  inventors  and  discoverers,  into 
skilled  artisans  and  scientific  farmers,  into  scholars  and  jurists, 
into  the  founders  of  benevolent  institutions,  and  the  great  ex- 
pounders of  ethical  and  theological  science.  By  means  of 
early  education,  those  embryos  of  talent  may  be  quickened 
which  will  solve  the  difficult  problems  of  political  and  economi- 
cal law ;  and  by  them,  too,  the  genius  may  be  kindled  which 
will  blaze  forth  in  the  poets  of  humanity.  Our  schools,  far 
more  than  they  have  done,  may  supply  the  presidents  and  pro- 
fessors of  colleges,  and  superintendents  of  public  instruction, 
all  over  the  land ;  and  send,  not  only  into  our  sister  States,  but 
across  the  Atlantic,  the  men  of  practical  science  to  superintend 
the  construction  of  the  great  works  of  art.  Here,  too,  may 
those  judicial  powers  be  developed  and  invigorated  which  will 
make  legal  principles  so  clear  and  convincing  as  to  prevent 
appeals  to  force  ;  and,  should  the  clouds  of  war  ever  lower  over 
our  country,  some  hero  may  be  found  —  the  nursling  of  our 
.schools,  and  ready  to  become  the  leader  of  our  armies,  that 
best  of  all  heroes  —  who  will  secure  the  glories  of  a  peace, 
unstained  by  the  magnificent  murders  of  the  battle-field. 

The  fortunes  of  a  State  depend  upon  antecedent  causes, 
working  with  greater  or  less  energy  through  longer  or  shorter 
periods  of  time.  By  virtue  of  this  universal  law,  the  future 
condition  of  the  people  of  Ifaaafceiifnettfl  will  be  modified,  and 
to  a  great  extent  determined,  by  the  force  of  causes  now  put 
iu  operation.  Enlightened  reason  discerns  the  connection  be- 
i  \veen  cause  and  effect ;  it  measures  the  efficiency  of  causes  ; 
and  thus,  to  a  great  extent,  it  is  able  to  adopt  and  adapt  means 
to  the  accomplishment  of  designed  ends.  Feeble  and  erring  a? 
is  the  reason  of  man,  yet  in  this  attribute,  far  more  nearly 
than  in  any  other,  does  he  preserve  the  divine  image  in  which 


REPORT  FOR   1848.  647 

he  was  originally  formed.  Supposing  matter  to  have  been  first 
created  by  the  fiat  of  the  Almighty,  a  substantial  and  beautiful 
analogy  may  be  traced  between  the  methods  pursued  by  the 
Creator  and  the  creature  in  the  formation  of  the  works  of  their 
hands.  When  the  fulness  of  time  for  creating  the  parent  of 
the  human  race  had  arrived,  we  must  suppose  the  idea  or 
archetype  of  a  man  to  have  existed  in  the  divine  Mind  as 
:vally  as  "  the  dust  of  the  earth  "  from  which  he  was  to  be 
formed  existed  in  his  hand  ;  and  that,  in  obedience  to  the  sove- 
reign volition,  all  the  elements  of  which  man  is  composed  — 
the  oxygen,  the  hydrogen,  the  nitrogeu,  the  carbon,  and  all  the 
rest  —  were  brought  together,  and  were  arranged  into  his  hun- 
dreds of  bones  and  of  muscles,  his  thousands  of  blood-vessels, 
and  his  millions  of  nerves ;  in  fine,  into  his  limbs,  and  into 
the  manifold  apparatus  of  his  senses  ;  into  that  wonderful  or- 
gan, the  heart ;  and,  if  any  thing  can  surpass  the  heart  as  a 
miracle  of  creative  power,  into  that  still  more  wonderful  organ, 
the  brain,  —  we  must  suppose,  I  say,  that  the  elements  for  the 
formation  of  this  work  were  assigned,  each  to  its  appropriate 
place,  until  God  saw  the  noble  and  majestic  structure  of  the 
human  form  before  him,  perfect  in  all  its  parts.  At  a  vast 
distance,  but  still  in  humble  imitation  of  the  divine  processes, 
does  man  proceed  for  the  completion  of  every  work  of  his 
hands.  The  architect,  for  instance,  through  the  medium  of 
his  senses,  acquires  a  knowledge  of  all  the  various  properties 
of  all  the  substances  which  enter  into  the  construction  of  an 
edifice.  By  his  reason,  he  discovers  the  special  uses  and  capa- 
bilities of  all  the  materials  to  be  employed.  Then,  in  the  soli- 
tude of  his  closet,  or  in  the  darkness  of  midnight,  he  revives  in 
his  mind  the  images  of  all  the  substances  and  ingredients 
necessary  to  his  work  ;  he  measures  and  arranges  and  combines 
the  ideas  of  them ;  he  applies  to  them  the  architectural  laws  of 
fitness,  proportion,  and  strength,  until,  at  last,  the  grand  con- 
ception of  the  edifice  —  whether  sacred  temple  or  human 
dwelling  —  rises  in  his  mind,  complete  from  foundation  to 
turret.  He  brings  together  and  adjusts  the  ideas  of  things,  just 


648  ANNUAL   REPORTS    OX   EDUCATION. 

as  an  omnipotent  arm  would  briny  together  and  adjust  the  pon- 
derous things  themselves.  After  this,  he  orders  the  materials  to 
be  collected  from  their  respective  localities,  —  it  may  be  from 
different  quarters  of  the  globe,  —  the  wood  from  the  forest,  the 
marble  from  the  quarry,  the  iron  from  the  mine,  the  bricks 
from  the  clay-pit,  the  glass,  the  furniture,  the  tapestry,  and  so 
forth,  each  from  its  place,  until  that  ideal  image  which  had 
before  risen  up  in  the  silent  recesses  of  his  mind  now  stands 
forth  in  full  and  majestic  proportions,  embodied  in  visible  and 
enduring  substance,  and  supplying  for  centuries  to  come  a  fit 
place  for  the  dwelling  of  man,  or  for  the  worship  of  God.  So, 
when  the  Garden  of  Eden  was  planted,  and  when  every  tree 
that  is  pleasant  to  the  sight  and  good  for  use  was  made  to 
grow  out  of  the  ground,  we  must  suppose  that  the  Creator, 
proceeding  upon  the  perfect  ideas  already  in  his  mind,  mingled 
together,  in  due  proportion,  those  few  chemical  elements, 
which,  in  their  various  combinations,  make  up  the  almost  infi- 
nite varieties  of  the  vegetable  world,  until  all  of  nourishment 
and  perfume  and  beauty  which  enters  into  our  imagination  of 
Paradise  clustered  and  glowed  and  bloomed  around,  and  filled 
the  air  with  its  sweets.  In  like  manner,  the  gardener,  who 
wishes  to  bring  together,  within  a  narrow  compass,  specimens 
of  the  various  plants  and  flowers  that  grow  between  the  Equa- 
tor and  the  Arctic,  first  acquires  a  knowledge  of  whatever  he 
would  cultivate  ;  he  classifies  them,  and  arranges  all  the  classes 
in  his  mind  according  to  their  respective  natures ;  he  encloses 
and  prepares  his  grounds  ;  and  then  he  gathers  together  seed 
and  plant  and  vine,  indigenous  and  exotic :  on  some  he 
pours  a  double  portion  of  the  suu,  some  he  removes  into  the 
shade,  others  he  buries  in  darkness  to  imitate  the  growth  of 
caverns,  and  others  still  he  surrounds  with  ice,  to  reproduce 
the  dwarfish  vegetation  of  the  frigid  zone  ;  for  some  he  pre- 
pares a  soil  dry  as  an  Arabian  desert,  and  for  others  he 
makes  an  artificial  pool ;  until  that,  which  at  first  was  only  a 
bodiless  creation  of  fancy  in  the  mind  of  the  designer,  becomes 
a  utility  and  an  embellishment,  sustaining  the  life,  and  minis- 
tering to  the  luxury,  of  men. 


REPORT   FOR    1848.  (U9 

Now,  it  is  the  especial  province  and  function  of  the  states- 
man and  the  lawgiver  —  of  all  those,  indeed,  whose  influence 
moulds  or  modifies  public  opinion  —  to  study  out  the  eternal 
principles  which  conduce  to  the  strength,  wisdom,  and  right- 
eousness of  a  community ;  to  search  for  these  principles  as 
for  hidden  riches  ;  to  strive  for  them  as  one  would  strive  for 
his  life  ;  and  then  to  form  public  institutions  in  accordance  with 
them.  And  he  is  not  worthy  to  be  called  a  statesman,  he  is 
not  worthy  to  be  a  lawgiver  or  leader  among  men,  who,  either 
through  the  weakness  of  his  head  or  the  selfishness  of  his  heart, 
is  incapable  of  marshalling  in  his  mind  the  great  ideas  of  knowl- 
edge, justice,  temperance,  and  obedience  to  the  laws  of  God,  — 
on  which  foundation  alone  the  structure  of  human  welfare  can 
be  erected ;  who  is  not  capable  of  organizing  these  ideas  into 
a  system,  and  then  of  putting  that  system  into  operation,  as  a 
mechanic  does  a  machine.  This  only  is  true  statesmanship. 

The  chief  men  in  society,  whether  they  derive  their  pre-emi- 
nence from  birth  or  wealth  or  office,  or  superiority  in  natural 
endowments,  are  mainly  responsible  for  the  institutions  they 
leave  behind  them ;  because  it  is  in  their  power  to  form  or  con- 
form those  institutions  according  to  their  own  ideas  of  excel- 
lence. The  leading  spirits  of  one  of  the  great  nations  of  anti- 
quity had  no  higher  idea  of  female  excellence  than  that  of  per- 
sonal beauty  and  the  attractions  of  voluptuousness  ;  and  hence 
their  brightest  and  most  boasted  female  ornament  was  a  cour- 
tesan. The  leading  spirits  of  that  other  ancient  nation,  whose 
perpetual  and  disgraceful  boast  it  was  that  it  had  conquered 
the  whole  world,  were  proud  to  trace  back  their  ferocious  line- 
age, through  patrician  and  regal  blood,  to  the  wolf  that  suckled 
their  founder,  —  a  tradition,  which,  whether  fact  or  fiction,  is 
full  of  allegoric  truth.  The  founders  of  communities  contem- 
poraneous with  our  own,  and  now  component  parts  of  this  re- 
public, filled  their  veins  at  their  birth  with  the  cancerous  blood 
of  slavery,  which  has  now  spread  itself  over  and  corrupted 
their  whole  organism  ;  and  yet  the  tormented  sufferer  contends 
for  his  disease  as  for  his  life,  —  fights  for  the  devil  that  rends 


650  ANNUAL    REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

him,  because,  as  he  affirms,  the  exorcism  of  the  evil  spirit  will 
be  death  to  himself.  For  centuries,  a  leading  feature  in  the 
policy  of  Great  Britain  towards  Ireland  was  the  utter  abolition 
of  all  education  which  did  not  conform  to  the  government 
standard  of  theology,  and  was  not  administered  by  teachers  of 
its  own  choosing.  None  but  a  Protestant  was  allowed  to  keep  , 
a  school.  From  1709  to  1782,  any  Roman  Catholic  who  should 
presume  to  be  a  schoolmaster,  or  assistant  to  a  schoolmaster, 
or  even  a  tutor  in  a  private  family,  was  to  be  transported  ;  and 
if  the  party  returned,  then  he  was  to  be  adjudged  guilty  of  high 
treason,  and  to  be  hung,  drawn,  and  quartered.  A  great  por- 
tion of  the  present  agony  of  starving,  diseased,  distracted  Ire- 
laud,  is  directly  referable  to  the  ignorance  which  has  resulted 
from  those  imperial  interdicts  against  knowledge.  No  other 
acts  of  British  oppression  have  been  so  fatal  in  driving  sanity 
out  of  the  head,  and  kindness  out  of  the  heart,  of  that  maddened 
country,  as  the  cruel  laws  by  which  every  child  in  Ireland  was 
prohibited  from  nourishing  himself  with  a  grain  of  knowledge, 
unless  he  would  swallow  with  it  a  scruple  of  theology.  These 
are  a  few  specimens  taken  from  the  great  storehouse  of  history, 
showing  how  those  who  enact  laws  and  organize  public  institu- 
tions predetermine  the  fate  of  the  masses.  And  are  not  all 
those  who  control  legislation,  and  lead  public  opinion  among 
ourselves,  adjured  by  these  admonitions  of  history,  as  well  as 
by  the  voice  of  conscience  and  the  precepts  of  Christianity,  to 
form  a  model  idea  of  a  healthy,  industrious,  frugal,  tempe- 
rate, wise  Christian  Commonwealth,  and  then  to  exert  all  their 
faculties  and  all  their  activities  in  turning  this  idea  into  a  liv- 
ing reality? 

Without  undervaluing  any  other  human  agency,  it  may  be 
safely  affirmed  that  the  common  school,  improved  and  ener- 
gized as  it  can  easily  be,  may  become  the  most  effective  and 
benignant  of  all  the  forces  of  civilization.  Two  reasons  sustain 
this  position.  In  the  first  place,  there  is  a  universality  in  its 
operation,  which  can  be  affirmed  of  no  other  institution  what- 
ever. If  administered  in  the  spirit  of  justice  and  conciliation, 


REPORT   FOR    1848.  651 

all  the  rising  generation  may  be  brought  within  the  circle  of  its 
reformatory  and  elevating  influences.  And,  in  the  second  place, 
the  materials  upon  which  it  operates  are  so  pliant  and  ductile 
as  to  be  susceptible  of  assuming  a  greater  variety  of  forms  than 
any  other  earthly  work  of  the  Creator.  The  inflexibility  and 
ruggedness  of  the  oak,  when  compared  with  the  lithe  sapling  or 
the  tender  germ,  are  but  feeble  emblems  to  typify  the  docility 
of  childhood  when  contrasted  with  the  obduracy  and  intracta- 
bleness  of  man.  It  is  these  inherent  advantages  of  the  com- 
mon school,  which,  in  our  own  State,  have  produced  results  so 
striking,  from  a  system  so  imperfect,  and  an  administration  so 
feeble.  In  teaching  the  blind  and  the  deaf  and  dumb,  in  kin- 
dling the  latent  spark  of  intelligence  that  lurks  in  an  idiot's 
mind,  and  in  the  more  holy  work  of  reforming  abandoned  and 
outcast  children,  education  has  proved  what  it  can  do  by  glo- 
rious experiments.  These  wonders  it  has  done  in  its  infancy, 
and  with  the  lights  of  a  limited  experience  ;  but  when  its  fac- 
ulties shall  be  fully  developed,  when  it  shall  be  trained  to  wield 
its  mighty  energies  for  the  protection  of  society  against  the 
giant  vices  which  now  invade  and  torment  it,  —  against  intem- 
perance, avarice,  war,  slavery,  bigotry,  the  woes  of  want,  and 
the  wickedness  of  waste,  —  then  there  will  not  be  a  height  to 
which  these  enemies  of  the  race  can  escape  which  it  will  not 
scale,  nor  a  Titan  among  them  all  whom  it  will  not  slay. 

•I  proceed,  then,  in  endeavoring  to  show  how  the  true  busi- 
ness of  the  schoolroom  connects  itself,  and  becomes  identical, 
with  the  great  interests  of  society.  The  former  is  the  infant, 
immature  state  of  those  interests  ;  the  latter  their  developed, 
adult  state.  As  "  the  child  is  father  to  the  man,"  so  may  the 
training  of  the  schoolroom  expand  into  the  institutions  and  for- 
tunes of  the  State. 

PHYSICAL    EDUCATION. 

In  the  worldly  prosperity  of  mankind,  health  and  strength 
are  indispensable  ingredients.  Reflect,  for  a  moment,  what  an 
inroad  upon  the  comfort  of  a  family,  and  its  means  of  support, 


652  ANNUAL   REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

is  a  case  of  chronic  sickness  or  debility  in  a  single  one  of  its 
members.  Should  a  farmer  contract  to  support,  and  to  con- 
tinue to  pay,  his  laborer,  or  a  manufacturer  his  operative, 
whether  able  or  unable  to  work,  they  would  demand  a  serious 
abatement  of  wages  as  a  premium  for  the  risk.  But  what- 
ever drawback  a  sick  member  would  be  to  the  pecuniary  pros- 
perity of  a  family,  or  a  sick  laborer  to  that  of  an  employer 
bound  to  support  him,  just  such  a  drawback  is  a  sick  or  dis- 
abled member  of  the  community  to  the  financial  prosperity  of 
the  State  to  which  he  belongs.  The  amount  of  loss  consequent 
upon  such  sickness  or  disability  may  not  be  drawn  out  of  the 
public  treasury  ;  but  it  is  subtracted  from  the  common  property 
of  the  State  in  a  way  still  more  injurious  than  if  the  same 
amount  of  gold  were  taken  from  the  public  coffers  by  warrant 
of  the  Executive.  Money  so  taken  would  be  transferred  to 
another  hand.  It  would  still  exist.  But  the  want  of  health 
and  strength  is  a  dead  loss  to  the  community ;  and,  whenever 
the  next  valuation  is  taken,  there  will  be  a  corresponding  deficit 
in  the  aggregate  of  national  property.  Hence,  every  citizen,  as 
such,  is  pecuniarily  interested  in  the  health  and  strength  of  all 
his  fellow-citizens.  It  is  right,  therefore,  that  he  should  look 
upon  them  all,  not  only  as  a  benevolent  and  Christian  man 
would  do,  pitying  and  succoring  their  misfortunes  ;  but  he 
should  look  upon  them,  also,  as  a  man  of  business.  —  as  one 
who  contributes,  or  is  bound  to  contribute,  to  a  reserved  fund 
from  which  all  the  non-producing  sick  and  valetudinary  are 
supported. 

Men  see  this  community  of  interests  plainly  enough  when 
sickness  comes  in  the  form  of  a  pestilence,  and  decimates  and 
redecimates  a  city,  arresting  all  the  currents  of  business,  gath- 
ering the  well  about  the  sick-bed  or  the  hearse,  or  scattering 
them  abroad  with  fear.  But  in  the  aggregate  of  its  periods 
of  sickness,  and  in  the  number  of  its  victims,  the  plague  itself 
is  less  destructive  to  human  life  than  the  ordinary  and  stereo- 
typed causes  of  mortality,  which  familiarity  has  bereft  of  their 
terrors.  It  is  the  concentration  of  its  havoc  that  makes  pesti- 


REPORT   FOR    1848.  653 

lence  terrific.  This  concentration  men's  senses  can  perceive, 
and  therefore  they  are  affrighted.  But  to  the  eye  of  reason 
that  is  most  alarming  which  is  most  injurious  ;  and  it  is  this 
eye  with  which  a  statesman  or  philosopher  should  look  when 
he  takes  a  survey  of  human  interests. 

Leaving  out,  then,  for  the  present  purpose,  all  consideration 
of  the  pains  of  sickness  and  the  anguish  of  bereavement,  the 
momentous  truth  still  remains,  that  sickness  and  premature 
death  are  positive  evils  for  the  statesman  and  political  econo- 
mist to  cope  with.  The  earth,  as  a  hospital  for  the  diseased, 
would  soon  wear  out  the  love  of  life  ;  and,  if  but  the  half  of 
mankind  were  sick,  famine,  from  non-production,  would  speed- 
ily threaten  the  whole. 

Now,  modern  science  has  made  nothing  more  certain  than 
that  both  good  and  ill  health  are  the  direct  result  of  causes 
mainly  within  our  own  control.  In  other  words,  the  health  of 
the  race  is  dependent  upon  the  conduct  of  the  race.  The 
health  of  the  individual  is  determined  primarily  by  his  parents, 
secondarily  by  himself.  The  vigorous  growth  of  the  body,  its 
strength  and  its  activity,  its  powers  of  endurance,  and  its  length 
of  life,  on  the  one  hand  ;  and  dwarfishuess,  sluggishness,  infir- 
mity, and  premature  death  on  the  other,  —  are  all  the  subjects  of 
unchangeable  laws.  These  laws  are  ordained  of  God  ;  but  the 
knowledge  of  them  is  left  to  our  diligence,  and  the  observance 
of  them  to  our  free  agency.  These  laws  are  very  few :  they 
are  so  simple,  that  all  can  understand  them ;  and  so  beautiful, 
that  the  pleasure  of  contemplating  them,  even  independent  of 
their  utility,  is  a  tenfold  reward  for  all  the  labor  of  their  ac- 
quisition. The  laws,  I  repeat,  are  few.  The  circumstances, 
however,  under  which  they  are  to  be  applied,  are  exceedingly 
various  and  complicated.  These  cii'cumstances  embrace  the 
almost  infinite  varieties  of  our  daily  life,  —  exercise  and  rest ; 
sleeping  and  watching ;  eating,  drinking,  and  abstinence  ;  the 
affections  and  passions  ;  exposure  to  vicissitudes  of  tempera- 
ture, to  dryuess  and  humidity,  to  the  effluvia  and  exhalations 
of  dead  animal  or  decaying  vegetable  matter :  in  fine,  they 


654  ANNUAL    EEPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

embrace  all  cases  where  excesses,  indiscretions,  or  exposures 
may  induce  disease  ;  or  where  exercise,  temperance,  cleanli- 
ness, and  pure  air  may  avert  it.  Heuce  it  would  be  wholly 
impossible  to  write  out  any  code  of  "  rules  and  regulations  " 
applicable  to  all  cases.  So,  too,  the  occasions  for  applying  the 
laws  to  new  circumstances  recur  so  continually,  that  no  man 
can  have  a  mentor  at  his  side,  in  the  form  of  a  physician  or 
physiologist,  to  direct  his  conduct  in  new  emergencies.  Even 
the  most  favored  individual,  in  ninety-nine  cases  in  a  hundred, 
must  prescribe  for  himself.  And  hence  the  uncompromising 
necessity  that  all  children  should  be  instructed  in  these  laws ; 
and  not  only  instructed,  but  that  they  should  receive  such  a 
training  during  the  whole  course  of  pupilage  as  to  enlist  the 
mighty  forces  of  habit  on  the  side  of  obedience  ;  and  that  their 
judgment  also  should  be  so  developed  and  matured,  that  they 
will  be  able  to  discriminate  between  different  combinations  of 
circumstances,  and  to  adapt,  in  each  case,  the  regimen  to  the 
exigency. 

Looking  to  the  various  disorders  and  disabilities,  which,  as 
every  one's  experience  or  observation  shows  him,  do  invade  and 
prostrate  the  human  frame,  some  may  be  slow  to  believe  that 
all  men,  or  even  the  majority  of  them,  will  ever  be  able  to 
administer  to  those  which  fall  to  their  share.  But,  in  the  first 
place,  it  may  be  remarked  that  a  judicious  course  of  physical 
training,  faithfully  observed  through  all  the  years  of  infancy, 
childhood,  and  adolescence,  will  avert  a  vast  proportion  of  the 
pains  and  distempers  that  now  besiege  and  subdue  the  human 
system  or  some  of  its  vital  organs ;  and  hence,  that  one  may 
safely  be  ignorant  of  symptoms  and  of  remedies  which  he  will 
never  have  occasion  to  recognize  or  to  use,  as  one  who  seeks 
a  residence  remote  from  wild  beasts  has  no  practical  occa- 
sion to  know  how  they  are  huuted  ;  and  in  the  next  place, 
that  if  every  one  does  not  know,  in  all  cases,  how  to  prescribe 
for  himself,  yet  he  may  always  know  what  part  of  his  machine- 
ry is  out  of  order,  and  how  necessary  it  is  to  apply  promptly 
to  a  repairer.  Even  such  a  degree  of  anatomical  kuowledge  as 


REPORT   FOR   1848.  655 

enables  one  to  point  out  the  suffering  organ  is  of  great  value  : 
for,  doubtless,  not  merely  children,  but  ignorant  men,  have  killed 
themselves  by  giving  a  false  location  to  their  malady ;  or, 
which  is  the  same  kind  of  error,  have  caused  their  physician 
so  to  prescribe  as  to  inflict  disease  on  a  sound  organ,  instead  of 
healing  a  diseased  one.  It  is  not  every  one  that  can  inform  a 
dentist  which  tooth  is  the  offender. 

But  to  the  objection,  that  all  men  and  women  cannot  be 
physicians,  the  decisive  answer  is,  that  the  physician  must  be 
acquainted  with  the  laws  of  disease,  which  are  countless  in 
number,  and  are  ever  developing  new  symptoms.  But  the 
sound  man  or  woman  needs  to  be  acquainted  ouly  with  the  laws 
of  health,  which  are  few,  and  whose  results,  though  acting 
upon  different  systems,  are  substantially  uniform.  The  phar- 
macopoeia of  the  physician  embraces  nearly  all  minerals  and 
all  vegetables,  and  several  of  the  more  offensive  classes  of  the 
animal  kingdom,  with  the  various  mechanical  or  chemical  com- 
binations which  can  be  formed  from  or  among  them.  But  the 
whole  pharmacoposia  of  the  healthy  man  comprises  but  little 
more  than  pure  water  and  pure  air,  simple  viands,  vegetables, 
and  bread.  In  quality,  they  are  as  different  as  in  number  ;  as 
different  as  the  sweet  and  savory  contents  of  store-room  and 
larder  from  those  acrid  and  mephitic  substances  which  make 
the  druggist's  warehouse  a  universal  conservatory  of  particu- 
lar abominations. 

Is  it  too  much,  then,  to  say  that  the  leaders  of  society, 
whether  makers  of  law,  or  creators  of  custom  and  fashion,  are 
bound,  by  the  most  solemn  obligations  of  duty  as  well  as  by 
interest,  to  curtail  the  ravages  of  sickness  and  untimely  death, 
and,  as  far  as  possible,  to  make  health  and  longevity  the  com- 
mon property  of  meu  ?  The  civil  government  takes  cognizance 
of  pauperism  ;  and  meu  of  worldly  substance  are  obliged  to  bear 
its  expenses.  The  disabilities  of  ill  health,  and  the  pecuniary 
losses  by  early  death,  are  among  the  leading  causes  of  pauper- 
ism. He,  therefore,  who  would  prevent  the  latter,  must  pre- 
vent the  former.  The  civil  government  exercises  penal  juris- 


656  ANNUAL   REPORTS    ON   EDUCATION. 

diction  over  crimes,  and  over  the  grosser  vices  ;  and  is  it  not 
true  that  many  of  those  morbid  appetites  and  unnatural  desires 
that  seek  to  assuage  their  longings  by  indulgence  and  excess 
have  their  origin  in  the  action  of  a  distempered  body  upon  the 
mind,  rather  than  of  the  mind  upon  the  body?  Indeed,  how 
often  have  pure  and  pious  hearts  encountered  a  re'entless  an- 
tagonist to  their  highest  and  most  devout  resolves  and  aspira- 
tions in  the  pruriences  and  hankerings  of  the  body  in  which 
they  were  imprisoned!  Many  a  waspish  man  would  become 
amiable  if  he  could  be  hung  on  a  new  set  of  nerves.  Many  a 
misanthropic  disposition  would  warm  into  kindliness,  could  the 
acrid  humors  of  the  body  be  evaporated  or  washed  away.  The 
dyspeptic  contends  with  evil  spirits,  "  blue  and  black,"  against 
whom  the  eupeptic  bears  an  invincible  charm. 

The  civil  government,  too,  is  bound  to  provide  for  the  in- 
sane, —  both  for  the  security  of  the  sane,  and  for  the  recovery 
or  amelioration  of  the  insane.  The  diseases  incident  to  several 
bodily  organs  give  direct  birth  to  insanity.  A  disease  of  the 
brain  induces  it  at  once.  Indeed,  insanity  is  often  only  an  ex- 
acerbation of  some  bodily  disorder.  As  a  brook  swells  into  a 
river,  so  the  inflammation  of  certain  organs  matures  into  insan- 
ity. General  health  would  greatly  reduce  the  size  of  those 
deplorable  necessities  of  an  imperfect  civilization,  —  hospitals 
for  the  insane. 

In  extraordinary  emergencies,  governments  do  not  hesitate 
to  interfere  for  preventing  the  spread  of  contagion,  and  for 
excluding  the  media  through  which  diseases  are  propagated. 
When  sudden  pestilence  breaks  out  in  a  city,  the  infected  dis- 
trict is  put  under  a  bar  of  non-intercourse  with  the  healthy. 
When  a  crew  of  men,  or  a  cargo  of  merchandise,  arrives  from 
an  infected  port,  a  quarantine  is  enforced.  In  these  cases,  the 
civil  magistracy  acts  under  the  impulse  of  fear.  But  has  not 
government  a  capacity  of  reflection  and  of  foresight,  as  well  as 
a  susceptibility  to  fear?  Is  a  civilized  government  of  modern 
times  to  be  classified  with  those  orders  of  existence  that  have 
propensity  and  appetite  merely,  but  not  reason  and  providence? 


REPORT  FOR   1848.  657 

If  not,  then,  surely,  is  the  government  bound  to  do  all  it  can 
against  the  wastings  of  ill  health,  and  the  havoc  of  unnecessary 
death  ;  and  it  is  bound  to  use  equal  vigilance,  whether  these 
calamities  invade  us  from  abroad,  or  are  born  of  home-bred 
ignorance  and  folly.  And,  as  has  been  before  intimated,  who 
does  not  know  that  the  aggregate  suffering  and  loss  from  gen- 
eral and  diffused  causes  of  ill  health  are  indefinitely  greater 
than  from  the  sudden  irruption  or  outbreak  of  all  the  contagions 
and  epidemics  with  which  we  are  ever  afflicted?  For  this 
greater  evil,  then,  society  is  bound  to  provide,  not  a  reme- 
dy, but  something  better  than  a  remedy,  —  a  preventive.  In- 
telligence and  obedience  would  be  an  antidote,  sovereign  in  its 
efficacy,  and  universal  in  its  applicability. 

Now,  it  is  beyond  all  question,  that,  with  the  rarest  excep- 
tions, every  child  in  the  Commonwealth  may  be  endued  with 
this  intelligence,  and,  what  is  equally  important,  trained  to 
conforming  personal  habits.  Enlightened  by  knowledge,  and 
impelled  by  the  force  of  early  and  long-continued  habit,  he 
would  not  only  see  the  reasonableness  of  adapting  his  regimen 
to  his  condition  in  the  varying  circumstances  of  life,  but  he 
would  feel  a  personal  interest  in  doing  so,  as  men  now  feel  a 
personal  interest  in  procuring  the  gratifications  of  money  or  of 
power.  Habit  and  knowledge  will  coincide ;  they  will  draw 
in  the  same  direction  ;  they  will  not  be  antagonists,  as  is  now 
so  generally  the  case  with  those  adult  men  who  acquire  sound 
knowledge  after  bad  habits  have  been  enthroned,  — the  blind 
force  of  the  latter  spurning  all  the  arguments  and  warnings  of 
the  former.  This  work  may  be  mainly  done  during  the  period 
of  non-age,  or  before  children  are  emancipated  from  parental 
control.  Let  a  child  wash  himself  all  over  every  morning  for 
sixteen  years,  and  he  will  as  soon  go  without  his  breakt'ast  as 
his  bath.  This  is  but  a  specimen  of  the  effect  of  a  long-contin- 
ued observance  of  Nature's  "  health  regulations." 

Not  only  will  a  general  knowledge  of  human  physiology,  or 
the  laws  of  health,  do  much  to  supersede  the  necessity  of  a 
knowledge  of  pathology,  or  the  laws  of  disease,  but  the  ibr- 

42 


658  ANNUAL   EEPORTS   ON  EDUCATION. 

mer  is  as  much  better  than  the  latter  as  prevention  is  better 
than  remedy,  —  as  much  better  as  all  the  comforts  and  securi- 
ties of  an  unburnt  dwelling  are  than  two-thirds  of  its  value  in 
money  from  the  insurance-office.  A  general  diffusion  of  physi- 
ological knowledge  will  save  millions  annually  to  the  State.  It 
will  gradually  revolutionize  many  of  the  absurd  customs  and 
usages  of  society,  —  conforming  them  more  and  more  to  the 
rules  of  reason  and  true  enjoyment,  and  withdrawing  them 
more  and  more  from  the  equally  vicious  extremes  of  barbarism 
and  of  artificial  life.  It  will  restrain  the  caprices  and  follies  of 
fashion  in  regard  to  dress  and  amusement,  and  subordinate  its 
ridiculous  excesses  to  the  laws  of  health  and  decency.  It  will 
reproduce  the  obliterated  lines  that  once  divided  day  and  night. 
It  will  secure  cleanliness  and  purity,  more  intimate  and  per- 
sonal than  any  the  laundress  can  supply.  It  will  teach  men 
"  to  eat  that  they  may  live,  instead  of  living  that  they  may 
eat."  When  Satan  approaches  in  that  form  in  which  he  has 
hitherto  been  most  seductive  and  successful,  —  the  form  of  in- 
toxicating beverages,  —  those  who  wear  the  talisman  of  this 
science  will  have  an  antidote  against  his  temptations.  It  is  a 
lesson  of  unspeakable  importance  to  learn  that  nourishment, 
and  not  pleasure,  is  the  primary  object  of  food.  God,  indeed, 
in  his  benevolence,  has  made  the  reception  of  this  food  not  only 
reparative,  but  pleasant.  But  to  lose  sight  of  the  first  object,  in 
a  brutish  desire  for  the  second,  is  voluntarily  to  alter  our  posi- 
tion in  the  scale  of  being,  and  from  the  rank  of  men  to  descend 
to  the  order  of  beasts.  Physiology  would  reverse  the  ancient 
fable,  and  transform  into  men  the  swine  who  now  sit  at  epicu- 
rean tables,  and  drink  of  the  Circean  cup.  Every  intelligent 
man  deplores  the  almost  universal  condition  of  our  dwelling- 
houses  and  public  edifices,  which  have  been  built  without  regard 
to  the  necessities  of  the  human  system  for  pure  air.  Were  phys- 
iology universally  understood,  no  man  would  think  of  erecting 
a  mansion  without  an  apparatus  for  its  thorough  ventilation  at 
all  times,  any  more  than  without  windows  for  the  admission  of 
light.  Apertures  and  flues  for  the  ingress  and  egress  of  air 


REPORT   FOR    1848.  659 

into  and  from  sitting-rooms  and  sleeping-rooms  are  as  neces- 
sary to  the  architectural  idea  of  a  well-finished  house  as  nasal 
orifices  are  to  the  anatomical  idea  of  a  man ;  and  a  dwelling 
without  the  means  of  ventilation  is  as  incomplete  and  as  un- 
sightly as  a  man  without  a  nose.  A  knowledge  of  this  science 
would  establish  a  ne\v  standard  of  beauty,  —  the  classic  stand- 
ard of  the  Greeks,  in  which  strength  was  a  primary  and  indis- 
pensable element ;  and  it  would  demoustrate  the  unspeakable 
folly  and  guilt  of  those  matrimonial  alliances  where  hereditary 
disease,  and  even  insanity  itself,  are  wedded,  and  the  health, 
mind,  and  happiness  of  a  family  of  children  are  sacrificed  for 
the  mercenary  object  of  a  dowry. 

But  an  immunity  from  expense,  privation,  pain,  and  bereave- 
ment, is  not  the  only  boon  connected  with  health  and  longevity. 
Sound  health  is  not  merely  the  negation  of  ill :  it  is  a  medium 
through  which  alone  we  can  gain  access  to  many  invaluable 
blessings.  It  enhances  every  pleasure,  and  is  indispensable  to 
the  full  performance  of  almost  every  duty.  The  elements  en- 
viron us  with  fatal  dangers,  against  which  health  is  our  only 
preserver.  The  vicissitudes  of  the  climate  must  be  encoun- 
tered. We  have  no  power  to  arrest  the  north  wind  that  con- 
geals by  its  cold,  nor  the  south  that  dissolves  by  its  heat.  The 
humidity  of  one  part  of  the  year,  and  the  aridness  of  another, 
are  equally  beyond  human  control.  As  our  planet  wheels 
around  the  sun,  now  turning  up  our  hemisphere  to  its  vertical 
and  fervid  rays,  and  now,  by  its  oblique  position,  reducing  tem- 
perature to  an  opposite  extreme,  we  have  no  choice  but  to  at- 
tend its  circuit,  and  abide  its  changes.  It  is  certain  that  nothing 
but  health  will  enable  us  to  survive  exposure  to  these  natural 
extremes.  A  thousand  causes  exist,  too,  which  engender  im- 
purity in  the  air  we  breathe ;  we  ourselves  being  the  principal. 
Nothing  but  knowledge  can  enable  us  to  eliminate  the  grossest 
of  these  noxious  ingredients  ;  and  nothing  but  health,  to  resist 
the  poison  of  those  which  remain.  The  waste  constantly 
going  on  in  the  particles  that  compose  our  bodies  lays  us  under 
an  ever-recurring  necessity  to  replenish  their  exhausted  sub- 


660  ANNUAL    REPORTS    ON   EDUCATION. 

stance  by  the  reception  of  food.  And  here,  if  the  food  we  take 
is  not  subjected  to  the  transforming  and  assimilating  power  of 
the  alimentary  organs,  —  a  power  which  is  wholly  lost  with  the 
loss  of  health,  —  it  will  prove  our  destruction.  Each  of  our  or- 
gans is  an  avenue,  through  which  death  may  invade  us  ;  and 
innumerable  deaths  —  that  is,  innumerable  agencies,  each  one 
of  which  has  the  power  of  causing  death  —  hold  perpetual  siege 
at  every  avenue,  and  watch  for  an  opportunity  to  enter  and 
destroy.  And  yet  air  and  nourishment,  heat  and  cold,  moist- 
ure and  dryuess,  we  must  encounter,  and  we  must  have  ;  for 
they  are  the  permanent  conditions  of  our  being.  How  intel- 
ligible, then,  and  how  authoritative,  does  the  doctrine  become, 
that  high  health,  and  high  health  alone,  is  harmony  with  Na- 
ture !  A  person  without  high  health  is  just  as  much  at  war 
with  Nature  as  a  guilty  soul  is  at  war  with  the  spirit  of  God ; 
and  the  struggles  of  our  frail  bodies  against  the  resistless  might 
of  the  elements  will  be  as  unavailing  as  that  of  our  souls 
against  the  retributions  of  Omnipotence. 

The  capacities  of  the  body  for  resisting  the  force  of  the  ele- 
ments, and  for  appropriating  and  assimilating  the  substances 
around  it  into  its  own  substance,  is  one  thing  ;  its  capacities  for 
labor  are  another.  Let  any  man,  who  has  fallen  from  a  state 
of  vigorous  health  to  that  of  a  valetudinary,  compare  his  stand- 
ard of  "  a  day's  work"  in  the  one  state  with  that  in  the  other, 
and  he  can  then  form  a  better  estimate  of  the  value  of  the 
health  that  measures  the  difference  between  the  two  conditions. 
Sound  health  opens  new  and  more  lucrative  employments  to  its 
possessor.  Ill  health  often  closes  a  career  of  the  highest  useful- 
ness :  and  though  the  mind  may  have  been  prepared  by  splen- 
did natural  endowments,  and  by  years  of  study  and  experience, 
to  lead  forward  the  race  in  the  march  of  civilization,  yet  it  is 
stricken  down  in  the  midst  of  its  beneficence  by  the  assaults  of 
disease  ;  and  thus  the  onward  movement  of  humanity  is  ar- 
rested, or  becomes  retrograde,  and  must  wait  through  another 
cycle  for  another  leader.  What  great  works  in  art,  in  science, 
and  in  morals,  have  been  left  unfinished  or  unattempted  bv 


REPORT    FOR    1848.  661 

reason  of  the  slow  decays,  or  the  sudden  extinction,  of  health 
and  of  life  !  When  any  man  of  sense  has  an  important  work 
to  perform,  the  first  thing  he  does  is  to  provide  a  fitting  instru- 
ment—  a  tool,  a  machine,  or  whatever  it  may  be  —  with 
which  the  work  can  be  done.  Health  is  the  prime  instrument 
for  the  performance  of  all  the  labors  of  life. 

One  more  idea  is  inseparable  from  this  subject.  When  the 
religious  man  reflects  that  our  bodies  are  God's  workmanship, 
he  sees  that  the  laws  impressed  upon  them  can  be  no  less  than 
God's  laws.  If  these  laws,  then,  are  God's  laws,  we  are  bound 
to  recognize  and  obey  them.  We  are  bound  to  obey  a  law 
which  God  has  impressed  upon  the  body,  on  the  same  principle 
that  we  are  bound  to  obey  a  law  which  he  has  impressed  upon 
the  soul.  And  here  how  pertinent  and  forcible  is  the  great  idea 
which  has  been  set  forth  so  distinctly  by  a  late  writer,*  that, 
when  we  know  a  law  to  be  God's  law,  it  matters  not  by  what 
means  we  may  have  arrived  at  the  knowledge,  the  law  becomes 
imperatively  and  equally  binding  upon  us  !  Between  the  law 
of  the  body  and  the  law  of  the  soul,  there  may,  indeed,  some- 
times arise  what  we  call  a  conflict  of  duty,  when  the  subordi- 
nate obligation  of  the  former  must  yield  to  the  supremacy  of 
the  latter  ;  but  this  refers  to  relative  importance,  and  not  to 
inherent  obligation. 

My  general  conclusion,  then,  under  this  head,  is,  that  it  is 
the  duty  of  all  the  governing  minds  in  society  —  whether  in 
office  or  out  of  it  —  to  diffuse  a  knowledge  of  these  beautiful 
and  beneficent  laws  of  health  and  life  throughout  the  length  and 
breadth  of  the  State  ;  to  popularize  them  ;  to  make  them,  in 
the  first  place,  the  common  acquisition  of  all,  and,  through  edu- 
cation and  custom,  the  common  inheritance  of  all,  so  that  the 
healthful  habits  naturally  growing  out  of  their  observance  shall 
be  inbred  in  the  people,  exemplified  in  the  personal  regimen  of 
each  individual,  incorporated  into  the  economy  of  every  house- 
hold, observable  in  all  private  dwellings,  and  in  all  public  edi- 
i'K'es,  especially  in  those  buildings  which  are  erected  by  capital- 
it  t?  tor  the  residence  of  their  work-people,  or  for  renting  to  the 
*  Mr.  George  Combe. 


662  ANNUAL    REPORTS    ON   EDUCATION. 

poorer  classes  ;  obeyed,  by  supplying  cities  with  pure  water ; 
by  providing  public  baths,  public  walks,  aud  public  squares  ;  by 
rural  cemeteries  ;  by  the  drainage  and  sewerage  of  populous 
towns,  and  by  whatever  else  may  promote  the  general  salubrity 
of  the  atmosphere :  in  fine,  by  a  religious  observance  of  all 
those  sanitary  regulatious  with  which  modern  science  has 
blessed  the  world. 

For  this  thorough  diffusion  of  sanitary  intelligence,  the  com- 
mon school  is  the  only  agency.  It  is,  however,  an  adequate 
agency.  Let  human  physiology  be  introduced  as  an  indispen- 
sable branch  of  study  into  our  public  schools  ;  let  no  teacher  be 
approved  who  is  not  master  of  its  leading  principles,  and  of 
their  applications  to  the  varying  circumstances  of  life  ;  let  all 
the  older  classes  in  the  schools  be  regularly  and  rigidly  exam- 
ined upon  this  study  by  the  school-committees,  —  and  a  speedy 
change  would  come  over  our  personal  habits,  over  our  domestic 
usages,  and  over  the  public  arrangements  of  society.  Temper- 
ance and  moderation  would  not  be  such  strangers  at  the  table. 
Fashion,  like  European  sovereigns,  if  not  compelled  to  abdicate 
and  fly,  would  be  forced  to  compromise  for  the  continued  posses- 
sion of  her  throne  by  the  surrender  to  her  subjects  of  many  of 
their  natural  rights.  A  sixth  order  of  architecture  would  be  in- 
vented,—  the  hygienic,  —  which,  without  subtracting  at  all  from 
the  beauty  of  any  other  order,  would  add  a  new  element  of 
utility  to  them  all.  The  "  health-regulations  "  of  cities  would 
be  issued  in  a  revised  code.  —  a  code  that  would  bear  the  scru- 
tiny of  science.  And,  as  the  result  and  reward  of  all,  a  race' 
of  men  aud  women,  loftier  in  stature,  firmer  in  structure,  fairer 
iu  form,  and  better  able  to  perform  the  duties  aud  bear  the  bur- 
dens of  life,  would  revisit  the  earth.  The  minikin  specimens 
of  the  race,  who  now  go  on  dwindling  aud  tapering  from  pareut 
to  child,  would  re-asceud  to  manhood  aud  womanhood.  Just  iu 
proportion  as  the  laws  of  health  aud  life  were  discovered  aud 
obeyed,  would  pain,  disease,  insanity,  aud  untimely  death,  cease 
from  among  men.  Consumption  would  remain  ;  but  it  would 
be  consumption  in  the  active  sense. 


REPORT   FOR   1848.  663 

INTELLECTUAL   EDUCATION   AS    A    MEANS   OP   REMOVING   POV- 
ERTY,   AND    SECCRING   ABUNDANCE. 

Another  cardinal  object  which  the  government  of  Massachu- 
setts, and  all  the  influential  men  in  the  State,  should  propose  to 
themselves,  is  the  physical  well-being  of  all  the  people,  —  the 
sufficiency,  comfort,  competence,  of  every  individual  in  regard 
to  food,  raiment,  and  shelter.  Aud  these  necessaries  and  con- 
veniences of  life  should  be  obtained  by  each  individual  for  him- 
self, or  by  each  family  for  themselves,  rather  than  accepted 
from  the  hand  of  charity  or  extorted  by  poor-laws.  It  is  not 
averred  that  this  most  desirable  result  can,  in  all  instances,  be 
obtained ;  but  it  is,  nevertheless,  the  end  to  be  aimed  at.  True 
statesmanship  and  true  political  economy,  not  less  than  true 
philanthropy,  present  this  perfect  theory  as  the  goal,  to  be  more 
and  more  closely  approximated  by  our  imperfect  practice.  The 
desire  to  achieve  such  a  result  cannot  be  regarded  as  an  unrea- 
sonable ambition  ;  for,  though  all  mankind  were  well  fed,  well 
clothed,  and  well  housed,  they  might  still  be  but  half  civilized. 

Poverty  is  a  public  as  well  as  a  private  evil.  There  is  no 
physical  law  necessitating  its  existence.  The  earth  contains 
abundant  resources  for  ten  times  —  doubtless  for  twenty  times 
—  its  present  inhabitants.  Cold,  hunger,  and  nakedness  are 
not,  like  death,  an  inevitable  lot.  There  are  many  single 
States  in  this  Union  which  conld  supply  an  abundance  of  edible 
products  for  the  inhabitants  of  the  thirty  States  that  compose  it. 
There  are  single  States  capable  of  raising  a  sufficient  quantity 
of  cotton  to  clothe  the  whole  nation  ;  and  there  are  other  States 
having  sufficient  factories  and  machinery  to  manufacture  it. 
The  coal-fields  of  Pennsylvania  are  sufficiently  abundant  to  keep 
every  house  in  the  land  at  the  temperature  of  sixty-five  degrees 
for  centuries  to  come.  Were  there  to  be  a  competition,  on 
the  one  hand,  to  supply  wool  for  every  conceivable  fabric,  and, 
ou  the  other,  to  wear  out  these  fabrics  as  fast  as  possible,  the 
single  State  of  New  York  would  beat  the  whole  country.  There 
is,  indeed,  uo  assignable  limit  to  the  capacities  of  the  earth  for 


664  ANNUAL   REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

producing  whatever  is  necessary  for  the  sustenance,  comfort, 
and  improvement  of  the  race.  Indigence,  therefore,  and  the 
miseries  and  degradations  incident  to  indigence,  seem  to  be  no 
part  of  the  eternal  ordinances  of  Heaven.  The  bounty  of  God 
is  not  brought  into  question  or  suspicion  by  its  existence  ;  for 
man  who  suffers  it  might  have  avoided  it.  Even  the  wealth 
which  the  world  now  has  on  hand  is  more  than  sufficient  to 
supply  all  the  rational  wants  of  every  individual  in  it.  Priva- 
tions and  sufferings  exist,  not  from  the  smallness  of  its  sum, 
but  from  the  inequality  of  its  distribution.  Poverty  is  set  over 
against  profusion.  In  some,  all  healthy  appetite  is  cloyed  and 
sickened  by  repletion  ;  while  in  others,  the  stomach  seems  to  be 
a  supernumerary  organ  in  the  system,  or,  like  the  human  eye 
or  human  lungs  before  birth,  is  waiting  to  be  transferred  to 
some  other  region,  where  its  functions  may  come  into  use.  One 
gorgeous  palace  absorbs  all  the  labor  and  expense  that  might 
have  made  a  thousand  hovels  comfoi'table.  That  one  man  may 
ride  in  carriages  of  Oriental  luxury,  hundreds  of  other  men  are 
turned  into  beasts  of  burden.  To  supply  a  superfluous  ward- 
robe for  the  gratification  of  one  man's  pride,  a  thousand  women 
and  children  shiver  with  cold ;  and,  for  every  flash  of  the  dia- 
monds that  royalty  wears,  there  is  a  tear  of  distress  in  the  poor 
man's  dwelling.  Not  one  Lazarus,  but  a  hundred,  sit  at  the  gate 
of  Dives.  Tantalus  is  no  fiction.  The  ancient  one  might  have 
been  fabulous  ;  but  the  modern  ones  are  terrible  realities.  Mil- 
lions are  perishing  in  the  midst  of  superfluities. 

According  to  the  European  theory,  men  are  divided  into 
classes,  —  some  to  toil  and  earn,  others  to  seize  and  enjoy. 
According  to  the  Massachusetts  theory,  all  are  to  have  an  equal 
chauce  for  earning,  and  equal  security  in  the  enjoyment  of 
what  they  earn.  The  latter  tends  to  equality  of  condition  ; 
the  former,  to  the  grossest  inequalities.  Tried  by  any  Christian 
standard  of  morals,  or  even  by  any  of  the  better  sort  of  heathen 
standards,  can  any  one  hesitate,  for  a  moment,  in  declaring 
which  of  the  two  will  produce  the  greater  amount  of  human 
welfare,  and  which,  therefore,  is  the  more  conformable  to  the 


REPORT   FOR   1848.  665 

divine  will?  The  European  theory  is  blind  to  what  consti- 
tutes the  highest  glory  as  well  as  the  highest  duty  of  a  State. 
Its  advocates  and  admirers  are  forgetful  of  that  which  should 
be  their  highest  ambition,  and  proud  of  that  which  constitutes 
their  shame.  How  can  any  one  possessed  of  the  attributes  of 
humanity  look  with  satisfaction  upon  the  splendid  treasures, 
the  golden  regalia,  deposited  in  the  Tower  of  London  or  in 
Windsor  Palace,  each  "  an  India  iu  itself,"  while  thousands 
around  are  dying  of  starvation,  or  have  been  made  criminals 
by  the  combined  forces  of  temptation  and  neglect?  The  pres- 
ent condition  of  Ireland  cancels  all  the  glories  of  the  British 
crown.  The  brilliant  conception  which  symbolizes  the  na- 
tionality of  Great  Britain  as  a  superb  temple,  whose  massive 
and  grand  proportions  are  upheld  and  adorned  by  the  four  hun- 
dred and  thirty  Corinthian  columns  of  the  aristocracy,  is  turned 
into  a  loathing  and  a  scorn  when  we  behold  the  five  millions 
of  paupers  that  cower  and  shiver  at  its  base.  The  galleries 
and  fountains  of  Versailles,  the  Louvre  of  Paris,  her  Notre 
Dame,  and  her  Madeleine,  though  multiplied  by  thousands  in 
number  and  in  brilliancy,  would  be  no  atonement  for  the  hun- 
dred thousand  Parisian  ouvriers  without  bread  and  without  work. 
The  galleries  of  painting  and  of  sculpture  at  Rome,  at  Munich, 
or  at  Dresden,  which  body  forth  the  divinest  ideals  ever  exe- 
cuted or  ever  conceived,  are  but  an  abomination  in  the  sight  of 
Heaven  and  of  all  good  men,  while  actual,  living  beings  —  be- 
ings that  have  hearts  to  palpitate,  and  nerves  to  agonize,  and 
affections  to  be  crushed  or  corrupted  —  are  experimenting  all 
around  them  upon  the  capacities  of  human  nature  for  suffering 
and  for  sin.  Where  standards  like  these  exist,  and  are  upheld 
by  council  and  by  court,  by  fashion  and  by  law,  Christianity  is 
yet  to  be  discovered ;  at  least,  it  is  yet  to  be  applied  in  practice 
to  the  social  condition  of  men. 

Our  ambition  as  a  State  should  trace  itself  to  a  different  ori- 
gin, and  propose  to  itself  a  different  object.  Its  flame  should  be 
lighted  at  the  skies.  Its  radiance  and  its  warmth  should  reach 
the  darkest  and  the  coldest  abodes  of  men.  It  should  seek 


666  ANNUAL    REPORTS    ON    EDUCATION. 

the  solution  of  such  problems  as  these :  To  Avhat  extent 
can  competence  displace  pauperism?  How  nearly  can  we  free 
ourselves  from  the  low-minded  and  the  vicious,  not  by  their 
expatriation,  but  by  their  elevation?  To  what  extent  can 
the  resources  and  powers  of  Nature  be  converted  into  human 
welfare,  the  peaceful  arts  of  life  be  advanced,  and  the  vastl 
treasures  of  human  talent  and  genius  be  developed?  How 
much  of  suffering,  in  all  its  forms,  can  be  relieved  ?  or,  what  is 
better  than  relief,  how  much  can  be  prevented?  Cannot  the 
classes  of  crimes  be  lessened,  and  the  number  of  criminals  in 
each  class  be  diminished?  Our  exemplars,  both  for  public 
and  for  private  imitation,  should  be  the  parables  of  the  lost 
sheep  and  of  the  lost  piece  of  silver.  When  we  have  spread 
competence  through  all  the  abodes  of  poverty,  when  we  have 
substituted  knowledge  for  ignorance  jn  the  minds  of  the  whole 
people,  when  we  have  reformed  the  vicious  and  reclaimed  the 
criminal,  then  may  we  invite  all  neighboring  nations  to  behold 
the  spectacle,  and  say  to  them,  in  the  conscious  elation  of  vir- 
tue, "  Rejoice  with  me,"  for  I  have  found  that  which  was  lost. 
Until  that  day  shall  arrive,  our  duties  will  not  be  wholly  ful- 
filled, and  our  ambition  will  have  new  honors  to  win. 

But  is  it  not  true  that  Massachusetts,  in  some  respects,  in- 
stead of  adhering  more  and  more  closely  to  her  own  theory,  is 
becoming  emulous  of  the  baneful  examples  of  Europe  ?  The 
distance  between  the  two  extremes  of  society  is  lengthening, 
instead  of  being  abridged.  With  every  generation,  fortunes 
increase  on  the  one  hand,  and  some  new  privation  is  added  to 
poverty  on  the  other.  We  are  verging  towards  those  extremes 
of  opulence  and  of  penury,  each  of  which  uuhumanizes  the 
human  mind.  A  perpetual  struggle  for  the  bare  necessaries  of 
life,  without  the  ability  to  obtain  them,  makes  men  wolfish. 
Avarice,  on  the  other  hand,  sees,  in  all  the  victims  of  misery 
around  it,  not  objects  for  pity  aud  succor,  but  only  crude  mate- 
rials to  be  worked  up  into  more  money. 

I  suppose  it  to  be  the  universal  sentiment  of  all  those  who 
mingle  any  ingredient  of  benevolence  with  their  notions  on 


REPORT   FOR    1848.  667 

political  economy,  that  vast  and  overshadowing  private  for- 
tunes are  among  the  greatest  dangers  to  which  the  happiness  of 
the  people  in  a  republic  can  be  subjected.  Such  fortunes  would 
create  a  feudalism  of  a  new  kind,  but  one  more  oppressive  and 
unrelenting  than  that  of  the  middle  ages.  The  feudal  lords 
in  England  and  on  the  Continent  never  held  their  retainers  in 
a  more  abject  condition  of  servitude  than  the  great  majority 
of  foreign  manufacturers  and  capitalists  hold  their  operatives 
and  laborers  at  the  present  day.  The  means  employed  are 
different ;  but  the  similarity  in  results  is  striking.  What  force 
did  then,  money  does  now.  The  villein  of  the  middle  ages 
had  no  spot  of  earth  on  which  he  could  live,  unless  one  were 
granted  to  him  by  his  lord.  The  operative  or  laborer  of  the 
present  day  has  no  employment,  and  therefore  no  bread,  unless 
the  capitalist  will  accept  his  services.  The  vassal  had  no 
shelter  but  such  as  his  master  provided  for  him.  Not  one  in 
five  thousand  of  English  operatives  or  farm-laborers  is  able 
to  build  or  own  even  a  hovel ;  and  therefore  they  must  accept 
such  shelter  as  capital  offers  them.  The  baron  pi-escribed  his 
own  terms  to  his  retainers  :  those  terms  were  peremptory,  and 
the  serf  must  submit  or  perish.  The  British  manufacturer  or 
farmer  prescribes  the  rate  of  wages  he  will  give  to  his  work- 
people ;  he  reduces  these  wages  under  whatever  pretext  he 
pleases  ;  and  they,  too,  have  no  alternative  but  submission  or 
starvation.  In  some  respects,  indeed,  the  condition  of  the 
modern  dependant  is  more  forlorn  than  that  of  the  correspond- 
ing serf  class  in  former  times.  Some  attributes,  of  the  patri- 
archal relation  did  spring  up  between  the  lord  and  his  lieges 
to  soften  the  harsh  relations  subsisting  between  them.  Hence 
came  some  oversight  of  the  condition  of  children,  some  relief  in 
sickness,  some  protection  and  support  in  the  decrepitude  of 
age.  But  only  in  instances  comparatively  few  have  kindly 
offices  smoothed  the  rugged  relation  between  British  capital 
and  British  labo'r.  The  children  of  the  work-people  are  aban- 
doned to  their  fate ;  and  notwithstanding  the  privations  they 
suffer,  and  the  dangers  they  threaten,  no  power  in  the  realm 


668  ANNUAL    EEPORTS   ON   EDDCATION. 

has  yet  been  able  to  secure  them  an  education  ;  and  when  the 
adult  laborer  is  prostrated  by  sickness,  or  eventually  worn  out 
by  toil  and  age,  the  poor-house,  which  has  all  along  been  his 
destination,  becomes  his  destiny. 

Now,  two  or  three  things  will  doubtless  be  admitted  to  be 
true,  beyond  all  controversy,  in  regard  to  Massachusetts.  By 
its  industrial  condition,  and  its  business  operations,  it  is  exposed, 
far  beyond  any  other  State  in  the  Union,  to  the  fatal  extremes 
of  overgrown  wealth  and  desperate  poverty.  Its  population  is 
far  more  dense  than  that  of  any  other  State.  It  is  four  or  five 
times  more  dense  than  the  average  of  all  the  other  States  taken 
together  ;  and  density  of  population  has  always  been  one  of  the 
proximate  causes  of  social  inequality.  According  to  population 
and  territorial  extent,  there  is  far  more  capital  in  Massachu- 
setts —  capital  which  is  movable,  and  instantaneously  availa- 
ble —  than  in  any  other  State  in  the  Union  ;  and  probably  both 
these  qualifications  respecting  population  and  territory  could  be 
omitted  without  endangering  the  truth  of  the  assertion.  It 
has  been  recently  stated  in  a  very  respectable  public  journal, 
on  the  authority  of  a  writer  conversant  with  the  subject,  that 
from  the  last  of  June,  1846,  to  the  first  of  August,  1848,  the 
amount  of  money  invested  by  the  citizens  of  Massachusetts 
"  in  manufacturing  cities,  railroads,  and  other  improvements," 
is  "  fifty-seven  millions  of  dollars,  of  which  more  than  fifty  has 
been  paid  in  and  expended."  The  dividends  to  be  received  by 
citizens  of  Massachusetts  from  June,  1848,  to  April,  1849,  are 
estimated  by  the  same  writer  at  ten  millions,  and  the  annual 
increase  of  capital  at  "  little  short  of  twenty-two  millions." 
If  this  be  so,  are  we  not  in  danger  of  naturalizing  and  domes- 
ticating among  ourselves  those  hideous  evils  which  are  always 
engendered  between  capital  aud  labor,  when  all  the  capital  is 
in  the  hands  of  one  class,  and  all  the  labor  is  thrown  upon 
another  ? 

Now,  surely  nothing  but  universal  education  can  counter- 
work this  tendency  to  the  domination  of  capital  and  the  servil- 
ity of  labor.  If  one  class  possesses  all  the  wealth  and  the  edu- 


REPORT   FOR    1848.  669 

cation,  while  the  residue  of  society  is  ignorant  and  poor,  it 
matters  not  by  what  name  the  relation  between  them  may  be 
called :  the  latter,  in  fact  and  in  truth,  will  be  the  servile  de- 
pendants and  subjects  of  the  former.  But,  if  education  be 
equably  diffused,  it  will  draw  property  after  it  by  the  strongest 
of  all  attractions  ;  for  such  a  thing  never  did  happen,  and  never 
can  happen,  as  that  an  intelligent  and  practical  body  of  men 
should  be  permanently  poor.  Property  and  labor  in  different 
classes  are  essentially  antagonistic ;  but  property  and  labor 
in  the  same  class  are  essentially  fraternal.  The  people  of 
Massachusetts  have,  in  some  degree,  appreciated  the  truth,  that 
the  unexampled  prosperity  of  the  State  —  its  comfort,  its  com- 
petence, its  general  intelligence  and  virtue  —  is  attributable  to 
the  education,  more  or  less  perfect,  which  all  its  people  have 
received :  but  are  they  sensible  of  a  fact  equally  important ; 
namely,  that  it  is  to  this  same  education  that  two-thirds  of  the 
people  are  indebted  for  not  being  to-day  the  vassals  of  as  severe 
a  tyranny,  in  the  form  of  capital,  as  the  lower  classes  of  Europe 
are  bound  to  in  the  form  of  brute  force  ? 

Education,  then,  beyond  all  other  devices  of  human  origin,  is 
the  great  equalizer  of  the  conditions  of  men,  —  the  balance-wheel 
of  the  social  machinery.  I  do  not  here  mean  that  it  so  elevates 
the  moral  nature  as  to  make  men  disdain  and  abhor  the  oppres- 
sion of  their  fellow-men.  This  idea  pertains  to  another  of  its 
attributes.  But  I  mean  that  it  gives  each  man  the  independ- 
ence and  the  means  by  which  he  can  resist  the  selfishness  of 
other  men.  It  does  better  than  to  disarm  the  poor  of  their  hos- 
tility towards  the  rich  :  it  prevents  being  poor.  Agrarianism 
is  the  revenge  of  poverty  against  wealth.  The  wanton  destruc- 
tion of  the  property  of  others  —  the  burning  of  hay-ricks  and 
corn-ricks,  the  demolition  of  machinery  because  it  supersedes 
hand-labor,  the  sprinkling  of  vitriol  on  rich  dresses  —  is  only 
agrarianism  run  mad.  Education  prevents  both  the  revenge 
and  the  madness.  On  the  other  hand,  a  fellow-feeling  for  one's 
class  or  caste  is  the  common  instinct  of  hearts  not  wholly  sunk 
in  selfish  regards  for  person  or  for  family.  The  spread  of  edu- 


670  ANNUAL   REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

cation,  by  enlarging  the  cultivated  class  or  caste,  will  open  a 
wider  area  over  which  the  social  feelings  will  expand  ;  and, 
if  this  education  should  be  universal  and  complete,  it  would  do 
more  than  all  things  else  to  obliterate  factitious  distinctions  in 
society. 

The  main  idea  set  forth  in  the  creeds  of  some  political  reform- 
ers, or  revolutionizers,  is,  that  some  people  are  poor  because 
others  are  rich.  This  idea  supposes  a  fixed  amount  of  property 
in  the  community,  which  by  fraud  or  force,  or  arbitrary  law,  is 
unequally  divided  among  men ;  and  the  problem  presented  for 
solution  is,  how  to  transfer  a  portion  of  this  property  from 
those  who  are  supposed  to  have  too  much  to  those  who  feel 
and  know  that  they  have  too  little.  At  this  point,  both  their 
theory  and  their  expectation  of  reform  stop.  But  the  benefi- 
cent power  of  education  would  not  be  exhausted,  even  though 
it  should  peaceably  abolish  all  the  miseries  that  spring  from  the 
co-existence,  side  by  side,  of  enormous  wealth  and  squalid  want. 
It  has  a  higher  function.  Beyond  the  power  of  diffusing  old 
wealth,  it  has  the  prerogative  of  creating  new.  It  is  a  thousand 
times  more  lucrative  than  fraud,  and  adds  a  thousand-fold 
more  to  a  nation's  resources  than  the  most  successful  conquests. 
Knaves  and  robbers  can  obtain  only  what  was  before  possessed 
by  others.  But  education  creates  or  develops  new  treasures, — 
treasures  not  before  possessed  or  dreamed  of  by  any  one. 

Had  mankind  been  endowed  with  only  the  instincts  and  fac- 
ulties of  the  brute  creation,  there  are  hundreds  of  the  irrational 
tribes  to  which  they  would  have  been  inferior,  and  of  which 
they  would  have  been  the  prey.  Did  they,  with  oilier  animals, 
roam  a  common  forest,  how  many  of  their  fellow-tenants  of 
the  wood  would  overcome  them  by  superior  force,  or  outstrip 
them  by  greater  fleetuess,  or  circumvent  them  by  a  sharper  cun- 
ning !  There  are  but  few  of  the  irrational  tribes  whose  bodies 
are  not  better  provided  with  the  means  of  defence  or  attack 
than  is  the  body  of  a  man.  The  claws  and  canine  teeth  of  the 
lion  and  of  the  whole  tiger  family,  the  beak  and  talons  of  the 
eagle  and  the  vulture,  the  speed  of  the  deer  and  of  other  timid 


REPORT   FOR    1848.  671 

races,  are  means  of  assault  or  of  escape  far  superior  to  any  we 
possess  ;  and  all  the  power  which  we  have,  like  so  many  of  the 
reptile  and  insect  classes,  of  secreting  a  deadly  venom,  either 
for  protection  or  for  aggression,  has  relation  to  moral  venom, 
and  not  to  physical. 

In  a  few  lines,  nowhere  surpassed  in  philosophic  strength 
and  beauty,  Pope  groups  together  the  remarkable  qualities  of 
several  different  races  of  animals,  —  the  strength  of  one  class, 
the  genial  covering  of  another,  the  fleetuess  of  a  third.  He 
brings  vividly  to  our  recollection  the  lynx's  vision  of  excelling 
keenness,  the  sagacity  of  the  houud  that  reads  a  name  or  a 
sign  in  the  last  vanishing  odor  of  a  footprint,  the  exquisite 
fineness  of  the  spider's  touch,  and  that  chemical  nicety  by 
-.vhich  the  bee  discriminates  between  honey  and  poison  in  the 
same  flower-cup.  He  then  closes  with  an  interrogatory,  which 
has  human  reason  both  for  its  subject  and  its  object :  — 

"  The  powers  of  all  sub.lued  l>y  thee  alone: 
Is  not  thy  reason  all  these  powers  in  one  ?  " 

When  Pope,  now  a  little  more  than  a  century  ago,  mingled 
these  beauties  with  his  didactic  strains,  he  had  no  conception, 
the  world  at  that  time  had  no  conception,  of  other  powers  and 
properties,  infinitely  more  energetic  and  more  exhaustless  than 
all  which  the  animal  races  possess,  to  which  the  reason  of  man 
is  an  equivalent.  It  was  not  then  known  that  God  had  endued 
the  earth  and  the  elements  with  energies  and  activities  as  much 
superior  to  those  which  animals  or  men  possess  as  the  bulk  and 
frame  of  the  earth  itself  exceeds  their  diminutive  proportions. 
It  was  not  then  known  that  the  earth  is  a  great  reservoir  of 
powers,  and  that  any  man  is  free  to  use  any  quantity  of  them 
if  he  will  but  possess  himself  of  the  key  of  knowledge,  —  the 
only  key,  but  the  infallible  one,  by  which  to  unlock  their  gates. 
At  that  time,  if  a  philosopher  wished  to  operate  a  mechanical 
toy,  he  could  lift  or  pump  a  few  gallons  of  water  for  a  moving- 
power  :  but  it  was  not  understood  that  Nature,  by  the  processes 
of  evaporation  and  condensation,  is  constantly  lifting  up  into 


672  ANNUAL   REPORTS    ON   EDUCATION. 

the  sky,  and  pouriug  back  upon  the  earth,  all  the  mass  of  wa- 
ters that  flow  in  all  the  rivers  of  the  world  ;  and  that,  in  order 
to  perform  the  work  of  the  world,  the  weight  of  all  these  waters 
might  be  used  again  and  again  in  each  one  of  their  perpetual 
circuits.*  The  power-press  and  the  power-loom,  the  steam- 
boat and  the  locomotive,  the  paper-machine  and  the  telegraph, 
were  not  then  known.  All  these  instruments  of  human  com- 
fort and  aggrandizement,  and  others  almost  innumerable,  simi- 
lar to  them,  are  operated  by  the  energies  and  the  velocities  of 
Nature  ;  and,  had  Pope  grouped  together  all  the  splendid  profu- 
sion and  prodigality  of  her  powers,  he  might  still  have  appealed 
to  man,  and  said,  — 

"  7s  not  thy  reason  all  these  powers  in  one  ?  " 

To  the  weight  of  waters,  the  velocity  of  winds,  the  expansive 
force  of  heat,  and  other  kindred  agencies,  any  man  may  go, 
and  he  may  draw  from  them  as  much  as  he  pleases  without 
money  and  without  price :  or  rather,  I  should  say,  any  edu- 
cated man  may  go  ;  for  Nature  flouts  and  scorns,  and  seems  to 
abhor,  an  ignorant  man.  She  drowns  him,  and  consumes  him, 
and  tears  him  in  pieces,  if  he  but  ventures  to  profane  with  his 
touch  her  divinely-wrought  machinery. 

Now,  these  powers  of  Nature,  by  being  enlisted  in  the  service 
of  man,  ADD  to  the  wealth  of  the  world,  —  unlike  robbery  or 
slavery  or  agrarianism,  which  aim  only  at  the  appropriation, 
by  one  man  or  one  class,  of  the  wealth  belonging  to  another 
man  or  class.  One  man,  with  a  Foudriuier,  will  make  more 
paper  in  a  twelvemonth  than  all  Egypt  could  have  made  iu  a 
hundred  years  during  the  reign  of  the  Ptolemies.  One  man, 
with  a  power-press,  will  print  books  faster  than  a  million  of 
scribes  could  copy  them  before  the  invention  of  printing.  One 
man,  with  an  iron-foundery,  will  make  more  utensils  or  ma- 
chinery than  Tubal-Caiu  could  have  made  had  he  worked 

*  The  waters  of  the  Blackstone  River,  which  flows  partly  in  Massachusetts,  and 
partly  in  Rhode  Island,  are  used  for  driving  mills,  twenty-five  times  over,  in  a  dis- 
tance of  less  than  forty  miles. 


REPORT   FOR   1848.  673 

diligently  till  this  time.*  And  so  in  all  the  departments  of 
mechanical  labor,  in  the  whole  circle  of  the  useful  arts.  These 
powers  of  Nature  are  able  to  give  to  all  the  inhabitants  of  the 
earth,  not  merely  shelter,  covering,  and  food,  but  all  the  means 
of  refinement,  embellishment,  and  mental  improvement.  In 
the  most  strict  and  literal  sense,  they  are  bounties  which  God 
gives  for  proficiency  in  knowledge. 

The  above  ideas  are  beginning  to  be  pretty  well  understood 
by  all  men  of  respectable  intelligence.  I  have  adverted  to 
them,  not  so  much  on  their  own  account,  as  by  way  of  introduc- 
tion or  preface  to  two  or  three  considerations,  which  certainly 
are  not  understood,  or  not  appreciated,  as  they  deserve  to  be. 

It  is  a  remarkable  fact,  that  human  progress,  even  in  regard 
to  the  worldly  interests  of  the  race,  did  not  begin  with  those  im- 
provements which  are  most  closely  allied  to  material  prosperity. 
One  would  have  supposed,  beforehand,  that  improvements 
would  commence  with  the  near  rather  than  with  the  remote. 
Yet  mankind  had  made  great  advances  in  astronomy,  in  ge- 
ometry, and  other  mathematical  sciences  ;  in  the  writing  of  his- 
tory, in  oratory,  and  in  poetry :  it  is  supposed  by  many  to 
have  reached  the  highest  point  of  yet  attained  perfection  in 
painting  and  in  sculpture,  and  in  those  kinds  of  architecture 
which  may  be  called  regal  or  religious,  centuries  before  the 
great  mechanical  discoveries  and  inventions  which  now  bless 
the  world  were  brought  to  light.  And  the  question  has  often 
forced  itself  upon  reflecting  minds,  why  there  was  this  prepos- 
terousness,  this  inversion  of  what  would  appear  to  be  the  natu- 
ral order  of  progress.  Why  was  it,  for  instance,  that  men 
should  have  learned  the  courses  of  the  stars,  and  the  revolutions 
of  the  planets,  before  they  found  out  how  to  make  a  good  wagon- 
wheel  ?  Why  was  it  that  they  built  the  Parthenon  and  the  Colos- 
seum before  they  knew  how  to  construct  a  comfortable,  healthful 

*  In  1740,  the  whole  amount  of  iron  made  in  England  and  Wales  was  seventeen 
thousand  tons  ;  in  1840,  it  was  more  than  a  million  tons,  notwithstanding  all  that 
had  been  manufactured  and  accumulated  in  the  intervening  century.  What  would 
u  Jewish  or  a  Roman  artificer  have  said  to  an  annual  product  of  a  million  tons  of 
iron? 

43 


674  ANNUAL   REPORTS  ON   EDUCATION. 

dwelling-house  ?  "Why  did  they  construct  the  Roman  aqueducts 
before  they  constructed  a  saw-mill?  Or  why  did  they  achieve 
the  noblest  models  in  eloquence,  in  poetry,  and  in  the  drama, 
before  they  invented  movable  types?  I  think  we  have  now- 
arrived  at  a  point  where  we  can  unriddle  this  enigma.  The 
labor  of  the  world  has  been  performed  by  ignorant  men,  by 
classes  doomed  to  ignorance  from  sire  to  son,  by  the  bondmen 
and  bond-women  of  the  Jews,  by  the  helots  of  Sparta,  by 
the  captives  who  passed  under  the  Roman  yoke,  and  by  the 
villeins  and  serfs  and  slaves  of  more  modern  times.  The 
masters  —  the  aristocratic  or  patrician  orders  —  not  only  dis- 
dained labor  for  themselves  and  their  children,  which  was  one 
fatal  mistake,  but  they  supposed  that  knowledge  was  of  no  use 
to  a  laborer,  which  was  a  mistake  still  more  fatal.  Hence, 
ignorance,  for  almost  six  thousand  years,  has  gone  on  plying 
its  animal  muscles,  and  dropping  its  bloody  sweat,  and  never 
discovered  any  way,  nor  dreamed  that  there  was  any  way,  by 
which  it  might  accomplish  many  times  more  work  with  mauy 
times  less  labor.  And  yet  nothing  is  more  true  than  that  an 
ignorant  man  will  toil  all  his  life  long,  moving  to  and  fro  within 
an  inch  of  some  great  discovery,  and  will  never  see  it.  All  the 
elements  of  a  great  discovery  may  fall  into  his  hands,  or  be 
thrust  into  his  face  ;  but  his  eyes  will  be  too  blind  to  behold  it. 
If  he  is  a  slave,  what  motive  has  he  to  behold  it?  Its  greater 
profitableness  will  not  redound  to  his  benefit ;  for  another  stands 
ready  to  seize  all  the  gain.  Its  abridgment  of  labor  will  not 
conduce  to  his  ease  ;  for  other  toils  await  him.  But  the  moment 
an  intelligent  man  applies  himself  to  labor,  and  labors  for  his 
own  benefit  or  for  that  of  his  family,  he  begins  to  inq  lire 
whether  the  same  task  cannot  be  performed  with  a  less  expendi- 
ture of  strength,  or  a  greater  ta#k  with  an  equal  expenditure. 
He  makes  his  wits  save  his  bones.  He  fiuds  it  to  be  easier  to 
think  than  to  work  ;  nay,  that  it  is  easier  both  to  think  and 
work  than  to  work  without  thinking.  He  foresees  a  prize  as 
the  reward  of  successful  effort ;  and  this  stimulates  his  braiu  to 
deep  contrivance,  as  well  as  his  arms  to  rapid  motion.  Taking, 


REPORT   FOR    1848.  675 

for  illustration,  the  result  of  an  experiment  which  has  been 
actually  made,  let  us  suppose  this  intelligent  laborer  to  be 
employed  in  moving  blocks  of  squared  granite,  each  weighing 
1080  pounds.  To  move  such  a  block  along  the  floor  of  a 
roughly-chiselled  quarry  requires  a  force  equal  to  758  pounds. 
An  ignorant  man,  therefore,  must  employ  and  pay  several  as- 
sistants, or  he  can  never  move  such  a  block  an  inch.  But  to 
draw  the  same  block  over  a  floor  of  planks  will  require  a  force 
of  only  652  pounds.  The  expense  of  one  assistant,  therefore, 
might  be  dispensed  with.  Placed  on  a  platform  of  wood,  and 
drawn  over  the  same  floor,  a  draught  of  606  pounds  would  be 
sufficient.  By  soaping  the  two  surfaces  of  the  wood,  the  requi- 
site force  would  be  reduced  to  182  pounds.  Placed  on  rollers 
three  inches  in  diameter,  a  force  equal  to  34  pounds  would  be 
sufficient.  Substituting  a  wooden  for  a  stone  floor,  and  the 
requisite  force  is  28  pounds.  With  the  same  rollers  on  a 
wooden  platform,  22  pounds  only  would  be  required.  And  now, 
by  the  invention  and  use  of  locomotives  and  railroads,  a  traction 
or  draught  of  between  three  and  four  pounds  is  found  to  be  suffi- 
cient to  move  a  body  weighing  1080  pounds.  Thus  the  amount 
of  force  necessary  to  remove  the  body  is  reduced  about  two 
hundred  times.  Xow,  take  away  from  these  steps  the  single 
element  of  intelligence,  and  each  improvement  would  have  been 
impossible.  The  ignorant  man  would  never  have  discovered 
how  nearly  synonymous  are  freight  and  friction. 

If  a  savage  will  learn  how  to  swim,  he  can  fasten  a  dozen 
pounds'  weight  to  his  back,  and  transport  it  across  a  narrow 
river  or  other  body  of  water  of  moderate  width.  If  he  will 
invent  an  axe,  or  other  instrument,  by  which  to  cut  down  a 
tree,  he  can  use  the  tree  for  a  float,  and  one  of  it?  limbs  for  a 
paddle,  and  can  thus  transport  many  times  the  former  weight 
many  times  the  former  distance.  Hollowing  out  his  log,  he 
will  increase  what  may  be  called  its  tonnage,  or  rather  its 
poundage ;  and,  by  sharpening  its  ends,  it  will  cleave  the 
water  both  more  easily  and  more  swiftly.  Fastening  several 
trees  together,  he  makes  a  raft,  and  thus  increases  the  buoyant 


676  ANNUAL   REPORTS   ON  EDUCATION. 

power  of  his  embryo  water-craft.  Turning  up  the  ends  of  small 
poles,  or  using  knees  of  timber  instead  of  straight  pieces,  and 
grooving  them  together,  or  filling  up  the  interstices  between 
them  in  some  other  way,  so  as  to  make  them  water-tight,  he 
brings  his  rude  raft  literally  into  ship-shape.  Improving  upon 
hull  below  and  rigging  above,  he  makes  a  proud  merchant- 
man, to  be  wafted  by  the  winds  from  continent  to  continent. 
But  even  this  does  not  content  the  adventurous  naval  architect. 
He  frames  iron  arms  for  his  ship  ;  and,  for  oars,  affixes  iron 
wheels,  capable  of  swift  revolution,  and  stronger  than  the  strong 
sea.  Into  iron-walled  cavities  in  her  bosom  he  puts  iron  organs 
of  massive  structure  and  strength,  and  of  cohesion  insoluble  by 
fire.  Within  these  he  kindles  a  small  volcano  ;  and  then,  like 
a  sentient  and  rational  existence,  this  wonderful  creation  of  his 
hands  cleaves  oceans,  breasts  tides,  defies  tempests,  and  bears 
its  living  and  jubilant  freight  around  the  globe.  Now,  take 
away  intelligence  from  the  ship-builder,  and  the  steamship  — 
that  miracle  of  human  art  —  falls  back  into  a  floating  log  ;  the 
log  itself  is  lost ;  and  the  savage  swimmer,  bearing  his  dozen 
pounds  on  his  back,  alone  remains. 

And  so  it  is,  not  in  one  department  only,  but  in  the  whole 
circle  of  human  labors.  The  annihilation  of  the  sun  would  no 
more  certainly  be  followed  by  darkness  than  the  extinction  of 
human  intelligence  would  plunge  the  race  at  once  into  the  weak- 
ness and  helplessness  of  barbarism.  To  have  created  such 
beings  as  we  are,  and  to  have  placed  them  in  this  world  with- 
out the  light  of  the  sun,  would  be  no  more  cruel  than  for  a 
government  to  suffer  its  laboring  classes  to  grow  up  without 
knowledge. 

In  this  fact,  then,  we  find  a  solution  of  the  problem  that  so 
long  embarrassed  inquirers.  The  reason  why  the  mechanical 
and  useful  arts,  —  those  arts  which  have  done  so  much  to  civil- 
ize mankind,  and  which  have  given  comforts  and  luxuries  to 
the  common  laborer  of  the  present  day,  such  as  kings  and 
queens  could  not  command  three  centuries  ago,  —  the  reason 
why  these  arts  made  no  progress,  and  until  recently,  indeed, 


REPORT   FOR    1848.  677 

can  hardly  be  said  to  have  had  any  thing  more  than  a  beginning, 
is,  that  the  labor  of  the  world  was  performed  by  ignorant  men. 
As  soon  as  some  degree  of  intelligence  dawned  upon  the  work- 
man, then  a  corresponding  degree  of  improvement  in  his  work 
followed.  At  first,  this  intelligence  was  confined  to  a  very 
small  number,  and  therefore  improvements  were  few  ;  and  they 
followed  each  other  only  after  long  intervals.  They  uniformly 
began  in  the  nations  and  among  the  classes  where  there  was 
most  intelligence.  The  middle  classes  of  England,  and  the 
people  of  Holland  and  Scotland,  have  done  a  hundred  times 
more  than  all  the  Eastern  hemisphere  besides.  What  single 
improvement  in  art,  or  discovery  in  science,  has  ever  originated 
in  Spain,  or  throughout  the  vast  empire  of  the  Russias?  But 
just  in  proportion  as  intelligence  —  that  is,  education  —  has 
quickened  and  stimulated  a  greater  and  a  greater  number  of 
minds,  just  in  the  same  proportion  have  inventions  and  discov- 
eries increased  in  their  wonderfulness,  and  in  the  rapidity  of 
their  succession.  The  progression  has  been  rather  geometrical 
than  arithmetical.  By  the  laws  of  Nature,  it  must  be  so.  If, 
among  ten  well-educated  children,  the  chance  is  that  at  least 
one  of  them  will  originate  some  new  and  useful  process  in  the 
arts,  or  will  discover  some  new  scientific  principle,  or  some  new 
application  of  one,  then,  among  a  hundred  such  well-educated 
children,  there  is  a  moral  certainty  that  there  will  be  more  than 
ten  such  originators  or  discoverers  of  new  utilities ;  for  the 
action  of  the  mind  is  like  the  action  of  fire.  One  billet  of 
wood  will  hardly  burn  alone,  though  dry  as  suns  and  north-west 
winds  can  make  it,  and  though  placed  in  the  range  of  a  current 
of  air  ;  ten  such  billets  will  burn  well  together  ;  but  a  hundred 
will  create  a  heat  fifty  times  as  intense  as  ten,  will  make  a 
current  of  air  to  fan  their  own  flame,  and  consume  even  green- 
ness itself. 

For  the  creation  of  wealth,  then,  —  for  the  existence  of  a 
wealthy  people  and  a  wealthy  nation,  —  intelligence  is  the  grand 
condition.  The  number  of  improvers  will  increase  as  the  in- 
tellectual constituency,  if  I  may  so  call  it,  increases.  In  former 


678  ANNUAL   REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

times,  and  in  most  parts  of  the  world  even  at  the  present  day, 
not  one  man  in  a  million  has  ever  had  such  a  development  of 
mind  as  made  it  possible  for  him  to  become  a  contributor  to 
art  or  science.  Let  this  development  precede,  and  contribu- 
tions, numberless,  and  of  inestimable  value,  will  be  sure  to  fol- 
low. That  political  economy,  therefore,  which  busies  itself 
about  capital  and  labor,  supply  and  demand,  interest  and  rents, 
favorable  and  unfavorable  balances  of  trade,  but  leaves  out  of 
account  the  element  of  a  widespread  mental  development,  is 
nought  but  stupendous  folly.  The  greatest  of  all  the  arts  in 
political  economy  is  to  change  a  consumer  into  a  producer ; 
and  the  next  greatest  is  to  increase  the  producer's  producing 
power,  —  an  end  to  be  directly  attained  by  increasing  his  in- 
telligence. For  mere  delving,  an  ignorant  man  is  but  little 
better  than  a  swine,  whom  he  so  much  resembles  in  his  appe- 
tites, and  surpasses  in  his  powers  of  mischief. 

But  there  is  a  class  of  persons  who  are  not  unwilling  to  con- 
cede the  advantages  which  education  has  over  ignorance,  both 
in  the  more  rapid  and  perfect  performance  of  all  kinds  of  labor, 
and  in  the  creation  of  all  those  mechanical  instruments  through 
which  Nature  stands  ready  to  do  the  work  of  the  world:  but, 
while  they  acknowledge  all  this,  they  seem  to  think  that  the 
argument  in  favor  of  knowledge  has  lost  much  of  its  force,  be- 
cause mechanical  ingenuity  and  scientific  discovery  must  have 
nearly  reached  the  outermost  limit  of  possible  advancement ; 
that  either  the  powers  of  Nature  are  exhausted,  or  human 
genius  is  in  its  decrepitude.  The  past  achievements  of  the 
mind  excite  their  admiration,  but  not  their  hope.  They  are 
regarded  as  the  measure  of  what  man  can  perform,  but  not  as 
the  promise  of  what  he  is  yet  to  perform.  They  are  accepted, 
not  as  a  little  earnest-money,  but  as  full  payment. 

Now,  the  view  which  I  am  constrained  to  take  of  the  history 
aud  destiny  of  man  is  exactly  the  contrary  of  this  one.  I  hold 
all  past  achievements  of  the  human  mind  to  be  rather  in  the 
nature  of  prophecy  than  of  fulfilment,  —  the  first-fruits  of  the 
beneficence  of  God  in  endowing  us  with  the  faculties  of  per- 


REPORT   FOR   1848.  679 

ception,  comparison,  calculation,  and  causality,  rather  than  the 
full  harvest  of  their  eventual  development.  For  look  at  the 
magnificent  creation  into  which  we  have  been  brought,  and  at 
the  adaptation  of  our  faculties  to  understand,  admire,  and  use 
it.  All  around  us  are  works  worthy  of  an  infinite  God ;  and 
we  are  led,  by  irresistible  evidence,  to  believe,  that,  just  so  far  as 
we  acquire  his  knowledge,  we  shall  be  endued  with  his  power. 
From  history  and  from  consciousness,  we  find  ourselves  capable 
of  ever-onward  improvement :  and  therefore  it  seems  to  be  a 
denial  of  first  principles  —  it  seems  no  better  .than  impiety — to 
.suppose  that  we  shall  ever  become  such  finished  scholars,  that 
the  works  of  the  All-wise  will  have  no  new  problem  for  our  so- 
lution, and  will,  therefore,  be  able  to  teach  us  no  longer.  Nor 
is  it  any  less  than  impiety  to  suppose  that  we  shall  ever  so  com- 
pletely enlist  the  powers  of  Nature  in  our  service,  that  ex- 
hausted Omnipotence  can  reward  our  industry  with  no  further 
bounties.  This  would  be  to  suppose  that  we  shall  arrive  at  a 
period  when  our  active  and  progressive  natures  will  become 
passive  and  stationary ;  when  we  shall  have  nothing  to  do  but 
to  sit  in  indolent  and  inglorious  contemplation  of  past  achieve- 
ments ;  and  when,  all  aspirations  having  been  lost  in  fruition,  we 
shall  have  outlived  the  joys  of  hope  and  the  rewards  of  effort, 
and  no  new  glories  will  beckon  us  onward  to  new  felicities. 

Xeither  our  faculties,  uor  their  spheres  of  action,  seem  to 
have  been  projected  on  any  such  narrow  plan.  Ever-expand- 
ing powers  are  within  us ;  eternity  lies  before  us ;  and  an 
Infinite  Being,  amidst  his  works,  is  the  adorable  object  of 
these  faculties  throughout  this  eternity.  These,  no  height  of 
attainment  which  our  powers  will  ever  reach,  and  no  length 
of  duration  to  which  the  cycles  of  eternity  shall  ever  have  run, 
will  enable  us  to  exhaust  or  fully  to  comprehend.  To  affirm 
the  contrary  would  be  to  affirm  that  our  finite  minds  can  em- 
brace and  encircle  their  infinite  Author,  as  his  mind  embraces 
and  encircles  ours.  Our  relation  to  our  Maker,  then,  is  a 
moral  phase  of  the  problem  of  the  asymptote,  —  a  Hue  forever 
approaching  a  point  which  it  can  never  reach. 


680         ANNUAL  REPORTS  ON  EDUCATION. 

And,  if  we  believe  in  our  individual  capacity  for  indefinite 
improvement,  why  should  we  doubt  the  capacity  of  the  race 
for  continued  progress  as  long  as  it  dwells  upon  the  earth  ? 
Can  man,  "  by  searching,  find  out  God "  in  a  physical  sense 
any  more  than  in  a  moral  one?  or  can  all  the  generations  of 
the  race,  by  the  longest  and  the  profouudest  investigations,  ever 
fathom  the  depths  of  eternal  wisdom  and  power  as  they  are 
incorporated  into  this  earthly  frame?  However  far,  then, 
science  and  art  may  push  their  explorations,  there  will  always 
be  a  frontier  bounding  their  advances  ;  there  will  always  be  a 
terra  incognita  beyond  the  regions  they  have  surveyed,  — 
beyond  the  utmost  verge  of  the  horizon  which  the  eye  can  see 
from  the  topmast  pinnacle  of  existing  discoveries.  Each  new 
adventurer  can  gain  new  trophies  by  penetrating  still  deeper 
into  the  illimitable  solitudes  where  alone  Omnipotence  dwells 
and  works.  The  most  perfect  instrument  which  the  brightest 
genius  of  any  age  may  ever  construct  will  be  excelled  by  an- 
other instrument,  made  after  a  higher  ideal  of  perfection  by  the 
brighter  genius  of  a  succeeding  age.  The  most  rapid  processes 
of  art  known  to  any  generation  will  be  accelerated  in  the  gen- 
eration that  shall  follow  it,  and  science  will  be  found  not  only 
a  plant  of  perennial  growth,  but,  in  each  succeeding  age,  it 
Avill  bear  blossoms  of  a  more  celestial  splendor,  and  fruits  of 
beneficence  unknown  before. 

Astronomers  now  tell  us,  that  the  sun  is  not  a  stationary  orb, 
fixed  and  immovable  at  one  place  in  the  heavens,  as,  since  the 
days  of  Copernicus,  it  had  been  supposed  to  be,  but  that,  in 
some  far-oiF  region  of  immensity,  at  a  distance  wholly  incon- 
ceivable by  us,  there  is  a  central  point  of  attraction,  around 
which  our  sun,  with  its  attendant  train  of  planets,  is  perform- 
ing a  magnificent  revolution  ;  just  as,  within  their  narrow 
orbits,  the  planets  of  our  local  system  are  revolving  about  the 
sun.  They  tell  us,  further,  that  the  circumference  of  this  solar 
orbit  is  so  vast,  that,  during  the  six  thousand  years  which  are 
supposed  to  have  elapsed  since  the  creation  of  Adam,  the  sun 
has  not  yet  travelled  through  so  much  as  one  of  the  three  hun- 


REPORT   FOR    1848.  C81 

dred  and  sixty  degrees  that  make  up  its  mighty  circle  ;  not 
through  so  much  as  one  of  those  hundreds  of  astronomical 
spaces  through  which  it  must  move  before  it  will  complete  a 
single  revolution.  What  number  of  these  immense  circuits  the 
earth  is  destined  to  perform,  or  what  part  even  of  a  single  rev- 
olution it  will  accomplish,  before  it  will  meet  with  some  such 
catastrophe  as  will  unfit  it  to  be  the  abode  of  a  race  like  ours, 
we  know  not  ;  but  we  have  no  reason  to  believe,  even  if  the 
mighty  years  of  the  solar  revolutions  should  equal  the  number 
of  our  terrestrial  years  since  the  creation  of  Adam,  that  the 
race  will  ever  have  exhausted  the  earth  of  all  the  latent  capaci- 
ties for  ministering  to  the  improvement  and  happiness  of  man 
with  which  God  has  endued  it.  No  invention  or  discovery 
will  ever  be  made,  upon  which  the  author  can  stand,  and  lift 
up  his  proud  voice,  and  exclaim,  "  /  have  found  the  last  miracle 
of  the  miracle-working  God  !  " 

Now,  so  far  as  these  natural  and  yet  undeveloped  resources 
of  the  earth  are  hereafter  to  be  brought  to  light,  and  made  the 
ministering  servants  of  human  welfare,  we  suppose  they  are  to 
be  brought  to  light  by  the  exercise  of  the  human  faculties,  in 
the  same  way  that  all  the  scientific  and  mechanical  improve- 
ments of  past  times  have  been  brought  to  light,  —  that  is,  by 
education.  And  the  greater  the  proportion  of  minds  in  any 
community  which  are  educated,  and  the  more  thorough  and 
complete  the  education  which  is  given  them,  the  more  rapidly, 
through  these  sublime  stages  of  progress,  will  that  community 
advance  in  all  the  means  of  enjoyment  and  elevation,  and  the 
more  will  it  outstrip  and  outshine  its  less  educated  neighbors. 
The  advance-guard  of  education  and  intelligence  will  gather 
the  virgin  wealth  of  whatever  region  they  explore,  as  the  re- 
ward of  their  knowledge,  just  as  the  Portuguese  reaped  the  great 
harvest  of  the  riches  of  India  as  their  reward  for  discovering 
the  new  route  to  India. 

I  know  that  it  may  be  said,  and  said,  too,  not  without  a  cer- 
tain measure  of  truth,  that  when  a  more  intelligent  community 
has  made  a  discovery  in  science,  or  devised  or  perfected  the 


682  ANNUAL   REPORTS    OX   EDUCATION. 

processes  of  any  art,  a  less  intelligent  community  by  its  side 
may  adopt  and  copy  them,  and  thus  make  the  improvements 
their  own  by  possession,  though  the  invention  belonged  to 
another.  After  a  bold  navigator  has  opened  a  new  channel  of 
commerce,  and  while  he  is  gathering  the  first-fruits  of  his 
sagacity,  the  stupid  or  the  predatory  may  follow  in  his  wake,| 
and  share  the  gains  of  his  enterprise.  Dr.  Franklin  may  dis- 
cover the  uses  of  the  lightning-rod  ;  but  when  once  discovered, 
and  the  manner  of  its  use  exhibited,  any  half-taught  son  of 
Vulcan  can  make  and  erect  one  by  copying  the  given  model. 
When  a  school-boy  of  New  England  has  invented  the  cotton- 
gin,  or  perfected  cotton  machinery,  the  slaves  of  the  South, 
stupid  and  ignorant  as  cattle,  "  according  to  the  form  of  the 
statute  in  such  cases  made  and  provided,"  can  operate  them 
with  a  greater  or  less  degree  of  success  and  profit.  But  there 
are  two  considerations  which  show  how  inferior  the  condition 
of  the  aping  community  must  always  be  to  that  of  the  originat- 
ing one. 

In  the  first  place,  all  copying  is  in  the  nature  of  empiricism. 
The  copyist  operates  blindly,  and  not  on  principle  ;  and  there- 
fore he  is  constantly  exposed  to  failure.  In  untried  emergen- 
cies, he  never  knows  what  to  do,  for  the  light  of  example  shines 
only  in  one  direction;  while  it  is  the  very  nature  of  principle, 
like  its  divine  Author,  to  circumfuse  its  beams,  and  so  to  leave 
110  darkness  in  any  direction. 

And,  in  the  second  place,  even  supposing  the  aping  commu- 
nity to  be  able,  after  long  delays  and  toils,  to  equal  the  origi- 
nating one,  still,  before  the  period  shall  have  elapsed  which  the 
pupil  will  require  for  studying  out  or  copying  the  old  lesson, 
his  master  will  have  studied  out  some  new  one  ;  will  have  dis- 
covered some  new  improvement,  diffusive  of  new  utility,  and 
Fadiant  with  new  beauty  :  so  that  the  distance  will  be  kept  us 
great  as  ever  between  him  and  the  learner. 

The  slave  States  of  this  Union  may  buy  cotton  machinery 
made  by  the  intelligent  mechanics  of  the  free  States,  and  they 
may  train  their  slaves  to  work  it  with  more  or  less  skill ;  but 


REPORT   FOR   1848.  683 

should  they  succeed  ever  so  well,  should  they  eventually  be- 
come able  to  meet  their  entire  home  demand,  it  will  neverthe- 
less be  true,  that,  in  the  mean  time,  the  new  wants  and  refine- 
ments generated  by  the  progress  of  the  age  will  demand  some 
new  fabric,  requiring  for  its  manufacture  either  more  inge- 
niously-wrought machinery,  or  greater  skill  in  the  operator: 
and  thus  will  the  more  educated  community  forever  keep  ahead 
of  the  less  educated  one.  The  progress  of  mankind  may  be 
compared  to  an  ascending  spiral.  In  moving  upward  along 
this  spiral,  the  less  intelligent  community  will  see  the  more 
intelligent  one  at  a  point  above  its  head.  It  will  labor  on  to 
overtake  it,  and,  making  another  toilsome  circuit,  will  at  length 
reach  the  place  where  the  victor  had  been  seen  ;  but,  lo !  the 
victor  is  not  there :  he,  too,  has  made  a  circuit  along  the 
ascending  curve,  and  is  still  far  aloft,  above  the  head  of  his 
pursuer. 

Another  common  idea  is  this  :  it  is  supposed  that  intelligence 
in  workmen  is  relatively  less  important  in  agricultural  labors 
than  in  the  mechanic  and  manufacturing  arts.  The  great  agri- 
cultural staples  of  the  country  —  corn,  cotton,  sugar,  rice,  and 
so  forth  —  have  been  stigmatized,  or  at  least  characterized,  as 
"coarser"  products,  and,  therefore,  requiring  less  skill  and 
science  for  their  culture  and  improvement  than  the  fabrics  of 
the  loom  and  the  workshop.  This  may  be  true  ;  but  I  am  by 
no  means  convinced  of  its  truth.  It  seems  to  me  that  there  is, 
as  yet,  no  adequate  proof  that  skill  and  science,  if  applied  to 
agriculture,  will  not  yield  practical  benefits  as  copious  and  as 
wonderful  as  any  that  have  rewarded  the  mechanician  or  the 
artisan  in  any  department  of  their  labors.  Why  vegetable 
growths,  so  exquisite  in  their  organization,  animated  by  the 
mysterious  principle  of  life,  and  so  susceptive  of  all  the  influences 
of  climate,  whether  good  or  ill,  —  why  these  should  be  called 
"  coarser  "  than  iron-ore  or  other  unorganized  metals,  or  any 
kind  of  wealth  that  is  found  in  mines  ;  or  why  cotton  or  flax, 
wool  or  leather,  wood  or  grain,  should  be  denominated  ;'  coarser  " 
before  they  have  been  deprived  of  the  principle  of  life  than  after 


684  ANNUAL    REPORTS    ON   EDUCATION. 

it,  and  before  they  have  lost  the  marvellous  power  of  assimilat- 
ing inorganic  matter  to  their  own  peculiar  substance,  —  it  is  not 
easy  to  perceive.  May  it  not  yet  be  found  that  a  better  knowl- 
edge of  the  laws  that  govern  vegetable  growth  ;  a  better  knowl- 
edge of  the  properties  and  adaptations  of  different  soils  ;  a 
better  knowledge  of  the  conditions  of  fructification  and  germi- 
nation, and  of  the  mysterious  chemistry  that  determines  the 
quality  of  texture,  color,  flavor,  and  perfume  ;  a  better  knowl- 
of  the  uncombined  gases,  and  of  the  effect  of  light,  heat,  elec- 
tricity, and  other  imponderable  agents,  upon  the  size,  rapidity, 
and  variegation  of  vegetable  growths,  —  in  fine,  a  better  knowl- 
edge of  vegetable  physiology,  and  of  that,  too,  which  may  be 
called  vegetable  pathology,  —  will  redeem  the  whole  circle  of 
agricultural  occupations  from  the  stigma  of  requiring  less  in- 
telligent cultivators  than  are  required  for  other  pursuits,  and 
thus  supply  a  new  and  irresistible  argument  in  favor  of  diffus- 
ing a  vastly-increased  amount  of  knowledge  among  our  free 
field-laborers  and  our  rural  population  generally?  The  mar- 
vellous improvements  which  have  been  made  under  the  auspices 
of  the  Massachusetts  Horticultural  Society,  in  horticulture, 
floriculture,  and  pomology,  already  betoken  such  a  result.* 

Now,  it  is  in  these  various  ways  that  all  the  means  of  human 
subsistence,  comfort,  improvement,  or  what,  in  one  word,  we 
call  wealth,  are  created,  —  additional  wealth,  new  wealth,  not 
another  man's  earnings,  not  another  nation's  treasures  or  lands, 
tricked  away  by  fraud  or  wrested  by  force,  but  substantially, 
and  for  all  practical  purposes,  knowledge-created,  mind-created 
wealth  ;  as  much  so  as  though  we  had  been  endued  with  a 
miraculous  power  of  turning  a  granite  quarry  into  a  city  at 
a  word,  or  a  wilderness  into  cultivated  fields,  or  of  command- 
ing harvests  to  ripen  in  a  day.  To  see  a  community  acquiring 
and  redoubling  its  wealth  in  this  way ;  enriching  itself  with- 

*  As  an  illustration  of  the  value  of  knowledge  in  agricultural  pursuits,  it  may  be 
mentioned,  that  the  researches  and  discoveries  by  M.  MeneviUe,  in  regard  to  the 
fly  which  was  lately  so  destructive  to  the  olive  in  the  south  of  France,  have  in- 
creased the  annual  product  of  this  fruit  almost  a  million  of  dollars'  worth.  When 
would  an  iyuoraut  man,  or  a  slave,  have  made  such  a  discovery  ? 


REPORT    FOR    1848.  685 

out  impoverishing  others,  without  despoiling  others,  —  is  it  not 
a  noble  spectacle?  Aud  will  not  the  community  that  gains  its 
wealth  in  this  way,  ten  times  faster  than  any  robber-nation  ever 
did  by  plunder,  —  will  not  such  a  community  be  a  model  and  a 
pattern  for  the  nations,  a  type  of  excellence  to  be  admired  and 
followed  by  the  world?  Has  Massachusetts  no  ambition  to 
win  the  palm  in  so  glorious  a  rivalry? 

But  suppose  that  Massachusetts,  notwithstanding  her  deplo- 
rable inferiority  in  all  natural  resources  as  compared  with 
other  States,  should  be  content  to  be  their  equal  only  in  the 
means  of  education,  and  in  the  development  of  the  intelligence 
of  her  present  children  and  her  future  citizens,  down,  down 
to  what  a  despicable  depth  of  inferiority  would  she  suddenly 
pluuge  !  Her  ancient  glory  would  become  dim.  No  historian, 
no  orator,  no  poet,  would  rise  up  among  her  children.  Her 
sons  would  cease,  as  now,  to  fill  chairs  in  the  halls  of  learning 
in  more  than  half  the  States  of  the  Union.  Her  jurists  would 
no  longer  expound  the  laws  of  Nature,  of  nations,  and  of 
States,  to  guide  the  judicial  tribunals  of  the  country.  Her 
skilled  artisans  and  master-mechanics  would  not  be  sought  for, 
wherever,  throughout  the  land,  educated  labor  is  wanted.  Her 
ship-captains  would  be  driven  home  from  every  ocean  by  more 
successful  competitors.  At  home,  a  narrowing  in  the  range  of 
thought  and  action,  a  lowering  of  the  tone  of  life  and  enter- 
prise, a  straitening  in  the  means  of  living  and  of  culture,  a 
sinking  in  spirit  and  in  all  laudable  and  generous  ambitions, 
the  rearing  of  sons  to  obscurity  and  of  (laughters  to  vulgarity, 
would  mark  the  incoming  of  a  degenerate  age,  —  an  age  too 
ignorant  to  know  its  own  ignorance,  too  shameless  to  mouru  its 
degradation,  and  too  spiritless  even  to  rise  with  recuperative 
energy  from  its  guilty  fall.  But  little  less  disastrous  would  it 
be  to  stop  where  we  now  are,  instead  of  pressing  onward  with 
invigorated  strength  to  a  further  goal.  What  has  been  done  is 
not  the  fulfilment  or  consummation  of  our  work.  It  only  affords 
better  vantage-ground  from  which  our  successors  can  start 
anew  in  a  nobler  career  of  improvement.  And  ii  there  is  any 


686         ANNUAL  REPORTS  ON  EDUCATION. 

one  thing  for  which  the  friends  of  humanity  have  reason  to  join 
in  a  universal  song  of  thanksgiving  to  Heaven,  it  is  that  there 
is  a  large  and  an  increasing  body  of  people  in  Massachusetts 
who  cannot  be  beguiled  or  persuaded  into  the  belief  that  our 
common  schools  are  what  they  may  and  should  be  ;  and  who, 
with  the  sincerest  good-will  and  warmest  affections  towards  the 
higher  institutions  of  learning,  are  yet  resolved  that  the  educa- 
tion of  the  people  at  large  —  of  the  sous  and  daughters  of  farm- 
ers, mechanics,  tradesmen,  operatives,  and  laborers  of  all 
kinds  —  shall  be  carried  to  a  point  of  perfection  indefinitely 
higher  than  it  has  yet  reached.* 

POLITICAL    EDUCATION. 

The  necessity  of  general  intelligence,  —  that  is,  of  education 
'(for  I  use  the  terms  as  substantially  synonymous,  because  gen- 
eral intelligence  can  never  exist  without  general  education,  and 
general  education  will  be  sure  to  produce  general  intelligence),  — 

*  la  the  letter  of  the  Hon.  Abbott  Lawrence,  making  a  donation  of  fifty  thou- 
sand dollars  for  the  purpose  of  founding  a  scientific  school  at  Cambridge  (to 
which  he  has  since  added  fifty  thousand  dollars  more),  the  following  expression 
occurs:  "Elementary  education  appears  to  be  well  provided  for  in  Massachu- 
setts." And  in  the  Memorial  in  behalf  of  the  three  colleges,  —  Harvard,  Amherst, 
and  Williams,  — presented  to  the  legislature  in  January,  1848,  and  signed  by  each 
of  the  three  presidents  of  those  institutions,  it  is  said,  "  The  provision  [in 
Massachusetts]  for  elementary  education  .  .  .  seems  to  be  all  that  can  be  desired, 
or  that  can  be  advantageously  done  by  the  legislature."  The  average  salaries  of 
female  teachers  throughout  the  State,  at  the  time  when  these  declarations  were 
made,  was  only  $8.55  a  month  (exclusive  of  board),  which,  as  the  average  length 
of  the  schools  was  only  eight  months,  would  give  to  this  most  faithful  and  meri- 
torious class  of  persons  but  $(is.40  a  year.  The  whole  value  of  the  apparatus  in 
all  the  schools  of  the  State  was  but  SS^3,8'2C;  and  the  whole  number  of  volumes 
in  their  libraries  was  only  91,5:J9,  or  an  average  of  but  twenty-five  volumes  for 
each  school.  In  accordance  with  the  prayer  of  the  Memorial,  the  Committee  on 
Education  reported  a  bill,  making  a  grant  of  half  a  million  of  dollars  to  the  colleges. 
The  House  of  Representatives,  after  maturely  considering  the  bill,  changed  the 
destination  of  the  money  from  the  colleges  to  the  common  schools,  and  then 
passed  it.  The  donation  of  Mr.  Lawrence  will  be  lisghly  beneficial  to  the  few 
hundreds  of  students  who  will  have  the  direct  enjoyment  of  his  munificence;  and, 
through  them,  it  will  also  benefit  the  State.  So,  too,  would  the  contemplated  grant 
to  the  colleges.  Thus  far,  it  is  believed,  all  liberal  minds  will  agree.  Hut  what 
is  needed  is  the  universal  prevalence  of  the  further  idea,  that  there  are  two  hun- 
dred thousand  children  in  the  State,  each  one  of  whom  would  be  far  more  than 
proportionally  benefited  by  the  expenditure  for  their  improved  education  of  one- 
tenth  part  of  sums  so  liberal. 


REPORT  FOR   1848.  687 

the  necessity  of  general  intelligence  under  a  republican  form 
of  government,  like  most  other  very  important  truths,  has  become 
a  very  trite  one.  It  is  so  trite,  indeed,  as  to  have  lost  much  of 
its  force  by  its  familiarity.  Almost  all  the  champions  of  educa- 
tion seize  upon  this  argument  first  of  all,  because  it  is  so 
simple  as  to  be  understood  by  the  ignorant,  and  so  strong  as  to 
convince  the  sceptical.  Nothing  would  be  easier  than  to  follow 
in  the  train  of  so  many  writers,  and  to  demonstrate  by  logic, 
by  history,  and  by  the  nature  of  the  case,  that  a  republican 
form  of  government,  without  intelligence  in  the  people,  must 
be,  on  a  vast  scale,  what  a  mad-house,  without  superintendent 
or  keepers,  would  be  on  a  small  one.  —  the  despotism  of  a  few 
succeeded  by  universal  anarchy,  and  anarchy  by  despotism, 
with  no  change  but  from  bad  to  worse.  Want  of  space  and 
time  alike  forbid  me  to  attempt  any  full  development  of  the 
merits  of  this  theme  ;  but  yet,  in  the  closing  one  of  a  series  of 
reports  partaking  somewhat  of  the  nature  of  a  summary  of 
former  arguments,  an  omission  of  this  topic  would  suggest  to 
the  comprehensive  mind  the  idea  of  incompleteness. 

That  the  aifairs  of  a  great  nation  or  state  are  exceedingly 
complicated  and  momentous,  no  one  will  dispute.  Xor  will  it 
be  questioned  that  the  degree  of  intelligence  that  superintends 
should  be  proportioned  to  the  magnitude  of  the  interests  super- 
intended. He  who  scoops  out  a  wooden  dish  needs  less  skill 
than  the  maker  of  a  steam-engine  or  a  telescope.  The  dealer 
in  small  wares  requires  less  knowledge  than  the  merchant  who 
exports  and  imports  to  and  from  all  quarters  of  the  globe.  An 
ambassador  cannot  execute  his  functions  with  the  stock  of 
attainments  or  of  talents  sufficient  for  a  parish  clerk.  Indeed, 
it  is  clear  that  the  want  of  adequate  intelligence  —  of  intelli- 
gence commensurate  with  the  nature  of  the  duties  to  be  per- 
formed—  will  bring  ruin  or  disaster  upon  any  department.  A 
merchant  loses  his  intelligence,  and  he  becomes  a  bankrupt.  A 
lawyer  loses  his  intelligence,  and  he  forfeits  all  the  interests  of 
his  clients.  Intelligence  abandons  a  physician,  and  his  patients 
die  with  more  than  the  pains  of  natural  dissolution.  Should 


688  ANNUAL    REPORTS    ON    EDUCATION. 

judges  upon  the  bench  be  bereft  of  this  guide,  what  havoc  would 
be  made  of  the  property  and  the  innocence  of  men  !  Let  this 
counsellor  be  taken  from  executive  officers,  and  the  penalties  due 
to  the  wicked  would  be  visited  upon  the  righteous,  while  the 
rewards  and  immunities  of  the  righteous  would  be  bestowed 
upon  the  guilty.  And  so,  should  intelligence  desert  the  halls  of 
legislation,  weakness,  rashness,  contradiction,  and  error  would 
glare  out  from  every  page  of  the  statute-book.  Now,  as  a 
republican  government  represents  almost  all  interests,  whether 
social,  civil,  or  military,  the  necessity  of  a  degree  of  intelligence 
adequate  to  the  due  administration  of  them  all  is  so  self-evident, 
that  a  bare  statement  is  the  best  argument. 

But,  in  the  possession  of  this  attribute  of  intelligence,  elective 
legislators  will  never  far  surpass  their  electors.  By  a  natural 
law,  like  that  which  regulates  the  equilibrium  of  fluids,  elector 
and  elected,  appoiuter  and  appointee,  tend  to  the  same  lev-el. 
It  is  not  more  certain  that  a  wise  and  enlightened  constituency 
will  refuse  to  iuvest  a  reckless  and  profligate  man  with  office, 
or  discard  him  if  accidentally  chosen,  than  it  is  that  a  foolish 
or  immoral  constituency  will  discard  or  eject  a  wise  man. 
This  law  of  assimilation  between  the  choosers  and  the  chosen 
results,  not  only  from  the  fact  that  the  voter  originally  selects 
his  representative  according  to  the  affinities  of  good  or  of  ill, 
of  wisdom  or  of  folly,  which  exist  between  them,  but  if  the 
legislator  enacts  or  favors  a  law  which  i?  too  wise  for  the  con- 
stituent to  understand,  or  too  just  for  him  to  approve,  the  next 
election  will  set  him  aside  as  certainly  as  if  he  had  made  open 
merchandise  of  the  dearest  interests  of  the  people  by  perjury 
and  for  a  bribe.  And  if  the  infinitely  Just  and  Good,  in  giving 
laws  to  the  Jews,  recognized  the  "  hardness  of  their  hearts," 
how  much  more  will  an  earthly  ruler  recognize  the  baseness  or 
wickedness  of  the  people  when  his  heart  is  as  hard  as  theirs ! 
In  a  republican  government,  legislators  are  a  mirror  reflecting 
the  moral  countenance  of  their  constituents.  And  hence  it  is, 
that  the  establishment  of  a  republican  government,  without 
well-appointed  and  efficient  means  for  the  universal  education 


REPORT   FOR    1848.  689 

of  the  people,  is  the  most  rash  and  fool-hardy  experiment  ever 
tried  by  man.  Its  fatal  results  may  not  be  immediately  devel- 
oped, they  may  not  follow  as  the  thunder  follows  the  lightning  ; 
for  time  is  an  element  in  maturing  them,  and  the  calamity  is 
too  great  to  be  prepared  in  a  day  :  but,  like  the  slow-accumulat- 
ing avalanche,  they  will  grow  more  terrific  by  delay,  and  at 
length,  though  it  may  be  at  a  late  hour,  will  overwhelm  with 
ruin  whatever  lies  athwart  their  path.  It  may  be  an  easy 
thing  to  make  a  republic ;  but  it  is  a  very  laborious  thing  to 
make  republicans  ;  and  woe  to  the  republic  that  rests  upon 
no  better  foundations  than  ignorance,  selfishness,  and  passion  ! 
Such  a  republic  may  grow  in  numbers  and  in  wealth.  As  an 
avaricious  man  adds  acres  to  his  lands,  so  its  rapacious  govern- 
ment may  increase  its  own  darkness  by  annexing  provinces  and 
states  to  its  ignorant  domain.  Its  armies  may  be  invincible, 
and  its  fleets  may  strike  terror  into  nations  on  the  opposite 
sides  of  the  globe  at  the  same  hour.  Vast  in  its  extent,  and 
enriched  with  all  the  prodigality  of  Nature,  it  may  possess 
every  capacity  and  opportunity  of  being  great  and  of  doing 
good.  But,  if  such  a  republic  be  devoid  of  intelligence,  it  will 
only  the  more  closely  resemble  an  obscene  giant  who  has 
waxed  strong  in  his  youth,  and  grown  wanton  in  his  strength  ; 
whose  brain  has  been  developed  only  in  the  region  of  the  appe- 
tites and  passions,  and  not  in  the  organs  of  reason  and  con- 
science ;  and  who,  therefore,  is  boastful  of  his  bulk  alone,  and 
glories  in  the  weight  of  his  heel,  and  in  the  destruction  of  his 
arm.  Such  a  republic,  with  all  its  noble  capacities  for  benefi- 
cence, will  rush  with  the  speed  of  a  whirlwind  to  an  ignomini- 
ous end  ;  and  all  good  men  of  after-times  would  be  fain  to 
weep  over  its  downfall,  did  not  their  scorn  and  contempt  at 
its  folly  and  its  wickedness  repress  all  sorrow  for  its  fate. 

As  the  merits  of  this  subject  cannot  even  be  sketched  on  the 
present  occasion,  I  will  confine  myself  to  a  single  illustration, 
showing  how  an  unenlightened  people  will  permit,  and  some- 
times will  even  require,  that  their  government  should  injure 
their  own  interests. 

44 


690        ANNUAL  REPORTS  ON  EDUCATION. 

A  universal  function  of  government  —  one  that  has  per- 
tained to  every  government  that  has  ever  existed,  and  doubtless 
will  continue  to  do  so  while  the  world  stands  —  is  the  collec- 
tion of  revenues.  The  government  must  be  maintained  ;  but  it 
has  no  power  of  earning  or  of  creating  wealth  to  defray  its  own 
expenses.  It  must  therefore  be  supported  by  revenues  derived 
from  the  people. 

In  absolute  despotisms,  arbitrary  exactions  are  made  upon 
all  the  possessors  of  wealth,  or  upon  all  but  a  few  excepted  fa- 
vorites. Where  a  pretence  for  such  exactions  is  wanted,  acts 
which  are  not  crimes  are  declared  to  be  criminal,  so  that  the 
ruler  may  claim  a  forfeiture,  or  penalty,  for  the  performance  of 
deeds,  which,  before  any  tribunal  of  conscience  or  of  justice, 
would  be  held  innocent.  Ex  post  facto  laws  are  made  ;  that  is, 
laws  which  act  backwards,  and  subject  an  act  to  punishment 
after  the  law,  which  was  not  punishable  at  the  time  it  was 
done,  —  which  might  have  been,  indeed,  not  only  guiltless,  but 
laudable  at  the  time  of  its  performance. 

Now,  it  must  be  obvious  that  such  methods  of  raising  revenue 
must  have  an  almost  annihilating  effect  upon  the  production  of 
wealth ;  for  no  man  will  earn  money  beyond  his  immediate  ne- 
cessities, when  the  very  fact  of  his  acquisition  only  exposed 
him  to  pillage.  When  the  richest  men  are  worst  plundered, 
poverty  becomes  the  privilege.  Intelligence,  though  it  had  been 
that  of  the  Prince  of  Darkness,  would  have  saved  nations  from 
this  cause  of  poverty. 

Governments  less  arbitrary  have  resorted  to  expedients  for 
self-support  scarcely  less  baneful  to  the  general  welfare. 
Among  these  are  monopolies,  —  such  as  that,  for  instance, 
by  which  the  Pacha  of  Egypt  required  all  the  cotton  grown  by 
his  subjects  to  be  sold  to  him  at  his  own  price,  that  he  might 
resell  it  at  an  advanced  one  ;  or  that  by  which  the  French  king 
exercised  the  privilege  of  selling  all  the  tobacco  consumed  in 
his  kingdom,  and  then  sold  out  the  privilege  to  sell,  at  an  enor- 
mous price.  Some  governments  have  derived  a  revenue  from 
the  sale  of  offices,  even  those  which  demand,  for  the  fit  dis- 


REPORT   FOR    1848.  691 

charge  of  their  duties,  the  highest  talents  and  the  purest  integ- 
rity,—  such  as  the  judicial ;  and  so  have  cared  every  thing 
for  the  amount  of  the  bribe,  and  nothing  for  the  fitness  of  the 
incumbent.  In  all  such  cases,  the  most  vital  and  enduring  in- 
terests of  the  community  have  been  sacrificed  to  the  incidental 
benefit  of  revenue,  —  a  policy  vastly  more  ruinous  than  that 
of  the  incendiary  who  burns  a  house  that  he  may  steal  a  shil- 
ling. 

Even  the  freest  and  most  enlightened  governments  have  been 
guilty  of  similar  improvidences  and  follies.  The  raising  of  reve- 
nue from  licensed  lotteries  furnishes  a  signal  illustration.  For 
every  unit  of  gain  to  the  public  treasury,  by  the  levy  of  a  tax 
on  the  sale  of  lottery-tickets,  hundreds  of  loss  are  subtracted 
from  the  public  wealth.  For  it  is  obvious,  in  the  first  place, 
that  lotteries  create  no  wealth.  They  add  nothing  to  the  aggre- 
gate of  silver  and  gold  belonging  to  a  community,  any  more 
than  they  add  to  the  number  of  its  houses  or  the  extent  of  its 
lauds.  They  can  do  nothing  more  than  to  transfer  one  man's 
money  to  another  man's  pocket.  Then  they  occupy  the  time  of- 
many  individuals,  who  otherwise  might  be  usefully  employed 
in  the  creation  or  augmentation  of  the  public  wealth.  Besides 
this,  the  expenses  actually  incurred  by  agencies,  brokerage,  ad- 
vertisements, apparatus,  and  so  forth,  is  not  inconsiderable.  It 
is  also  true,  that  the  poorest  class  of  people  are  usually  the  pur- 
chasers of  lottery-tickets,  —  on  the  same  principle  that  a  man 
must  first  be  drowning  before  he  will  catch  at  a  straw,  —  and 
generally  with  the  same  result.  Thus  all  the  evils  of  poverty 
are  aggravated  by  the  loss  of  a  part  of  its  pittance.  Then 
adventuring  in  this  traffic  substitutes  hopes  of  gain,  founded  on 
chance,  for  the  certainties  of  regular  industry.  The  services  of 
a  laborer  or  an  apprentice,  of  a  journeyman  mechanic  or  a  clerk, 
with  an  undrawn  lottery-ticket  in  his  pocket,  are  hardly  worth 
half-price  ;  for  how  can  any  one  work  for  a  few  shillings  a  day, 
while  hope  is  jingling  a  bag  of  gold  in  his  ears  to  be  had  for 
nothing?  But,  while  the  earnings  of  a  ticket-holder  are  less, 
his  expenditures  are  greater ;  for  why  should  not  a  man  who  is 


602  ANNUAL   REPORTS    ON   EDUCATION. 

so  soon  to  be  rich  anticipate  a  little  the  receipt  of  his  fortune? 
It  is  on  the  same  principle  which  leads  a  profligate  heir  to 
bind  himself  by  post-obits.  Is  it  said  that  none  but  a  weak- 
minded  man  will  be  so  confident  of  success  as  to  be  less  indus- 
trious or  less  frugal  after  the  purchase  of  a  ticket  than  before, 
the  answer  is,  that  the  fact  of  the  purchase  proves  the  weak- 
mindedness.  A  tempter  of  fortune  may  limit  himself  either  to 
one  or  to  any  prescribed  number  of  trials,  and  resolve,  that,  if 
unsuccessful,  he  will  abide  by  the  decisions  of  his  luck,  and 
never  venture  again  ;  but  such  a  man  does  not  reflect  that  he 
will  come  out  of  the  experiment  a  different  man  from  what  he 
was  when  he  went  into  it.  The  state  of  his  mind  will  be  al- 
tered more  than  that  of  his  purse ;  and  he  has  no  second  uncor- 
rupted  will  whose  energies  he  can  now  use  to  restrain  the  back- 
sliding of  the  first.  But  suppose  a  man  to  meet  with  the  mis- 
fortune of  being  what  he  calls  fortunate  ;  suppose  him  to  draw 
a  prize  of  fifty  thousand  dollars  ;  and  thus,  without  any  valid 
consideration,  or  any  moral  right,  to  pick  the  pockets  of  five 
thousand  persons  of  ten  dollars  each  (and  this,  too,  without 
the  dexterity  or  sleight  of  hand  of  a  common  pickpocket),  —  yet 
it  is  proved  by  data  derived  from  the  widest  observation,  that 
the  chances  are  fifty  to  one,  that,  while  his  unjust  gains  will 
only  injure  the  losers,  they  will  ruin  himself.  Take  all  these 
evils  into  consideration,  and  take  into  consideration,  also,  what 
is  far  more  important  than  all  these  evils  united,  the  imposi- 
tions and  the  frauds  which  accompany  the  whole  operation,  and 
which  often  bear  as  great  a  proportion  to  the  fair  dealing  as 
the  blanks  bear  to  the  prizes,  —  take  all  these  pecuniary, 
social,  and  moral  mischiefs  into  account,  and  how  is  it  possible 
for  any  intelligent  legislator,  for  the  sake  of  a  little  incidental 
revenue,  ever  to  legalize  an  institution  which  destroys  wealth 
by  wholesale,  and  cankers  the  morals  of  entire  classes  of 
the  people? 

And  yet,  until  within  a  few  years,  there  was  not  a  State  in 
this  whole  Union  whose  legislature  did  not  stand  so  low,  not 
only  in  the  scale  of  morals,  but  of  political  economy,  as  to 


REPORT   FOR   1848.  693 

authorize  lotteries.  Sometimes  they  were  granted  for  a  paltry 
revenue  to  be  paid  into  the  treasury ;  sometimes  to  aid  in  the 
erection  of  public  works,  —  to  build  a  bridge,  a  canal,  or  a 
church.*  Just  in  proportion  as  intelligence  has  advanced,  pe- 
titions for  lotteries  have  been  refused,  and  the  sale  of  lottery- 
tickets  interdicted  by  law  ;  until  now  they  are  driven  almost 
exclusively  into  the  Southern  and  South-western  States.  There 
they  await  the  dawning  of  that  general  enlightenment  which 
common  schools  could  so  rapidly  give,  to  be  banished  from  the 
country  forever. 

On  the  clearest  principles  of  morality  and  political  economy, 
the  licensing  of  houses  for  the  sale  of  intoxicating  drinks,  of 
gaming-houses,  and  houses  of  ill-fame,  for  the  ignominious  pur- 
pose of  raising  a  revenue  out  of  the  misery  and  licentiousness 
of  men,  stands  even  on  a  more  unsound  and  criminal  footing 
than  legalizing  the  pest  of  lotteries.  Yet  all  this  is  done,  even 
at  the  present  day,  by  legislators  \vho  would  think  it  an  indig- 
nity if  they  were  denied  an  exalted  place  on  the  roll  of  enlight- 
ened, patriotic,  and  Christian  men.  Great  Britain,  for  a  series 
of  years,  has  derived  more  than  one-fourth  part  of  all  her  enor- 
mous revenue  from  the  various  manufactures  of  malt,  and  sale 
of  spirituous  liquors,  though  every  pound  which  has  gone  into 
the  treasury  from  this  source  represented  some  stage  in  the  ter- 
rible process  by  which  sanity  was  turned  iuto  madness,  or  a 
well  man  iuto  a  sick  beast.  France,  and  even  some  parts  of  our 
own  country,  have  exhibited  hateful  specimens  of  the  other 
kinds  of  these  incarnations  of  evil,  —  these  devouring  monsters, 
who  have  been  permitted,  for  a  fee,  by  the  governments  which 
should  have  protected  their  people,  to  stalk  through  society,  and 
to  iuflict  upon  all  its  interests  —  body,  soul,  and  estate  —  direr 
calamities  than  death  itself. 

The  multiplication  of  oaths  is  another  signal  illustration  of 
the  fact,  how  prone  incompetent  legislators  ever  are  to  sacrifice 
the  greater  interest  to  the  less,  the  spiritual  to  the  outward,  the 

*  When  a  church  is  built  by  a  lottery,  can  there  be  any  doubt  which  has  the 
best  side  of  the  bargain,  the  Evil  Spirit,  or  the  Good? 


694  ANNUAL   REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

enduring  to  the  temporary.  Adherence  to  truth  is  so  neces- 
sary among  men,  that  even  the  lowest  instincts  of  self-inter- 
est will  visit  the  falsifier  with  retribution,  though  honor  and 
conscience  should  not.  But  the  utterance  of  truth,  very  gene- 
rally speaking,  is  considered  more  in  the  light  of  an  obligation 
between  man  and  man  than  as  a  due  to  Heaven  ;  and  there  are 
many  who  would  not  hesitate  to  tell  a  falsehood,  who  would 
tremble  at  the  commission  of  gerjury.  But  governments,  for 
some  collateral  and  incidental  benefit,  —  most  generally  for  the 
purpose  of  securing  themselves  against  fraud  in  the  collection 
of  revenues,  —  impose  an  oath  upon  men,  not  merely  where 
the  oath  -  taker  is  adversely  interested,  but  where,  from  the 
nature  of  the  case,  he  cannot  certainly  determine  the  truth  of 
the  statement  to  which  he  deposes.  This  leads  to  moral  laxity, 
and  relaxes  laxity  itself.  Hence,  in  mercantile  communities, 
there  has  arisen  a  class  of  oaths  called  *'  custom-house  oaths," 
—  an  appellation  which  indicates  that  men  swear,  if  not  to  what 
they  know  to  be  untrue,  yet,  at  least,  to  what  they  do  not  know 
to  be  true.  Often  the  oath  is  administered  to  persons  who  are 
under  the  strongest  temptations  to  perjury,  and  where,  too,  the 
danger  of  detection  is  small.  This  is  PERJURY  MADE  EASY  ; 
for  the  step  is  a  short  one  between  swearing  to  a  thing  as  true, 
with  only  a  general  inference  or  supposition  that  it  is  so,  and 
^wearing  to  a  known  untruth. 

Now,  can  any  money  compensate  government  for  contami- 
nating public  morals?  Or  in  a  republic,  which  is  a  government 
of  the  people  by  the  people,  can  they  afford  to  barter  their  own 
integrity,  in  order  to  get  a  little  of  their  own  money,  out  of 
their  own  pockets,  into  their  own  public  treasury,  whence  it  is 
so  soon  to  flow  back  into  their  own  pockets  again?  Every 
legislator  should  be  a  political  economist,  and  every  voter  should 
know  at  least  the  leading  elements  of  political  economy,  and 
be  able  to  understand  their  application  to  the  affairs  of  life  ; 
but,  surely,  that  political  economy  is  a  delusion  and  a  cheat 
which  does  not  hold  the  morals  of  the  community  as  the  primal 
element  in  its  prosperity  ;  and  the  prayer,  u  Lead  us  not  into 


REPORT   FOR   1848.  695 

temptation,"  is  one  which  may  be  as  appropriately  addressed 
by  a  people  to  its  rulers  as  by  a  frail  and  fallible  mortal  to  his 
Maker. 

I  have  now  given  a  hasty  review  of  a  single  class  of  errors 
—  those  pertaining  to  the  collection  of  revenue  —  into  which 
governments  have  fallen  thiough  a  want  of  intelligence; 
through  a  want  of  such  intelligence,  it  may  be  added,  as  any 
discreet  and  reflecting  man  would  exercise  in  the  management 
of  his  own  affairs.  And  when  will  rulers  be  wiser  than  they 
have  been  ?  Never,  until  the  people,  to  whom  they  are  respon- 
sible, shall  permit  it  and  demand  it.  Never  will  wisdom  pre- 
side in  the  halls  of  legislation,  and  its  profound  utterances  be 
recorded  on  the  pages  of  the  statute-book,  until  common 
schools  —  or  some  other  agency  of  equal  power  not  yet  dis- 
covered —  shall  create  a  more  far-seeing  intelligence,  and  a 
purer  morality,  than  has  ever  yet  existed  among  communities 
of  men.  Legislators,  in  the  execution  of  their  high  guardian- 
ship over  public  interests,  will  never  secure  to  the  State  even 
the  greatest  amount  of  wealth  while  they  seek  to  obtain  it  at 
the  price  of  morality.  It  is  only  when  the  virtue  of  the  people 
is  supremely  cared  for,  that  they  will  discover  the  comprehen- 
sive meaning  of  the  Scripture,  that  godliness  is  profitable  unto 
all  things. 

However  elevated  the  moral  character  of  a  constituency  may 
be,  however  well  informed  in  matters  of  general  science  or 
history,  yet  they  must,  if  citizens  of  a  republic,  understand 
something  of  the  true  nature  and  functions  of  the  government 
under  which  they  live.  That  any  one,  who  is  to  participate  in 
the  government  of  a  country  when  he  becomes  a  man,  should 
receive  no  instruction  respecting  the  nature  and  functions  of  the 
government  he  is  afterwai'ds  to  administer,  is  a  political  sole- 
cism. In  all  nations,  hardly  excepting  the  most  rude  and 
barbarous,  the  future  sovereign  receives  some  training  which  is 
supposed  to  fit  him  for  the  exercise  of  the  powers  and  duties  of 
his  anticipated  station.  Where,  by  force  of  law,  the  govern- 
ment devolves  upon  the  heir  while  yet  in  a  state  of  legal 


696  ANNUAL   REPORTS    ON   EDUCATION. 

infancy,  some  regency,  or  other  substitute,  is  appointed  to  act 
in  his  stead  until  his  arrival  at  mature  age  ;  and,  in  the  mean 
time,  he  is  subjected  to  such  a  course  of  study  and  discipline 
as  will  tend  to  prepare  him,  according  to  the  political  theory  of 
the  time  and  the  place,  to  assume  the  reins  of  authority  at  the 
appointed  age.  If  in  England,  or  in  the  most  enlightened 
European  monarchies,  it  would  be  a  proof  of  restored  barba- 
rism to  permit  the  future  sovereign  to  grow  up  without  any 
knowledge  of  his  duties,  —  and  who  can  doubt  that  it  would  be 
such  a  proof?  —  then,  surely,  it  would  be  not  less  a  proof  of 
restored  or  of  never-removed  barbarism  amongst  us  to  em- 
power any  individual  to  use  the  elective  franchise  without 
preparing  him  for  so  momentous  a  trust.  Hence  the  Constitu- 
tion of  the  United  States,  and  of  our  own  State,  should  be 
made  a  study  in  our  public  schools.  The  partition  of  the 
powers  of  government  into  the  three  co-ordinate  branches,  — 
legislative,  judicial,  and  executive,  —  with  the  duties  appropri- 
ately devolving  upon  each  ;  the  mode  of  electing  or  of  appoint- 
ing all  officers,  with  the  reasons  on  which  it  was  founded  ;  and, 
especially,  the  duty  of  every  citizen,  in  a  government  of  laws, 
to  appeal  to  the  courts  for  redress  in  all  cases  of  alleged  wrong, 
instead  of  undertaking  to  vindicate  his  own  rights  by  his  own 
arm  ;  and,  in  a  government  where  the  people  are  the  acknowl- 
edged sources  of  power,  the  duty  of  changing  laws  and  rulers 
by  an  appeal  to  the  ballot,  and  not  by  rebellion,  —  should  be 
taught  to  all  the  children  until  they  are  fully  understood. 

Had  the  obligations  of  the  future  citizen  been  sedulously 
inculcated  upon  all  the  children  of  this  Republic,  would  the 
patriot  have  had  to  mourn  over  so  many  instances  where  the 
voter,  not  being  able  to  accomplish  his  purpose  by  voting,  has 
proceeded  to  accomplish  it  by  violence  ;  where,  agreeing  witli 
his  fellow-citizens  to  use  the  machinery  of  the  ballot,  he  makes 
a  tacit  reservation,  that,  if  that  machinery  does  not  move 
according  to  his  pleasure,  he  will  wrest  or  break  it  ?  If  the 
responsibleness  and  value  of  the  elective  franchise  were  duly 
appreciated,  the  day  of  our  state  and  national  elections  would 


REPORT   FOR    1848.  697 

be  among  the  most  solemn  and  religious  days  in  the  calendar. 
Men  Avould  approach  them,  not  only  with  preparation  and 
solicitude,  but  with  the  sobriety  and  solemnity  with  which  dis-. 
creet  and  religious-minded  men  meet  the  great  crises  of  life. 
No  man  would  throw  away  his  vote  through  caprice  or 
wantonness,  any  more  than  he  would  throw  away  his  estate, 
or  sell  his  family  into  bondage.  No  man  would  cast  his  vote 
through  malice  or  revenge,  any  more  than  a  good  surgeon 
would  amputate  a  limb,  or  a  good  navigator  sail  through 
perilous  straits,  under  the  same  criminal  passions. 

But  perhaps  it  will  be  objected,  that  the  Constitution  is 
subject  to  different  readings,  or  that  the  policy  of  different 
administrations  has  become  the  subject  of  party  strife ;  and, 
therefore,  if  any  thing  of  constitutional  or  political  law  is  in- 
troduced into  our  schools,  there  is  danger  that  teachers  will  be 
chosen  on  account  of  their  affinities  to  this  or  that  political 
party,  or  that  teachers  will  feign  affinities  which  they  do  not 
feel  in  order  that  they  may  be  chosen  ;  and  so  each  school- 
room will  at  length  become  a  miniature  political  club-room, 
exploding  with  political  resolves,  or  flaming  out  with  political 
addresses,  prepared  by  beardless  boys  in  scarcely  legible 
hand-writing  and  in  worse  grammar. 

With  the  most  limited  exercise  of  discretion,  all  apprehen- 
sions of  this  kind  are  wholly  groundless.  There  are  different 
readings  of  the  Constitution,  it  is  true  ;  and  there  are  partisan 
topics  which  agitate  the  country  from  side  to  side :  but  the 
controverted  points,  compared  with  those  about  which  there  is 
no  dispute,  do  not  bear  the  proportion  of  one  to  a  hundred. 
And,  what  is  more,  no  man  is  qualified,  or  can  be  qualified,  to 
discuss  the  disputable  questions,  unless  previously  and  thorough- 
ly versed  in  those  questions  about  which  there  is  no  dispute.  In 
the  terms  and  principles  common  to  all,  and  recognized  by  all, 
is  to  be  found  the  only  common  medium  of  language  and  of 
idea  by  which  the  parties  can  become  intelligible  to  each  other ; 
and  there,  too,  is  the  only  common  ground  whence  the  argu- 
ments of  the  disputants  can  be  drawn. 


698  ANNUAL    REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

It  is  obvious,  on  the  other  hand,  that,  if  the  tempest  of  politi- 
cal strife  were  to  be  let  loose  upon  our  common  schools,  they 
would  be  overwhelmed  with  sudden  ruin.  Let  it  be  once 
understood  that  the  schoolroom  is  a  legitimate  theatre  for 
party  politics,  and  with  what  violence  will  hostile  partisans 
struggle  to  gain  possession  of  the  stage,  and  to  play  their  partsl 
upon  it  !  Nor  will  the  stage  be  the  only  scene  of  gladiatorial! 
contests.  These  will  rage  in  all  the  avenues  that  lead  to  it.  A 
preliminary  advantage,  indispensable  to  ultimate  success,  will 
be  the  appointment  of  a  teacher  of  the  true  faith.  As  the  great 
majority  of  the  schools  in  the  State  are  now  organized,  this  can 
be  done  only  by  electing  a  prudential  committee,  who  will  make 
what  he  calls  political  soundness  paramount  to  all  other  con- 
siderations of  fitness.  Thus,  after  petty  skirmishings  among 
neighbors,  the  fierce  encounter  will  begin  in  the  district's  pri- 
mary assembly,  —  in  the  schoolroom  itself.  This  contest 
being  over,  the  election  of  the  superintending  or  town's  com- 
mittee must  be  determined  in  the  same  way  ;  and  this  will 
bring  together  the  combustibles  of  each  district,  to  burn  with 
an  iutenser  and  a  more  devouring  flame  in  the  town-meeting. 
It  is  very  possible,  nay,  not  at  all  improbable,  that  the  town 
may  be  of  one  political  complexion,  while  a  majority  of  the 
districts  are  of  the  opposite.  Who  shall  moderate  the  fury  of 
these  conflicting  elements  when  they  rage  against  each  other? 
and  who  shall  save  the  dearest  interests  of  the  children  from 
being  consumed  in  the  fierce  combustion?  If  parents  find  that 
their  children  are  indoctrinated  into  what  they  call  political 
heresies,  will  they  not  withdraw  them  from  the  school?  and, 
if  they  withdraw  them  from  the  school,  will  they  not  resist  all 
appropriations  to  support  a  school  from  which  they  derive  no 
benefit? 

But,  could  the  schools  themselves  survive  these  dangers  for 
a  single  year,  it  would  be  only  to  encounter  others  still  more 
perilous.  Why  should  not  the  same  infection  that  poisons  all 
the  relations  of  the  schoolroom  spread  itself  abroad,  and  min- 
gle with  all  questions  of  external  organization  and  arrange- 


REPORT   FOR    1848.  C99 

ment?  Why  should  not  political  hostility  cause  the  dismem- 
berment of  districts  already  too  small?  or,  what  would  work 
equal  injury,  prevent  the  union  of  districts  whose  po\ver  of 
usefulness  would  be  doubled  by  a  combination  of  their  re- 
sources ?  What  better  could  be  expected  than  that  one  set  of 
school-books  should  be  expelled,  and  another  introduced,  as 
they  might  be  supposed,  however  remotely,  to  favor  one  party 
or  the  other,  or  as  the  authors  of  the  books  might  belong  to 
one  party  or  the  other?  And  who  could  rely  upon  the  reports, 
or  even  the  statistics,  of  a  committee  chosen  by  partisan  votes, 
goaded  on  by  partisan  impulses,  and  responsible  to  partisan 
domination,  and  this,  too,  without  any  opportunity  of  control  or 
check  from  the  minority?  Nay,  if  the  schools  could  survive 
long  enough  to  meet  the  crisis,  why  should  not  any  and  every 
measure  be  taken,  either  to  maintain  an  existing  political  ascen- 
dency, or  to  recover  a  lost  one,  in  a  school-district,  or  in  a  town, 
which  has  even  been  taken  by  unscrupulous  politicians  to 
maintain  or  to  recover  an  ascendency  at  the  polls  ?  Into  a 
district,  or  into  a  town,  voters  may  be  introduced  from  abroad 
to  turn  the  scale.  An  employer  may  dismiss  the  employed  for 
their  refusal  to  submit  to  his  dictation,  or  make  the  bread  that 
is  given  to  the  poor  man's  children  perform  the  double  office  of 
payment  for  labor  to  be  performed,  and  of  a  bribe  for  principle 
to  be  surrendered.  And  beyond  all  this,  if  the  imagination 
can  conceive  anything  more  deplorable  than  this,  what  kind  of 
political  doctrines  would  be  administered  to  the  children  amid 
the  vicissitudes  of  party  domination,  —  their  alternations  of 
triumph  and  defeat  ?  This  year,  under  the  ascendency  of  one 
side,  the  Constitution  declares  one  thing ;  and  commentaries, 
glosses,  and  the  authority  of  distinguished  names,  all  ratify  and 
confirm  its  decisions.  But  Victory  is  a  fickle  goddess.  Xext 
year,  the  vanquished  triumph  ;  and  Constitution,  gloss,  and  au- 
thority make  that  sound  doctrine  which  was  pestilent  error 
before,  and  that  false  which  was  true.  Right  and  wrong  have 
changed  sides.  The  children  must  now  join  in  chorus  to  de- 
nounce what  they  had  been  taught  to  reverence  before,  and  to 


700  ANNUAL   REPORTS    ON   EDUCATION. 

reverence  what  they  had  been  taught  to  denounce.  In  the  mean 
time,  those  great  principles,  which,  according  to  Cicero,  are  the 
same  at  Rome  and  at  Athens,  the  same  now  and  forever,  and 
which,  according  to  Hooker,  have  their  seat  in  the  bosom  of 
God,  become  the  fittest  emblems  of  chance  and  change. 

Long,  however,  before  this  series  of  calamities  would  exhaust 
itself  upon  our  schools,  these  schools  themselves  would  cease  to 
be.  The  ploughshare  would  have  turned  up  their  foundations. 
Their  history  would  have  been  brought  to  a  close,  —  a  glorious 
and  ascending  history,  until  struck  down  by  the  hand  of  politi- 
cal parricide  ;  then  suddenly  falling  with  a  double  ruin,  —  with 
death  and  with  ignominy. 

But,  to  avoid  such  a  catastrophe,  shall  all  teaching  relative 
to  the  nature  of  our  government  be  banished  from  our  schools  ? 
and  shall  our  children  be  permitted  to  grow  up  in  entire  igno- 
rance of  the  political  history  of  their  country?  In  the  schools 
of  a  republic,  shall  the  children  be  left  without  any  distinct 
knowledge  of  the  nature  of  a  republican  government,  or  only 
with  such  knowledge  as  they  may  pick  up  from  angry  political 
discussions,  or  from  party  newspapers,  from  caucus  speeches, 
or  Fourth-of-July  orations,  —  the  Apocrypha  of  Apocrypha? 

Surely,  between  these  extremes,  there  must  be  a  medium  not 
difficult  to  be  found.  And  is  not  this  the  middle  course,  which 
all  sensible  and  judicious  men,  all  patriots,  and  all  genuine 
republicans,  must  approve?  —  namely,  that  those  articles  in  the 
creed  of  republicanism  which  are  accepted  by  all,  believed  in 
by  all,  and  which  form  the  common  basis  of  our  political  faith, 
shall  be  taught  to  all.  But  when  the  teacher,  in  the  course  of 
his  lessons  or  lectures  on  the  fundamental  law,  arrives  at  a 
controverted  text,  he  is  either  to  read  it  without  comment  or 
remark ;  or,  at  most,  he  is  only  to  say  that  the  passage  is  the 
subject  of  disputation,  and  that  the  schoolroom  is  neither  the 
tribunal  to  adjudicate,  nor  the  forum  to  discuss  it. 

Such  being  the  rule  established  by  common  consent,  and  such 
the  practice  observed  with  fidelity  under  it,  it  will  come  to  be 
universally  understood  that  political  proselytism  is  no  function 


REPORT   FOR    1848.  701 

of  the  school,  but  that  indoctrination  into  matters  of  contro- 
versy between  hostile  political  parties  is  to  be  elsewhere  sought 
for,  and  elsewhere  imparted.  Thus  may  all  the  children  of  the 
Commonwealth  receive  instruction  in  all  the  great  essentials  of 
political  knowledge,  —  in  those  elementary  ideas  without  which 
they  will  never  be  able  to  investigate  more  recondite  and  debata- 
ble questions  ;  thus  will  the  only  practicable  method  be  adopted 
tor  discovering  new  truths,  and  for  discarding,  instead  of  per- 
petuating, old  errors  ;  and  thus,  too,  will  that  peruicious  race 
of  intolerant  zealots,  whose  whole  faith  may  be  summed  up  in 
two  articles,  —  that  they  themselves  are  always  infallibly  right, 
and  that  all  dissenters  are  certainly  wrong,  — be  extinguished, 
—  extinguished,  not  by  violence,  nor  by  proscription,  but  by 
the  more  copious  inflowing  of  the  light  of  truth. 

MORAL    EDUCATION. 

Moral  education  is  a  primal  necessity  of  social  existence.  The 
unrestrained  passions  of  men  are  not  only  homicidal,  but  suici- 
dal ;  and  a  community  without  a  conscience  would  soon  extin- 
guish itself.  Even  with  a  natural  conscience,  how  often  has 
evil  triumphed  over  good  !  From  the  beginning  of  time,  wrong 
has  followed  right,  as  the  shadow  the  substance.  As  the  rela- 
tions of  men  became  more  complex,  and  the  business  of  the 
world  more  extended,  new  opportunities  and  new  temptations  for 
wrong-doing  have  been  created.  With  the  endearing  relations 
of  parent  and  child  came  also  the  possibility  of  infanticide  and 
parricide  ;  and  the  first  domestic  altar  that  brothers  ever  reared 
was  stained  with  fratricidal  blood.  Following  close  upon  the 
obligations  to  truth  came  falsehood  and  perjury,  and  closer  still 
upon  the  duty  of  obedience  to  the  divine  law  came  disobedi- 
ence. With  the  existence  of  private  relations  between  men 
came  fraud  ;  and  with  the  existence  of  public  relations  between 
nations  came  aggression,  war,  and  slavery.  And  so,  just  in 
proportion  as  the  relations  of  life  became  more  numerous,  and 
the  interests  of  society  more  various  and  manifold,  the  range  of 


702  ANNUAL   REPORTS   ON    EDUCATION. 

possible  and  of  actual  offences  has  been  continually  enlarging. 
As  for  every  new  substance  there  may  be  a  new  shadow,  so 
for  every  new  law  there  may  be  a  new  transgression.  No  form 
of  the  precious  metals  has  ever  been  used  which  dishonest,  men 
have  not  counterfeited,  and  no  kind  of  artificial  currency  has 
ever  been  legalized  which  rogues  have  not  forged.  The  gov- 
ernment sees  the  evils  that  come  from  the  use  of  intoxicating 
drinks,  and  prohibits  their  sale  ;  but  unprincipled  men  pander 
to  depraved  appetites,  and  gather  a  harvest  of  dishonest  profits. 
Instead  of  licensing  lotteries,  and  deriving  a  revenue  from  the 
sale  of  tickets,  the  State  forbids  the  mischievous  traffic  ;  but, 
while  law-abiding  men  disdain  to  practise  an  illicit  trade, 
knavish  brokers,  by  means  of  the  prohibition  itself,  secure  a 
monopoly  of  the  sales,  and  pocket  the  infamous  gain.  The 
government  imposes  duties  on  imported  goods  :  smugglers  evade 
the  law,  and  bring  goods  into  the  market  clandestinely  ;  or  per- 
jurers swear  to  false  invoices,  and  escape  the  payment  of  duty, 
and  thus  secure  to  themselves  the  double  advantage  of  in- 
creased sales,  and  enhanced  profits  upon  what  is  sold.  Science 
prepares  a  new  medicine  to  heal  or  alleviate  the  diseases  of 
men  ;  crime  adulterates  it,  or  prepares  as  a  substitute  some 
cheap  poison  that  resembles  it,  and  can  be  sold  instead  of  it. 
A  benefactor  of  the  race  discovers  an  agent  which  has  the  mar- 
vellous power  to  suspend  consciousness,  and  take  away  the 
susceptibility  of  pain  ;  a  villain  uses  it  to  rob  men  or  pollute 
women.  Houses  are  built ;  the  incendiary  burns  them,  that  he 
may  purloin  the  smallest  portion  of  their  goods.  The  press  is 
invented  to  spread  intelligence  ;  but  libellers  use  it  to  give  wings 
to  slander.  And  so,  throughout  the  infinitely  complex  and 
ramified  relations  of  society,  wherever  there  is  a  right,  there 
may  be  a  wrong ;  and  wherever  a  law  ie  made  to  repress  the 
wrong,  it  may  be  evaded  by  artifice  or  overborne  by  violence. 
In  fine,  all  means  and  laws  designed  to  repress  injustice  and 
crime  give  occasion  to  new  injustice  and  crime.  For  every 
lock  that  is  made,  a  false  key  is  made  to  pick  it ;  aud,  for  every 
Paradise  that  is  created,  there  is  a  Satan  who  would  scale  its 
walls. 


REPORT   FOR    1848.  703 

Nor  does  this  view  of  the  subject  exhibit  the  scope  and  mul- 
titude of  the  transgressions  that  may  be  committed.  To  rep- 
resent the  range  and  compass  of  possible  violations,  every  law 
that  exists  must  be  multiplied  by  a  high  power.  When  the 
whole  family  of  mankind  consisted  of  but  two  persons,  there 
could  be  only  two  offenders.  But  now,  when  the  race  has  in- 
creased to  millions  and  hundreds  of  millions,  the  laws  may  be 
broken  by  millions  and  hundreds  of  millions,  —  au  increased 
number  of  transgressors  of  an  increased  number  of  laws.  The 
multitude,  then,  of  possible  violations  of  law,  is  terrific  to  the 
imagination :  even  the  actual  violations  are  sufficient  to  make 
our  best  civilization  look  but  little  better  (linn  barbarism. 

But  the  above  outline,  whose  vast  circumference  may  be 
filled  up  by  the  commission  of  crimes  against  positive  law,  em- 
braces not  a  tithe  of  possible  transgressions.  Every  law  in  the 
statute-book  might  be  obeyed,  so  as  to  leave  no  penalty  to  be 
awarded  by  the  courts,  or  inflicted  by  executive  officers,  and 
yet  myriads  of  private  vices,  too  subtle  and  intangible  for  legis- 
lative enactments,  and  too  undefinable  to  be  dealt  with  by  the 
tribunals  of  justice,  might  still  imbitter  all  domestic  and  social 
relations,  and  leave  nothing  in  life  worth  living  for.  Were  the 
greater  plagues  of  public  crime  and  open  violence  to  be  stayed, 
still  the  lesser  ones  might  remain ;  like  the  plagues  of  Egypt. 
they  might  invade  every  house,  penetrate  to  every  chamber, 
corrupt  the  water  in  the  fountains  and  the  bread  in  the  knead- 
ing-troughs,  and  turn  the  dust  into  loathsome  life,  so  that  the 
plague  of  hail  and  the  plague  of  darkness  might  seem  to  be 
blessings  in  the  comparison.  In  offences  against  what  are  usu- 
ally called  the  "  minor  morals,"  —  against  propriety,  against 
decency,  against  the  domestic  relations,  and  against  good  neigh- 
borhood, as  they  are  illustrated  and  enjoined  by  the  example 
of  Christ,  the  precepts  of  the  gospel,  and  the  perfect  law  of 
love,  —  here  is  a  vast  region  where  offences  may  grow,  and 
where  they  do  grow,  thick-standing  and  rankly  luxuriant. 

Against  these  social  vices  in  all  ages  of  the  world,  the  ad- 
monitions of  good  men  have  been  directed.  The  moralist  has 


704  ANNUAL   REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

exposed  their  deformity  in  his  didactic  page  ;  the  satirist  has 
chastised  them  in  his  pungent  verse  ;  the  dramatist  has  held 
them  up  to  ridicule  on  the  mimic  stage  ;  and,  to  some  extent, 
the  Christian  minister  has  exhibited  their  gross  repugnancy  to 
the  character  of  a  disciple  of  Jesus.  Still  they  continue  to 
exist ;  and,  to  say  nothing  of  heathen  nations,  the  moral  con- 
dition of  all  Christendom  is,  iu  this  respect,  like  the  physical 
condition  of  one  of  the  nations  that  compose  it,  —  that  extraor- 
dinary people,  I  mean,  whose  dwellings,  whose  flocks,  whose 
agriculture,  whose  merchandise,  and  who  themselves,  are  below 
the  level  of  the  ocean ;  and  against  them,  at  all  times,  this 
ocean  rages,  and  lifts  itself  up  ;  and  whenever  or  wherever  it 
can  find  a  breach,  or  make  one,  it  rushes  in,  and  overwhelms 
men  and  their  possessions  in  one  common  inundation.  Even 
so,  like  a  weltering  flood,  do  immoralities  and  crimes  break 
over  all  moral  barriers,  destroying  and  profaning  the  securities 
and  the  sanctities  of  life.  Now,  how  best  shall  this  deluge  be 
repelled?  What  mighty  power  or  combination  of  powers  can 
prevent  its  inrushing,  or  narrow  the  sweep  of  its  ravages? 

The  race  has  existed  long  enough  to  try  many  experiments 
for  the  solution  of  this  greatest  problem  ever  submitted  to  its 
hands ;  and  the  race  has  experimented,  without  stint  of  time 
or  circumscription  of  space  to  mar  or  modify  legitimate  results. 
Mankind  have  tried  despotisms,  monarchies,  and  republican 
forms  of  government.  They  have  tried  the  extremes  of  anar- 
chy and  of  autocracy.  They  have  tried  Draconian  codes  of 
law  ;  and,  for  the  lightest  offences,  have  extinguished  the  life  of 
the  offender.  They  have  established  theological  standards, 
claiming  for  them  the  sanction  of  divine  authority,  and  the  attri- 
butes of  a  perfect  and  infallible  law  ;  and  then  they  have  im- 
prisoned, burnt,  massacred,  not  individuals  only,  but  whole 
communities  at  a  time,  for  not  bowing  down  to  idols  which 
ecclesiastical  authority  had  set  up.  These  and  other  great 
systems  of  measures  have  been  adopted  as  barriers  against 
error  and  guilt :  they  have  been  extended  over  empires,  pro- 
longed through  centuries,  and  administered  with  terrible  en- 


REPORT   FOR    1848.  705 

ergy ;  and  yet  the  great  ocean  of  vice  and  crime  overleaps 
every  embankment,  pours  down  upon  our  heads,  saps  the  foun- 
dations under  our  feet,  and  sweeps  away  the  securities  of  social 
order,  of  property,  liberty,  and  life. 

At  length,  these  experiments  have  been  so  numerous,  and  all 
of  them  have  terminated  so  disastrously,  that  a  body  of  men 
has  risen  up  in  later  times,  powerful  in  influence,  and  not  incon- 
siderable in  numbers,  who,  if  I  may  use  a  mercantile  phrase, 
would  abandon  the  world  as  a  total  loss  ;  who  mock  at  the  idea 
of  its  having  a  benevolent  or  even  an  intelligent  Author  or  Gov- 
ernor ;  and  who,  therefore,  would  give  over  the  race  to  the  do- 
minion of  chance,  or  to  that  of  their  own  licentious  passions, 
whose  rule  would  be  more  fatal  than  chance. 

But  to  all  doubters,  disbelievers,  or  despairers  in  human 
progress,  it  may  still  be  said,  there  is  one  experiment  which 
has  never  yet  been  tried.  It  is  an  experiment,  which,  even 
before  its  inception,  offers  the  highest  authority  for  its  ultimate 
success.  Its  formula  is  intelligible  to  all ;  and  it  is  as  legible 
as  though  written  in  starry  letters  on  an  azure  sky.  It  is  ex- 
pressed in  these  few  and  simple  words  :  "  Train  up  a  child  in 
the  way  he  should  go  ;  and,  when  he  is  old,  he  will  not  depart  from 
it."  This  declaration  is  positive.  If  the  conditions  are  com- 
plied with,  it  makes  no  provision  for  a  failure.  Though  per- 
taining to  morals,  yet,  if  the  terms  of  the  direction  are  observed, 
there  is  no  more  reason  to  doubt  the  result  than  there  would  be 
in  an  optical  or  a  chemical  experiment. 

But  this  experiment  has  never  yet  been  tried.  Education 
has  never  yet  been  brought  to  bear  with  one-hundredth  part  of 
its  potential  force  upon  the  natures  of  children,  and,  through 
them,  upon  the  character  of  men  and  of  the  race.  In  all  the 
attempts  to  reform  mankind  which  have  hitherto  been  made, 
whether  by  changing  the  frame  of  government,  by  aggravating 
or  softening  the  severity  of  the  penal  code,  or  by  substituting  a 
government-created  for  a  God-created  religion,  —  in  all  these 
attempts,  the  infantile  and  youthful  mind,  its  amenability  to 
influences,  and  the  enduring  and  self-operating  character  of 

45 


706  ANNUAL   REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

the  influences  it  receives,  have  been  almost  wholly  unrecog- 
nized. Here,  then,  is  a  new  agency,  whose  powers  are  but  just 
beginning  to  be  understood,  and  whose  mighty  energies  hith- 
erto have  been  but  feebly  invoked ;  and  yet,  from  our  experi- 
ence, limited  and  imperfect  as  it  is,  we  do  know,  that,  far 
beyond  any  other  earthly  instrumentality,  it  is  comprehensive 
and  decisive. 

Reformatory  efforts  hitherto  made  have  been  mainly  ex- 
pended upon  the  oaken-fibred  hardihood  and  incorrigibleness 
of  adult  offenders,  and  not  upon  the  flexibleness  and  ductility 
of  youthful  tendencies.  Rulers  have  forgotten,  that  though  a 
giant's  arm  cannot  bend  a  tree  of  a  century's  growth,  yet  the 
finger  of  an  infant  could  have  given  direction  to  its  germ. 
When  a  man  has  invested  fifty  thousand  dollars  in  the  business 
of  importing  ardent  spirits  into  the  country,  it  often  does  little 
more  than  to  enrage  him  to  point  out  the  different  results  be- 
tween such  an  investment  and  the  investment  of  the  same  sum 
in  whale-ships,  where,  besides  its  own  permanent  value,  it  will 
soon  add  fifty  thousand  dollars  more  to  the  actual  wealth  of  the 
community.  Show  the  distiller  how  he  changes  the  life-sus- 
taining fruits  of  the  earth  into  a  physical  and  moral  poison,  and 
what  a  deluge  of  destruction  he  is  sending  forth  over  society, 
and  his  blood  will  boil  hardly  less  fiercely  than  his  accursed 
caldrons :  but  who  will  be  rash  enough  to  say  of  any  child  in 
the  land  ;  who  will  be  rash  enough  to  say  of  any  man  now 
engaged  in  the  business  of  promoting  and  spreading  intemper- 
ance, and  visiting  another  generation  with  all  its  calamities,  — 
who  will  dare  say  of  any  of  them  that  the  nature  and  conse- 
quences of  this  direful  occupation  might  uot  have  been  so  viv- 
idly depicted  to  the  imagination,  and  so  clearly  explained  to  the 
conscience,  during  the  years  of  childhood,  that  any  child  would 
sooner  think  of  getting  a  living  by  counterfeiting  money  than 
by  engagiug  in  the  traffic?  Would  any  child,  on  whose  heart 
the  horrors  and  atrocities  of  the  slave-trade  had  made  their 
natural  impression  before  his  arrival  at  the  age  of  fourteen 
years,  ever  connect  himself  with  slavery  afterwards?  Were  a 


REPORT   FOR   1848.  707 

child  taught  the  dignity,  the  healthfulness,  and  the  advantages 
of  voluntary  labor,  and  the  meanness  of  living  upon  the  unre- 
quited services  of  the  weak  and  defenceless,  could  he  ever  bear 
to  live  a  life  of  pampered  indolence  secured  to  him  by  a  hun- 
dred lives,  each  as  precious  and  as  sacred  in  the  sight  of 
Heaven  as  his  own,  of  unpaid  toil  and  irredeemable  debase- 
ment ?  Did  genius  pour  out  its  heart  as  fervently  to  depict  the 
calamities  of  war  as  it  has  done  to  blazon  forth  what  is  called 
military  glory,  would  not  children  be  led  to  abhor  all  unneces- 
sary wars  as  much  more  than  they  abhor  murder  as  the  de- 
struction of  an  army  is  greater  than  that  of  a  single  murderer? 
If  the  schools  were  earnestly  to  teach  children  that  office  and 
honor  are  not  synonymous  terms,  and  that  the  only  value  of 
any  office  consists  in  its  opening  a  wider  sphere  for  useful  ex- 
ertion, should  we  find  so  many  men  renouncing  usefulness  and 
forfeiting  honor  for  the  acquisition  of  office?  If  wealth  were 
not  forever  talked  of  before  children  as  among  the  chief  prizes 
of  life,  should  we  see  such  throngs  making  haste  to  be  rich, 
with  all  the  attendant  consequences  of  fraud  and  dishonor? 
Indeed,  so  decisive  is  the  effect  of  early  training  upon  adult 
habits  and  character,  that  numbers  of  the  most  able  and  expe- 
rienced teachers  —  those  who  have  had  the  best  opportunities 
to  become  acquainted  with  the  errors  and  the  excellences  of 
children,  their  waywardness,  and  their  docility  —  have  unani- 
mously declared  it  to  be  their  belief,  that  if  all  the  children  in  the 
community,  from  the  age  of  four  years  to  that  of  sixteen,  could 
be  brought  within  the  reformatory  and  elevating  influences  of 
good  schools,  the  dark  host  of  private  vices  and  public  crimes 
which  now  imbitter  domestic  peace,  and  stain  the  civilization 
of  the  age,  might,  in  ninety-nine  cases  in  every  hundred,  be 
banished  from  the  world.  When  Christ  taught  his  disciples 
to  pray,  "  Thy  kingdom  come,  thy  will  be  done  on  earth  as  it 
is  done  in  heaven,"  did  he  teach  them  to  pray  for  what  shall 
never  come  to  pass  ?  And,  if  this  consummation  is  ever  to  be 
realized,  is  it  to  be  by  some  mighty,  sudden,  instantaneous 


708  ANNUAL   REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

revolution  effected  by  a  miracle?  or  is  it  to  be  produced  gradu- 
ally by  that  Providence  which  uses  human  agents  as  its  instru- 
ments? 

Were  we  to  hear  that  some  far-off  land  had  been  discovered, 
over  which  the  tempest  of  war  had  never  swept ;  where  institu- 
tions of  learning  and  religion  were  reverenced,  and  their  minis- 
ters held  in  the  foremost  rank  of  honor ;  where  falsehood,  de- 
traction, and  pei-jury  were  never  uttered  ;  where  neither  intem- 
perance, nor  the  guilty  knowledge  how  to  prepare  its  means, 
nor  the  guilty  agents  to  diffuse  them,  were  ever  known  ;  where 
all  the  obligations  growing  out  of  domestic  relations  were 
sacredly  kept ;  where  office  always  sought  the  wisest  and  best 
men  for  incumbents,  and  never  failed  to  find  them ;  where  wit- 
nesses were  true,  and  jurors  just  (for  we  can  hardly  conceive  of 
a  state  of  society  upon  earth  so  perfect  as  to  exclude  all  differ- 
ences of  opinion  about  rights)  ;  in  fine,  where  all  men  were  hon- 
est in  their  dealings,  and  exemplary  in  their  lives,  with  the 
exception  of  here  and  there  an  individual,  who,  from  the  rare- 
ness of  his  appearance,  would  be  regarded  almost  a  monster,  — 
were  we  to  hear  of  such  a  realm,  who  that  loves  peace,  and  the 
happiness  that  comes  from  security  and  order,  would  not  wish 
to  escape  from  the  turmoil  and  the  violence,  the  rancor  and  the 
mean  ambitions,  of  our  present  sphere,  and  go  there  to  dwell 
and  to  die  ?  And  yet  it  is  the  opinion  of  our  most  intelligent, 
dispassionate,  and  experienced  teachers,  that  we  can,  in  the 
course  of  two  or  three  generations,  and  through  the  instrumen- 
tality of  good  teachers  and  good  schools,  superinduce,  substan- 
tially, such  a  state  of  society  upon  the  present  one,  and  this,  too, 
without  any  miracle,  without  any  extraordinary  sacrifices  or 
costly  effort,  bur  only  by  working  our  existing  common-school 
system  with  such  a  degree  of  vigor  as  can  easily  be  put  forth, 
and  at  such  an  expense  as  even  the  poorest  community  can 
easily  bear.  If  the  leaders  of  society,  —  those  whose  law-giv- 
ing eloquence  determines  what  statutes  shall  be  enacted  by  the 
legislature,  or  those  who  speak  for  the  common  heart  in  self-con- 


EEPORT   FOR    1848.  709 

stituted  assemblies,  or  those  who  shape  popular  opinion  through 
the  public  press  or  in  the  private  intercourse  of  life,  —  if  these 
are  not  yet  prepared  to  have  faith  in  the  reformatory  power  of 
an  eai'ly  and  wise  training  for  the  young,  the  fact  only  shows 
and  measures  the  extent  of  the  work  which  teachers  and  educa- 
tionists have  yet  to  perform.  If  men  decline  to  co-operate 
with  us  because  uninspired  by  our  living  faith,  then  the  argu- 
ments, the  labors,  and  the  results  which  will  create  this  faith 
are  a  preliminary  step  in  our  noble  work. 

Is  any  high-minded,  exemplary,  and  conscientious  man  dis- 
posed to  believe  that  this  substantial  extirpation  of  social  vices 
and  crimes  (according  to  the  testimony  of  the  witnesses  above 
referred  to)  is  a  Utopian  idea,  is  more  than  we  have  any 
reason  to  expect  while  human  nature  remains  as  it  is,  let  me 
use  the  ad  hominem  argument  to  refute  him.  Let  me  refer  him 
to  himself,  and  ask  him  why  the  same  influences  which  have 
saved  him  from  gaming,  intemperance,  dissoluteness,  falsehood, 
dishonesty,  violence,  and  their  kirdred  offences,  and  have 
made  him  a  man  of  sobriety,  frugality,  and  probity,  —  why  the 
same  influences  which  have  saved  him  from  ruin,  might  not,  if 
brought  to  bear  upon  others,  save  them  also.  So  far  as  human 
instrumentalities  are  concerned,  we  have  abundant  means  for 
surrounding  every  child  in  the  State  with  preservative  and  mor- 
al influences  as  extensive  and  as  efficient  as  those  under  which 
the  present  industrious,  worthy,  and  virtuous  members  of  the 
community  were  reared.  And  as  to  all  those  things  in  regard 
to  which  we  are  directly  dependent  upon  the  divine  favor,  have 
we  not  the  promise,  explicit  and  unconditional,  that  the  men 
SHALL  NOT  depart  from  the  way  in  which  they  should  go,  if  the 
children  are  trained  up  in  it?  It  has  been  overlooked  that  this 
promise  is  not  restricted  to  parents,  but  seems  to  be  addressed 
indiscriminately  to  all,  whether  parents,  communities,  states,  or 
mankind. 


710  ANNUAL    REPORTS    ON   EDUCATION. 


RELIGIOUS    EDUCATION. 

But  it  will  be  said  that  this  grand  result  iu  practical  morals 
is  a  consummation  of  blessedness  that  can  never  be  attained 
without  religion,  and  that  no  community  will  ever  be  religious 
without  a  religious  education.  Both  these  propositions  I  regard 
as  eternal  and  immutable  truths.  Devoid  of  religious  princi- 
ples and  religious  affections,  the  race  can  never  fall  so  low  but 
that  it  may  sink  still  lower  ;  animated  and  sanctified  by  them,  it 
can  never  rise  so  high  but  that  it  may  ascend  still  higher.  And 
is  it  not  at  least  as  presumptuous  to  expect  that  mankind  will 
attain  to  the  knowledge  of  truth,  without  being  instructed  in 
truth,  and  without  that  general  expansion  and  development  of 
faculty  which  will  enable  them  to  recognize  and  comprehend 
truth  in  any  other  department  of  human  interest  as  in  the  de- 
partment of  religion?  No  creature  of  God  of  whom  we  have 
auy  knowledge  has  such  a  range  of  moral  oscillation  as  a  hu- 
man being.  He  may  despise  privileges,  and  turn  a  deaf  ear  to 
warnings  and  instructions  such  as  evil  spirits  may  never  have 
known,  and  therefore  be  more  guilty  than  they  ;  or,  ascending 
through  temptation  and  conflict  along  the  radiant  pathway  of 
duty,  he  may  reach  the  sublimest  heights  of  happiness,  and  may 
there  experience  the  joys  of  a  contrast  such  as  ever-perfect 
beings  can  never  feel.  And  can  it  be  that  our  nature  in  this 
respect  is  taken  out  of  the  law  that  governs  it  iu  every  other 
respect,  —  the  law,  namely,  that  the  teachings  which  supply  it 
with  new  views,  and  the  trainiug  that  leads  it  to  act  in  con- 
tormity  with  those  views,  are  ineffective  and  nugatory? 

indeed,  the  whole  frame  and  constitution  of  the  human  soul 
.-how,  that,  if  man  be  not  a  religious  being,  lie  is  among  the  most 
deformed  and  monstrous  of  all  possible  existences.  His  pro- 
pensities and  passions  need  the  fear  of  God  as  a  restraint  from 
evil ;  and  his  sentiments  and  affections  need  the  love  of  God  as 
a  condition  and  preliminary  to  every  thing  worthy  of  the  name 
uf  happiness.  Without  a  capability  or  susceptibility,  therefore, 
of  knowing  and  reverencing  his  Maker  and  Preserver,  his  whole 


REPORT   FOR    1848.  711 

nature  is  a  contradiction  and  a  solecism :  it  is  a  moral  absurdi- 
ty, as  strictly  so  as  a  triangle  with  but  two  sides,  or  a  circle 
without  a  circumference,  is  a  mathematical  absurdity.  The 
man,  indeed,  of  whatever  denomination  or  kindred  or  tongue  he 
iiay  be,  who  believes  that  the  human  race,  or  any  nation,  or 
any  individual  in  it,  can  attain  to  happiness,  or  avoid  misery, 
without  religious  principle  and  religious  affections,  must  be  ig- 
norant of  the  capacities  of  the  human  soul,  and  of  the  highest 
attributes  in  the  nature  of  man.  We  know,  from  the  very  struc- 
ture and  functions  of  our  physical  organization,  that  all  the  de- 
lights of  the  appetites  and  of  the  grosser  instincts  are  evanes- 
cent and  perishing.  All  bodily  pleasures  over-indulged  become 
pains.  Abstemiousness  is  the  stern  condition  of  prolonged  en- 
joyment.—  a  condition  that  balks  desire  at  the  very  moment 
when  it  is  most  craving.  Did  the  fields  teem,  and  the  forests 
bend,  and  the  streams  flow,  with  the  most  exquisite  delicacies, 
how  small  the  proportion  of  our  time  in  which  we  could  luxu- 
riate in  their  sweets  without  satiety  and  disgust !  Unchastened 
by  temperance,  the  richest  earthly  banquets  stimulate,  only  to 
end  in  loathing.  Perpetual  self-restraint  on  the  one  side,  or 
intolerable  pains  on  the  other,  is  the  law  of  all  our  animal  de- 
sires ;  and  it  may  well  be  questioned  which  are  the  sharper 
sufferings,  the  fiercest  pangs  of  hunger  and  of  thirst,  or  the  ago- 
nizing diseases  that  form  the  fearful  retinue  of  epicurism  and 
bacchanalian  indulgence.  Were  the  pleasures  of  sense  the 
only  pleasures  we  could  enjoy,  immortality  might  well  be 
scoffed  at  as  worthless,  and  annihilation  welcomed ;  for  if 
another  Eden  were  created  around  us,  filled  with  all  that  could 
gratify  the  appetite  or  regale  the  sense,  and  were  the  whole 
range  and  command  of  its  embowering  shades  and  clustering 
fruits  bestowed  upon  us,  still,  with  our  present  natures,  we 
should  feel  intellectual  longings  which  not  all  the  objects  of 
sight  and  of  sense  could  appease  ;  and  luxuries  would  sate  the 
palate,  and  beauties  pall  upon  the  eye,  in  the  absence  of  objects 
to  quicken  and  stimulate  the  sterner  energies  of  the  mind. 
The  delights  of  the  intellect  are  of  a  far  nobler  order  than 


712  ANNUAL    REPORTS    ON   EDUCATION. 

those  of  the  senses ;  but  even  these  have  no  power  to  fill  up  the 
capacities  of  an  immortal  mind.  The  strongest  intellect  tires. 
It  cannot  sustain  an  ever-upward  wing.  Even  in  minds  of 
Olympian  vastness  and  vigor,  there  must  be  seasons  for  relaxa- 
tion and  repose,  —  intervals  when  the  wearied  faculties,  mount- 
ed upon  the  topmast  of  all  their  achievements,  must  stop  in 
their  ascending  career  to  review  the  distance  they  have  trav- 
ersed, and  to  replenish  their  energies  for  an  onward  flight. 
And  although,  in  the  far-off  cycles  of  eternity,  the  stature  of 
the  intellect  should  become  lofty  as  an  archangel's ;  although 
its  powers  of  comprehension  should  become  so  vast,  and  its  in- 
tuitions so  penetrating,  that  it  could  learn  the  history  of  a  planet 
in  a  day,  and  master  at  a  single  lesson  all  the  sciences  that 
belong  to  a  system  of  stars,  —  still,  I  repeat,  that,  with  our  pres- 
ent nature,  we  should  be  conscious  of  faculties  unoccupied,  and 
restless,  yea,  tormented  with  a  sense  of  privation  and  loss,  like 
lungs  in  a  vacuum  gasping  vainly  for  breath,  or  like  the  eye 
in  darkness  straining  to  catch  some  glimmering  of  light. 
Without  sympathy,  without  spiritual  companionship  with  other 
beings,  without  some  Being,  all-glorious  in  his  perfections, 
whom  the  spirit  could  commune  with  and  adore,  it  would  be  a 
mourner  and  a  wanderer  amid  all  the  splendors  of  the  universe. 
Through  the  lone  realms  of  immensity  would  it  fly,  calling  for 
love  as  a  mother  calls  for  her  departed  first-born  ;  but  its  voice 
would  return  to  it  in  echoes  of  mockery.  Nay,  though  the 
intellect  of  man  should  become  as  effulgent  as  the  stars  amid 
which  he  might  walk,  yet  sympathetic  and  devout  affections 
alone  can  fertilize  the  desolations  of  the  heart.  Love  is  as 
necessary  to  the  human  heart  as  knowledge  is  to  the  mind  ;  and 
infinite  knowledge  can  never  supply  the  place  of  infinite  good. 
The  universe,  grand,  glorious,  and  beautiful  as  it  is,  can  be 
truly  enjoyed  only  through  the  worship  as  well  as  the  knowl- 
edge of  the  great  Being  that  created  it.  Among  people  where 
there  is  no  true  knowledge  of  God,  the  errors,  superstitions,  and 
sufferings  of  a  false  religion  always  rush  in  to  fill  the  vacuum. 
There  is  not  a  faculty  nor  a  susceptibility  in  the  nature  of 


EEPORT   FOR    1848.  713 

man,  from  the  lightning-like  intuitions  that  make  him  akin  to 
the  cherubim,  or  the  fire  and  fervor  of  affection  that  assimilate 
him  to  seraphic  beings,  down  to  the  lowest  appetites  and  de- 
sires by  which  he  holds  brotherhood  with  beast  and  reptile  and 
worm,  —  there  is  not  one  of  them  all  that  will  ever  be  governed 
by  its  proper  law,  or  enjoy  a  full  measure  of  the  gratification  it 
was  adapted  to  feel,  without  a  knowledge  of  the  true  God, 
without  a  sense  of  acting  in  harmony  with  his  will,  and  with- 
out spontaneous  effusions  of  gratitude  for  his  goodness.  Con- 
victions and  sentiments  such  as  these  can  alone  supply  the 
vacuity  in  the  soul  of  man,  and  fill  with  significance  and  loveli- 
ness what  would  otherwise  be  a  blank  and  hollow  universe. 

How  limited  and  meagre,  too,  would  be  the  knowledge  which 
should  know  all  things  else,  but  still  be  ignorant  of  the  self- 
existent  Author  of  all !  What  is  the  exquisite  beauty  of  flow- 
ers, of  foliage,  or  of  plumage,  if  we  know  nothing  of  the  great 
Limner  who  has  painted  them,  and  blended  their  colors  with 
such  marvellous  skill?  So  the  profundity  of  all  science  is 
shallowness,  if  we  know  nothing  of  the  eternal  Mind  that 
projected  all  sciences,  and  made  their  laws  so  exact  and  har- 
monious, that  all  the  objects  in  an  immensity  can  move  onward 
throughout  an  eternity  without  deviation  or  error.  Even  the 
visible  architecture  of  the  heavens,  majestic  and  refulgent  as  it 
is,  dwindles  and  glooms  into  littleness  and  darkness  in  the 
presence  of  the  great  Builder,  who  "  of  old  laid  the  foundation 
of  the  earth,"  ana  "  meted  out  heaven  with  a  span."  Among 
all  the  objects  of  knowledge,  the  Author  of  knowledge  is  infi- 
nitely the  greatest ;  and  the  microscopic  animalcule,  which,  by 
a  life  of  perseverance,  has  circumnavigated  a  drop  of  water,  or 
the  tiny  insect  which  has  toiled  and  climbed  until  it  has  at  last 
reached  the  highest  peak  of  a  grain  of  sand,  knows  propor- 
tionately more  of  the  height  and  depth  and  compass  of  plane- 
tary spaces  than  the  philosopher  who  has  circuited  all  other 
knowledge,  but  is  still  ignorant  of  God.  In  the  acquisition  of 
whatever  art,  or  in  the  pursuit  of  whatever  science,  there  is  a 
painful  sense  of  incompleteness  and  imperfection  while  we 


714  ANNUAL    REPORTS    OX   EDUCATION. 

remain  untaught  in  any  great  department  known  to  belong  to 
it.  And  so,  in  the  development  and  culture  of  the  human 
soul,  we  are  conscious  not  merely  of  the  want  of  symmetry, 
but  of  gross  disfigurement  and  mutilation,  when  the  noblest 
and  most  enduring  part  of  an  appropriate  development  and 
culture  is  wanting.  In  merely  an  artistical  point  of  view,  to 
be  presented  with  the  torso  of  Hercules,  or  with  the  truncated 
body  of  Minerva,  when  we  were  expecting  to  behold  the  fulness 
of  their  majestic  proportions,  would  be  less  painful  and  shock- 
ing than  a  system  of  human  culture  from  which  religious  cul- 
ture should  be  omitted. 

So,  too,  if  the  subject  be  viewed  in  relation  to  all  the  purer 
and  loftier  affections  and  susceptibilities  of  the  human  soul, 
the  results  are  the  same.  If,  in  surveying  the  highest  states  of 
perfection  which  the  character  of  man  has  ever  yet  reached 
upon  earth,  we  select  from  among  the  whole  circle  of  our  per- 
sonal or  historical  acquaintances  those  who  are  adorned  with 
the  purest  quality  and  the  greatest  number  of  excellences  as 
the  objects  of  our  most  joyful  admiration  and  love,  why  should 
not  the  soul  be  lifted  into  sublimer  ecstasies,  and  into  raptures 
proportionately  more  exalted  and  enduring,  if  it  could  be  raised 
to  the  contemplation  of  Him  whose  "  name  alone  is  excel- 
lent"? If  we  delight  in  exhibitions  of  power,  why  should  we 
pass  heedlessly  by  the  All-powerful?  If  human  hearts  are 
touched  with  deeds  of  mercy,  there  is  One  whose  tender  mer- 
cies are  over  all  his  works.  If  we  reverence  wisdom,  there 
is  such  perfect  wisdom  on  high,  that  that  of  angels  becomes 
'•  folly  "  in  its  presence.  If  we  love  the  sentiment  of  love,  has 
not  the  apostle  told* us  that  God  is  love?  There  are  many 
endearing  objects  upon  earth  from  which  the  heart  of  man  may 
be  sundered ;  but  he  only  is  bereaved  of  all  things  who  is 
bereaved  of  his  Father  in  heaven. 

I  here  place  the  argument  in  favor  of  a  religious  education 
for  the  young  upon  the  most  broad  and  general  grounds,  pur- 
posely leaving  it  to  every  individual  to  add  for  himself  those 
auxiliary  arguments  which  may  result  from  his  own  peculiar 


REPORT   FOR   1848.  715 

views  of  religious  truth.  But  such  is  the  force  of  the  convic- 
tion to  which  ray  own  mind  is  brought  by  these  general  consid- 
erations, that  I  could  not  avoid  regarding  the  man  who  should 
oppose  the  religious  education  of  the  young  as  an  insane  man ; 
and,  were  it  proposed  to  debate  the  question  between  us,  I  should 
desire  to  restore  him  to  his  reason  before  entering  upon  the 
discussion.  If,  suddenly  summoned  to  eternity,  I  were  able  to 
give  but  one  parting  word  of  advice  to  my  own  children,  or  to 
the  children  of  others  ;  if  I  were  sinking  beneath  the  wave, 
and  had  time  to  utter  but  one  articulate  breath  ;  or  were  wasting 
away  upon  the  death-bed,  and  had  strength  to  make  but  one 
exhortation  more,  —  that  dying  legacy  should  be,  "  Remember 
thy  Creator  in  the  days  of  thy  youth." 

I  can,  then,  confess  myself  second  to  no  one  in  the  depth 
and  sincerity  of  my  convictions  and  desires  respecting  the  ne- 
cessity and  universality,  both  on  abstract  and  on  practical 
grounds,  of  a  religious  education  for  the  young ;  and,  if  I  had 
stronger  words  at  command  in  which  to  embody  these  views,  I 
would  not  fail  to  use  them.  But  the  question  still  remains, 
How  shall  so  momentous  an  object  be  pursued?  In  the 
measures  we  adopt  to  give  a  religious  education  to  others,  shall 
we  ourselves  abide  by  the  dictates  of  religion?  or  shall  we  do. 
as  has  almost  universally  been  done  ever  since  the  unhallowed 
union  between  Church  and  State  under  Constantino,  —  shall  we 
seek  to  educate  the  community  religiously  through  the  use  of 
the  most  irreligious  means? 

On  this  subject  I  propose  to  speak  with  freedom  and  plain- 
ness, and  more  at  length  than  I  should  feel  required  to  do  but 
for  the  peculiar  circumstances  in  which  I  have  been  placed. 
It  is  matter  of  notoriety,  that  the  views  of  the  Board  of  Edu- 
cation,—  and  my  own,  perhaps,  still  more  than  those  of  the 
Board,  —  on  the  subject  of  religious  instruction  in  our  public 
schools,  have  been  subjected  to  animadversion.  Grave  charges 
have  been  made  against  us,  that  our  purpose  was  to  exclude  re- 
ligion, and  to  exclude  that,  too,  which  is  the  common  exponent 
of  religion,  —  the  Bible,  —  from  the  common  schools  of  the 


716  ANNUAL   REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

State ;  or,  at  least,  to  derogate  from  its  authority,  and  destroy 
its  influence  in  them.  Whatever  prevalence  a  suspicion  of  the 
truth  of  these  imputations  may  have  heretofore  had,  I  have 
reason  to  believe  that  further  inquiry  and  examination  have 
done  much  to  disabuse  the  too  credulous  recipients  of  so  ground- 
less a  charge.  Still,  amongst  a  people  so  commendably  sensi- 
tive on  the  subject  of  religion  as  are  the  people  of  Massachu- 
setts, any  suspicion  of  irreligious  tendencies  will  greatly  preju- 
dice any  cause,  and,  so  far  as  any  cause  may  otherwise  have 
the  power  of  doing  good,  will  greatly  impair  that  power. 

It  is  known,  too,  that  our  noble  system  of  free  schools  for 
the  whole  people  is  strenuously  opposed  by  a  few  persons  in 
our  own  State,  and  by  no  inconsiderable  numbers  in  some  of 
the  other  states  of  this  Union ;  and  that  a  rival  system  of 
"  parochial "  or  "  sectarian  schools  "  is  now  urged  upon  the 
public  by  a  numerous,  a  powerful,  and  a  well-organized  body 
of  men.  It  has  pleased  the  advocates  of  this  rival  system,  in 
various  public  addresses,  in  reports,  and  through  periodicals 
devoted  to  their  cause,  to  denounce  our  system  as  irreligious 
and  anti-Christian.  They  do  not  trouble  themselves  to  describe 
what  our  system  is,  but  adopt  a  more  summary  way  to  fore- 
stall public  opinion  against  it  by  using  general  epithets  of 
reproach,  and  signals  of  alarm. 

In  this  age  of  the  world,  it  seems  to  me  that  no  student  of 
history,  or  observer  of  mankind,  can  be  hostile  to  the  precepts 
and  the  doctrines  of  the  Christian  religion,  or  opposed  to  any 
institutions  which  expound  and  exemplify  them  ;  and  no  man 
who  thinks,  as  I  cannot  but  think,  respecting  the  enduring  ele- 
ments of  character,  whether  public  or  private,  can  be  willing 
to  have  his  name  mentioned  while  he  is  living,  or  remembered 
when  he  is  dead,  as  opposed  to  religious  instruction  and  Bible 
instruction  for  the  young.  In  making  this  final  Report,  there- 
fore, I  desire  to  vindicate  my  conduct  from  the  charges  that 
have  been  made  against  it ;  and,  so  far  as  the  Board  has  been 
implicated  in  these  charges,  to  leave  my  testimony  on  record 
for  their  exculpation.  Indeed,  on  this  point,  the  Board  and 


REPORT   FOR    1848.  717 

myself  must  be  justified  or  condemned  together  ;  for  I  do  not 
believe  they  would  have  enabled  me,  by  their  annual  re-elections, 
to  carry  forward  any  plan  for  excluding  either  the  Bible  or  re- 
ligious instruction  from  the  schools  ;  and,  had  the  Board  required 
me  to  execute  such  a  purpose,  I  certainly  should  have  given 
them  the  earliest  opportunity  to  appoint  my  successor.  I  de- 
sire, also,  to  vindicate  the  system  with  which  I  have  been  so 
long  and  so  intimately  connected,  not  only  from  the  aspersion, 
but  from  the  suspicion,  of  being  an  irreligious  or  anti-Christian 
or  an  un-Chrisrian  system.  I  know  full  well,  that  it  is  unlike 
the  systems  which  prevail  in  Great  Britain,  and  in  many  of  the 
Continental  nations  of  Europe,  where  the  Established  Church 
controls  the  education  of  the  young  in  order  to  keep  itself 
established.  But  this  is  presumptive  evidence  in  its  favor, 
rather  than  against  it. 

All  the  schemes  ever  devised  by  governments  to  secure  the 
prevalence  and  permanence  of  religion  among  the  people,  how- 
ever variant  in  form  they  may  have  been,  are  substantially 
resolvable  into  two  systems.  One  of  these  systems  holds  the 
regulation  and  control  of  the  religious  belief  of  the  people  to  be 
one  of  the  functions  of  government,  like  the  command  of  the 
army  or  the  navy,  or  the  establishment  of  courts,  or  the  collec- 
tion of  revenues.  According  to  the  other  system,  religious  be- 
lief is  a  matter  of  individual  and  parental  concern  ;  and,  while 
the  government  furnishes  all  practicable  facilities  for  the  inde- 
pendent formation  of  that  belief,  it  exercises  no  authority  to 
prescribe,  or  coercion  to  enforce  it.  The  former  is  the  system, 
which,  with  very  few  exceptions,  has  prevailed  throughout 
Christendom  for  fifteen  hundred  years.  Our  own  government 
is  almost  a  solitary  example  among  the  nations  of  the  earth, 
where  freedom  of  opinion,  and  the  inviolability  of  conscience, 
have  been  even  theoretically  recognized  by  the  law. 

The  argument  in  behalf  of  a  government-established  religion, 
at  the  time  when  it  was  first  used,  was  not  without  its  plausi- 
bility ;  but  the  principle,  once  admitted,  drew  after  it  a  train  of 
the  most  appalling  consequences.  If  religion  is  absolutely  es- 


718  ANNUAL   REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

i 

sential  to  the  stability  of  the  State  as  well  as  to  the  present  and 
future  happiness  of  the  subject,  why,  it  was  naturally  asked, 
should  not  the  government  enforce  it?  And,  if  government  is 
to  enforce  religion,  it  follows,  as  a  necessary  consequence,  that 
it  must  define  it ;  for  how  can  it  enforce  a  duty,  which,  being 
undefined,  is  uncertain?  And  again:  if  government  begins  to 
define  religion,  it  must  define  what  it  is  not,  as  Avell  as  what  it 
is  ;  and,  while  it  upholds  whatever  is  included  in  the  definition, 
it  must  suppress  and  abolish  whatever  is  excluded  from  it.  The 
definition,  too,  must  keep  pace  with  speculation,  and  must  take 
cognizance  of  all  outward  forms  and  observances  ;  for  if  specu- 
lation is  allowed  to  run  riot,  and  ceremonies  and  observances 
to  spring  up  unrestrained,  religion  will  soon  elude  control, 
emerge  into  new  forms,  and  exercise,  if  it  does  not  arrogate,  a 
substantial  independence.  Both  in  regard  to  matters  of  form 
and  of  substance,  all  recusancy  must  be  subdued,  either  by  the 
deprivation  of  civil  rights,  or  by  positive  inflictions ;  for  the 
laws  of  man,  not  possessing,  like  the  laws  of  God,  a  self-execut- 
ing power,  must  be  accompanied  by  some  effective  sanction,  or 
they  will  not  be  obeyed.  If  a  light  penalty  proves  inadequate, 
a  heavier  one  must  follow,  —  the  loss  of  civil  privileges  by  dis- 
franchisement,  or  of  religious  hopes  by  excommunication.  If 
the  non-conformist  feels  himself,  by  the  aid  of  a  higher  power, 
to  be  secure  against  threats  of  future  perdition,  the  civil  magis- 
trate has  terrible  resources  at  command  in  this  life,  —  imprison- 
ment, scourging,  the  rack,  the  fagot,  death.  Should  it  ever  be 
said  that  these  are  excessive  punishments  for  exercising  free- 
dom of  thought,  and  for  allowing  the  heart  to  pour  forth  those 
sentiments  of  adoration  to  God  with  which  it  believes  God 
himself  has  inspired  it,  the  answer  is  always  ready,  that 
nothing  is  so  terrible  as  the  heresy  that  draws  after  it  the  end- 
less wrath  of  the  Omnipotent ;  and,  therefore,  that  Smithfield 
fires,  and  inquisitorial  tortures,  and  auto-da-fes.  and  St.  Bar- 
tholomews, are  cheap  offerings  at  the  shrine  of  truth :  nay, 
compared  with  the  awful  and  endless  consequences  of  a  false 
faith,  they  are  of  less  momeut'than  the  slightest  puncture  of  a 


REPORT   FOR   1848.  719 

nerve.  And  assuming  the  truth  of  the  theory,  and  the  right 
of  the  government  to  secure  faith  by  force,  it  surely  would  be 
better,  infinitely  better,  that  every  hill-top  should  be  lighted 
with  the  fires  of  Smithfield,  and  every  day  in  the  calendar 
should  be  a  St.  Bartholomew's,  than  that  errors  so  fatal  should 
go  unabolished. 

In  the  council-hall  of  the  Inquisition  at  Avignon,  there  still 
is,  or  lately  was,  to  be  seen,  a  picture  of  the  Good  Samaritan 
painted  upon  the  wall.  The  deed  of  mercy  commemorated  by 
this  picture  was  supposed  to  be  the  appropriate  emblem  of  the 
inquisitor's  work.  The  humanity  of  pouring  oil  and  wine 
into  the  wounds  of  the  bleeding  wayfarer  who  had  fallen 
among  thieves  ;  the  kindness  of  dismounting  from  his  own 
beast,  and  setting  the  half-dead  victim  of  violence  upon  it ; 
and  the  generosity  of  purchasing  comfort  and  restoration  for 
him  at  an  inn,  —  were  held  to  be  copied  and  imitated,  upon  an 
ampler  and  a  nobler  scale,  by  the  arrest  of  the  heretic,  by  the 
violence  that  tore  him  from  home  and  friends,  and  by  the 
excruciating  tortures  that  at  last  wrenched  soul  and  body 
asunder.  The  priests  who  sentenced,  and  the  familiars  that 
turned  the  wheel  or  lighted  the  fagot,  or,  with  red-hot  pin- 
cers, tore  the  living  flesh  from  the  quivering  limbs,  were  but 
imitators  of  the  Good  Samaritan,  binding  up  moral  wounds, 
and  seeking  to  take  a  lost  traveller  to  a  place  of  recovery  and 
eternal  repose.  So  when  the  news  of  the  Massacre  of  St.  Bar- 
tholomew's—  on  which  occasion  thirty  thousand  men,  women, 
and  children  were  butchered  at  the  stroke  of  a  signal-bell  — 
reached  Rome,  the  pope  and  his  cardinals  ordained  a  thanks- 
giving, that  all  true  believers  might  rejoice  together  at  so  glo- 
rious an  event,  and  that  God  might  be  honored  for  the  pious 
hearts  that  designed,  and  the  benevolent  hands  that  executed,  so 
Christian  a  deed.  And,  admitting  their  premises,  surely  they 
were  right.  Could  communities,  or  even  individuals,  be  res- 
cued from  endless  perdition  at  the  price  of  a  massacre  or  an 
auto-da-fe,  the  men  who  would  wield  the  sword,  or  kindle  the 
flame,  would  be  only  nobler  Samaritans ;  and  the  picture  upon 


720  ANNUAL   REPORTS    ON   EDUCATION. 

the  Inquisition  walls  at  Avignon  would  be  but  an  inadequate 
emblem  of  their  soul-saving  beneficence. 

But,  in  all  the  persecutions  and  oppressions  ever  committed 
in  the  name  of  religion,  one  point  has  been  unwarrantably 
assumed  ;  namely,  that  the  faith  of  their  authors  was  certainly 
and  infallibly  the  true  faith.  With  the  fewest  exceptions,  the 
advocates  of  all  the  myriad  conflicting  creeds  that  have  ever 
been  promulgated  have  held  substantially  the  same  language  : 
"  Our  faith  we  know  to  be  true.  For  its  truth,  we  have  the 
evidence  of  our  reason  and  our  conscience  ;  we  have  the  Word 
of  God  in  our  hands,  and  we  have  the  Spirit  of  God  in  «ur 
hearts,  testifying  to  its  truth."  *  The  answer  to  this  claim 
is  almost  too  obvious  to  be  mentioned.  The  advocates  of 
hundreds  and  thousands  of  hostile  creeds  have  placed  them- 
selves upon  the  same  ground.  Each  has  claimed  the  same 
proof  from  reason  and  conscience,  the  same  external  revela- 
tion from  God,  and  the  same  inward  light  of  his  Spirit. 
But  if  truth  be  one,  and  hence  necessarily  harmonious ;  if 
God  be  its  author ;  and  if  the  voice  of  God  be  not  more 
dissonant  than  the  tongues  of  Babel,  —  then,  at  least,  all  but 
one  of  the  different  forms  of  faith  ever  promulgated  by  hu- 
man authority,  so  far  as  these  forms  conflict  with  each  other, 
cannot  have  emanated  from  the  Fountain  of  all  truth.  These 
faiths  must  have  been  more  or  less  erroneous.  The  believers 
in  them  must  have  been  more  or  less  mistaken.  Who,  on  an 
impartial  survey  of  the  whole,  and  a  recollection  of  the  confi- 
dence with  which  each  one  has  been  claimed  to  be  infallibly 
true,  shall  dare  to  affirm  that  any  one  of  them  all  is  a  perfect 
transcript  of  the  perfect  law  as  it  exists  in  the  Divine  Mind, 
and  that  that  one  is  his  f 

But  here  arises  a  practical  distinction,  which  the  world  has 
lost  sight  of.  It  is  this :  after  seeking  all  possible  light  from 
within,  from  without,  and  from  above,  each  man's  belief  is  his 

*  Or,  as  I  once  heard  the  same  sentiment  expressed  in  the  pulpit,  from  the 
lips  of  an  eminent  divine,  "I  am  right;  and  I  know  I  am  right;  and  I  know  I 
know  it." 


REPORT    FOR    1848.  721 

own  standard  of  truth  ;  but  it  is  not  the  standard  for  any  other 
man.  The  believer  is  bound  to  live  by  his  belief  under  all 
circumstances,  in  the  face  of  all  perils,  and  at  the  cost  of  any 
sacrifice.  But  his  standard  of  truth  is  the  standard  for  himself 
alone  ;  never  for  his  neighbor.  That  neighbor  must  have  his 
own  standard,  which  to  him  must  be  supreme.  And  the  fact 
that  each  man  is  bound  to  follow  his  own  best  light  and  guid- 
ance is  an  express  negation  of  any  other  man's  right,  and  of  any 
government's  right,  of  forcible  interference.  Here  is  the  divid- 
ing-line. On  one  side  lie  personal  freedom  and  the  recognition 
of  freedom  in  others  ;  on  the  other  side  are  intolerance,  oppres- 
sion, and  all  the  wrongs  and  woes  of  persecution  for  conscience' 
sake.  The  hierarchs  of  the  world  have  generally  reversed  this 
rule  of  duty.  They  have  been  more  rigid  in  demanding  that 
others  should  live  according  to  their  faith  than  in  living  in 
accordance  with  it  themselves. 

Did  the  history  of  mankind  show  that  there  has  been  the 
most  of  virtue  and  piety  iu  those  nations  where  religion  has 
been  most  rigorously  enforced  by  law,  the  advocates  of  eccle- 
siastical domination  would  have  a  powerful  argument  in  favor 
of  their  measures  of  coercion  ;  but  the  united  and  universal 
voice  of  history,  observation,  and  experience,  gives  the  argu- 
ment to  the  other  side.  Nor  is  this  surprising.  Weak  and 
fallible  as  human  reason  is,  it  was  too  much  to  expect  that  any 
mere  man,  even  though  aided  by  the  light  of  a  written  revela- 
tion, would  ever  fathom  the  whole  counsels  of  the  Omnipotent 
and  the  Eternal.  But  the  limitations  and  short-sightedness  of 
men's  reason  did  not  constitute  the  only  obstacle  to  their  dis- 
covery of  truth.  All  the  passions  and  perversities  of  human 
nature  conspired  to  prevent  so  glorious  an  achievement.  The 
easily-acquired  but  awful  power  possessed  by  those  who  were 
acknowledged  to  be  the  chosen  expounders  of  the  divine  will 
tempted  men  to  set  up  a  false  claim  to  be  the  depositaries  of 
God's  purposes  towards  men,  and  the  selected  medium  of  his 
communication  with  them ;  and  to  this  temptation  erring  mor- 
tals were  fain  to  yield.  Those  who  were  supposed  able  to 

46 


722  ANNUAL   REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

determine  the  destiny  of  the  soul  in  the  next  world  came  easily 
to  control  opinion,  conduct,  and  fortune  in  this.  Hence  they 
established  themselves  as  a  third  power,  —  a  power  between  the 
creature  and  the  Creator,  —  not  to  facilitate  the  direct  commu- 
nion between  man  and  his  Maker,  but  to  supersede  it.  They 
claimed  to  carry  on  the  intercourse  between  heaven  and  earth 
as  merchants  carry  on  commerce  between  distant  nations, 
where  the  parties  to  the  interchange  never  meet  each  other. 
The  consequence  soon  was,  that  this  celestial  commerce  degene- 
rated into  the  basest  and  most  mercenary  traffic.  The  favors 
of  heaven  were  bought  and  sold  like  goods  in  the  market- 
place. Robbery  purchased  pardon  and  impunity  by  bribing 
the  judge  with  a  portion  of  the  wealth  it  had  plundered.  The 
assassin  bought  permission  to  murder,  and  the  incendiary  to 
burn.  A  price-current  of  crime  was  established,  in  which  sins 
were  so  graduated  as  to  meet  the  pecuniary  ability  of  both  rich 
and  poor  offenders.  Licenses  to  violate  the  laws  of  God  and 
man  became  luxuries,  for  which  customers  paid  according  to 
their  several  ability.  Gold  was  the  representative  of  all  vir- 
tues as  well  as  of  all  values.  Under  such  a  system,  men  lost 
their  conscience,  and  women  their  virtue  ;  for  the  right  to  com- 
mit all  enormities  was  purchasable  by  money,  and  pardonable 
by  grace,  —  save  only  the  guilt  of  heresy ;  and  the  worst  of 
all  heresies  consisted  in  men's  worshipping  the  God  of  their 
fathers  according  to  the  dictates  of  their  consciences. 

Those  religious  exercises  which  consist  in  a  communion  of 
the  soul  with  its  Father  in  heaven  have  been  beautifully  com- 
pared to  telegraphic  communications  between  distant  friends ; 
where,  silent  as  thought,  and  swift  as  the  lightning,  each  makes 
known  to  the  other  his  joys  and  his  desires,  his  affection  and 
his  fidelity,  while  the  busy  world  around  may  know  nought  of 
their  sacred  communings.  But,  as  soon  as  hierarchies  obtained 
control  over  men,  they  changed  the  channel  of  these  commu- 
nications between  heaven  and  earth.  An  ecclesiastical  bureau 
was  established  ;  and  it  was  decreed  that  all  the  telegraphic 
wires  should  centre  in  that,  so  that  all  the  communications 


REPORT   FOR   1848.  723 

between  man  and  his  Maker  should  be  subject  to  the  inspection 
of  its  chiefs,  and  carried  on  through  their  agency  alone.  Thus, 
whether  the  soul  had  gratitude  or  repentance  to  offer  to  its  God, 
or  light  or  forgiveness  to  receive  from  on  high,  the  whole  inter- 
course, in  both  directions,  must  go  through  the  government 
office,  and  there  be  subject  to  take  such  form,  to  be  added  to 
or  subtracted  from,  as  the  ministers  or  managers  in  possession 
of  power  might  deem  to  be  expedient.  Considering  the  na- 
ture of  man,  one  may  well  suppose  that  many  of  the  most  pre- 
cious of  the  messages  were  never  forwarded  ;  that  others  were 
perverted,  or  forged  ones  put  in  their  place ;  and  that,  in  some 
instances  at  least,  the  reception  of  fees  was  the  main  induce- 
ment to  keep  the  machinery  in  operation. 

Among  the  infinite  errors  and  enormities  resulting  from  sys- 
tems of  religion  devised  by  man,  and  enforced  by  the  terrors  of 
human  government,  have  been  those  dreadful  re-actions  which 
have  abjured  all  religion,  spurned  its  obligations,  and  voted  the 
Deity  into  non-existence.  This  extreme  is,  if  possible,  more 
fatal  than  that  by  which  it  was  produced.  Between  these 
extremes,  philanthropic  and  godly  men  have  sought  to  find  a 
medium,  which  should  avoid  both  the  evils  of  ecclesiastical 
tyranny  and  the  greater  evils  of  atheism.  And  this  medium 
lias  at  length  been  supposed  to  be  found.  It  is  promulgated  in 
the  great  principle,  that  government  should  do  all  that  it  can  to 
facilitate  the  acquisition  of  religious  truth,  but  shall  leave  the 
decision  of  the  question,  what  religious  truth  is,  to  the  arbit- 
rament, without  human  appeal,  of  each  man's  reason  and 
conscience  :  in  other  words,  that  government  shall  never,  by 
the  infliction  of  pains  and  penalties,  or  by  the  privation  of 
rights  or  immunities,  call  such  decision  either  into  pre-judg- 
meut  or  into  review.  The  formula  in  which  the  constitution 
of  Massachusetts  expresses  it  is  in  these  words  :  "  All  religious 
sects  and  denominations  demeaning  themselves  peaceably  and 
as  good  citizens  shall  be  equally  under  the  protection  of  law ; 
and  no  subordination  of  one  sect  or  denomination  to  another 
shall  ever  be  established  by  law." 


724  ANNUAL   REPORTS    ON   EDUCATION. 

The  great  truth  recognized  and  expressed  in  these  few  words 
of  our  constitution  is  one  which  it  has  cost  centuries  of  strug- 
gle and  of  suffering,  and  the  shedding  of  rivers  of  blood,  to  at- 
tain ;  and  he  who  would  relinquish  or  forfeit  it,  virtually  impe- 
trates  upon  his  fellow-men  other  centuries  of  suffering  and  the 
shedding  of  other  rivers  of  blood.  Nor  are  we  as  yet  entirely 
removed  from  all  danger  of  relapse.  The  universal  interfer- 
ence of  government  in  matters  of  religion,  for  so  many  centu- 
ries, has  hardened  the  public  mind  to  its  usurpations.  Men 
have  become  tolerant  of  intolerance  ;  and,  among  many  nations 
of  Christendom,  the  common  idea  of  religious  freedom  is  satis- 
fied by  an  exemption  from  fine  and  imprisonment  for  religious 
belief.  They  have  not  yet  reached  the  conception  of  equal 
privileges  and  franchises  for  all.  Doubtless  the  time  will  come 
when  any  interference,  either  by  positive  infliction  or  by  legal 
disability,  with  another  man's  conscience  iu  religious  concern- 
ments, so  long  as  he  molests  no  one  by  the  exercise  of  his  faith, 
will  be  regarded  as  the  crowning  and  superemineut  act  of  guilt 
which  one  human  being  can  perpetrate  against  another.  But 
this  time  is  far  from  having  yet  arrived,  and  nations  otherwise 
equally  enlightened  are  at  very  different  distances  from  this 
moral  goal.  The  oppressed,  on  succeeding  to  power,  are  prone 
to  become  oppressors  in  their  turn,  and  to  forget,  as  victors, 
the  lessons,  which,  as  victims,  they  had  learned. 

The  Colouial,  Provincial,  and  State  history  of  Massachusetts 
shows  by  what  slow  degrees  the  rigor  of  our  own  laws  was 
relaxed,  as  the  day-star  of  religious  freedom  slowly  arose  after 
the  long,  black  midnight  of  the  past.  It  was  not,  indeed,  until 
a  very  recent  period,  that  all  vestige  of  legal  penalty  or  coer- 
cion was  obliterated  from  our  statute-book,  and  all  sects  and 
denominations  were  placed  upon  a  footing  of  absolute  equality 
in  the  eye  of  the  law.  Until  the  ninth  day  of  April,  1821,  no 
person  in  Massachusetts  was  eligible  to  the  office  of  governor, 
lieutenant-governor,  or  councillor,  or  to  that  of  senator,  or  rep- 
resentative in  the  General  Court,  unless  he  would  make  oath  to 
a  belief  in  the  particular  form  of  religion  adopted  and  sane- 


REPORT   FOR    1848.  725 

tioned  by  the  State.  And  until  the  eleventh  day  of  November, 
1833,  every  citizen  was  taxable,  by  the  constitution  and  laws  of 
the  State,  for  the  support  of  the  Protestant  religion,  whether  he 
were  a  Protestant,  a  Catholic,  or  a  believer  in  any  other  faith. 
Nor  was  it  until  the  tenth  day  of  March,  1827  (St.  1826,  ch. 
143,  §  7),  that  it  was  made  unlawful  to  use  the  common  schools 
of  the  State  as  the  means  of  proselyting  children  to  a  belief  in 
the  doctrines  of  particular  sects,  whether  their  parents  believed 
in  those  doctrines  or  not. 

All  know  the  energetic  tendency  of  men's  minds  to  continue 
in  a  course  to  which  long  habit  has  accustomed  them.  The 
same  law  is  as  true  in  regard  to  institutions  administered 
by  bodies  of  men  as  in  regard  to  individual  minds.  The  doc- 
trine of  momentum,  or  head-way,  belongs  to  metaphysics  as 
much  as  to  mechanics.  A  statute  may  be  enacted,  and  may 
even  be  executed  by  the  courts,  long  before  it  is  ratified  and 
enforced  by  public  opinion.  Within  the  last  few  years,  how 
many  examples  of  this  truth  has  the  cause  of  temperance  fur- 
nished !  And  such  was  the  case  in  regard  to  the  law  of  1827, 
prohibiting  sectarian  instruction  in  our  public  schools.  It  was 
not  easy  for  committees  at  once  to  withdraw  or  to  exclude  the 
books,  nor  for  teachers  to  renounce  the  habits,  by  which  this 
kind  of  instruction  had  been  given.  Hence,  more  than  ten 
years  subsequent  to  the  passage  of  that  law,  at  the  time  Avhen 
I  made  my  first  educational  and  official  circuits  over  the  State, 
I  found  books  in  the  schools  as  strictly  and  exclusively  doc- 
trinal as  any  on  the  shelves  of  a  theological  library.  I  heard 
teachers  giving  oral  instruction  as  strictly  and  purely  doctrinal 
as  any  ever  heard  from  the  pulpit  or  from  the  professor's  chair. 
And  more  than  this  :  I  have  now  in  my  possession  printed 
directions,  given  by  committee-men  to  teachers,  enjoining  upon 
them  the  use  of  a  catechism  in  school,  which  is  wholly  de- 
voted to  an  exposition  of  the  doctrines  of  one  of  the  denomina- 
tions amongst  us.  These  directions  bear  date  a  dozen  years 
subsequent  to  the  prohibitory  law  above  referred  to.  I  pur- 
posely forbear  to  intimate  what  doctrine  or  what  denomination 


726  ANNUAL   REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

was  "  favored  ,"  in  the  language  of  the  law,  by  these  means, 
because  I  desire  to  have  this  statement  as  impersonal  as  it 
can  be. 

In  the  first  place,  then,  I  believed  these  proceedings  not 
only  to  be  wholly  unwarranted  by  law,  but  to  be  in  plain  con- 
travention of  law.  And,  in  the  next  place,  the  legislature  had 
made  it  the  express  duty  of  the  Secretary,  "  diligently  to 
apply  himself  to  the  object  of  collecting  information  of  the 
condition  of  the  public  schools  [throughout  the  State],  of 
the  fulfilment  of  the  duties  of  their  office  by  all  members  of 
the  school-committees  of  all  the  towns,  and  the  circumstances 
of  the  several  school-districts  in  regard  to  all  the  subjects 
of  teachers,  pupils,  books,  apparatus,  and  methods  of  educa- 
tion," and  so  forth.  I  believed  then,  as  now,  that  religious 
instruction  in  our  schools,  to  the  extent  which  the  constitution 
and  laws  of  the  State  allowed  and  prescribed,  was  indispensa- 
ble to  their  highest  welfare,  and  essential  to  the  vitality  of 
moral  education.  Then  as  now,  also,  I  believed  that  sectarian 
books  and  sectarian  instruction,  if  their  encroachments  were 
not  resisted,  would  prove  the  overthrow  of  the  schools. 
While,  on  the  one  hand,  therefore,  I  deplored,  in  language 
as  earnest  and  solemn  as  I  was  capable  of  commanding,  the 
insufficiency  of  moral  and  religious  instruction  given  in  the 
schools  ;  on  the  other  hand,  instead  of  detailing  what  I  be- 
lieved to  be  infractions  of  the  law  in  regard  to  sectarian 
instruction,  I  endeavored  to  set  forth  what  was  supposed  to  be 
the  true  meaning  and  intent  of  the  law.  Such  a  general 
statement  of  legal  limitations  and  prohibitions,  instead  of  a 
specific  arraignment  of  teachers  or  of  committees  for  disre- 
garding them,  I  judged  to  be  the  milder  and  more  eligible 
course.  Less  I  could  not  do,  and  discharge  the  duty  which 
the  law  had  expressly  enjoined  upon  me.  More  I  deemed  it 
(inadvisable  to  do,  lest  transgressors  should  take  offence  at  what 
they  might  deem  to  be  an  unnecessary  personal  exposure. 
And,  further,  I  had  confidence,  that  when  the  law  itself,  and 
the  reasons  of  equity  and  public  policy  on  which  it  was  founded, 


REPORT   FOR   1848.  727 

should  be  better  understood,  all  violations  of  it  would  cease. 
Every  word  of  my  early  Reports  having  any  reference  to  this 
subject  was  read  in  the  presence  of  the  Board,  on  which  sat 
able  lawyers  and  distinguished  clergymen  of  different  denomi- 
nations ;  and  no  word  of  exception  was  ever  taken  to  the  views 
there  presented,  either  on  the  ground  that  they  were  contrary 
to  law,  or  had  any  sinister  or  objectionable  tendency. 

No  person,  then,  in  the  whole  community,  could  have  been 
more  surprised  or  grieved  than  myself  at  finding  my  views  in 
regard  to  the  extent  and  the  limitation  of  religious  instruction 
in  our  public  schools  attributed  to  a  hostility  to  religion  itself, 
or  a  hostility  to  the  Scriptures,  which  are  the  "  lively  oracles  " 
of  the  Christian's  faith.  As  the  Board  was  implicated  with 
me  in  these  charges  (they  never  having  dissented  from  my 
views,  and  continuing  to  re-elect  me  annually  to  the  office  of 
Secretai'y),  it  is  well  known  to  its  earlier  members  that  I 
urged  the  propriety  of  their  meeting  these  charges  with  a  pub- 
lic and  explicit  denial  of  their  truth.  In  so  grave  a  matter,  I 
did  not  think  that  a  refutation  of  the  calumny  would  derogate 
from  their  dignity,  but  only  evince  the  sensitiveness  of  their 
moral  feelings,  and  the  firmness  of  their  moral  principles. 
Such  was  the  course  pursued  by  the  Board  of  Commissioners 
<»f  Education  in  Ireland,  composed  of  some  of  the  most  pious 
and  elevated  dignitaries  in  both  communions,  and  at  whose 
head  was  that  most  able  and  venerable  prelate,  Archbishop 
Whately.  When  their  conduct  was  assailed,  and  their  mo- 
tives impugned,  because  they  refused  to  turn  the  national 
schools  into  engines  for  proselyting  from  one  sect  to  another, 
they  met  the  charges  from  year  to  year  in  their  Annual 
Reports,  and  finally  discomfited  and  put  to  shame  their  bigoted 
assailants. 

To  my  suggestion  in  regard  to  vindicatory  measures,  the 
reply  was,  that,  as  the  charges  were  groundless,  they  probably 
would  be  temporary  ;  and  that  a  formal  reply  to  the  accusa- 
tions might  bestow  an  undeserved  importance  upon  the  accus- 
ers. Were  it  not  that  the  opinion  of  the  Board,  at  that  time, 


728  ANNUAL   REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

did  not  coincide  with  my  own,  I  should  still  think  that  an  early, 
temperate,  but  decided  refutation,  by  the  Board  itself,  of  the 
charges  against  them,  and  against  the  system  administered  by 
them  or  under  their  auspices,  would  have  been  greatly  pre- 
ventive of  evil,  and  fruitful  of  good.  The  pre-occupancy  of  the 
public  mind  with  error  on  so  important  a  subject  is  an  un- 
speakable calamity  ;  and  errors  that  derive  their  support  from 
religious  views  are  among  the  most  invincible.  But  different 
counsels  prevailed  ;  and  for  several  years,  in  certain  quarters, 
suspicions  continued  rife.  I  was  made  to  see,  and  deeply  to 
feel,  their  disastrous  and  alienating  influence  as  I  travelled 
about  the  State  ;  sometimes  withdrawing  the  hand  of  needed 
assistance,  and  sometimes,  when  conduct  extorted  approval, 
impeaching  the  motives  that  prompted  it.  For  no  cause,  not 
dearer  to  me  than  life  itself,  could  I  ever  have  persevered,  amid 
the  trials  and  anxieties,  and  against  the  obstacles,  that  beset  my 
path.  But  I  felt  that  there  is  a  profound  gratification  in  stand- 
ing by  a  good  cause  in  the  hour  of  its  adversity.  I  believed 
there  must  be  a  deeper  pleasure  in  following  truth  to  the  scaf- 
fold than  in  shouting  in  the  retinue  where  error  triumphs.  I 
felt,  too,  a  religious  confidence  that  truth  would  ultimately 
prevail ;  and  that  it  was  my  duty  to  labor  in  the  spirit  of  a 
genuine  disciple,  who  toils  on  with  equal  diligence  and  alacrity, 
whether  his  cause  is  to  be  crowned  with  success  in  his  own 
lifetime,  or  only  at  the  end  of  a  thousand  years.  And,  as  the 
complement  of  all  other  motives,  I  felt  that  a  true  education 
would  be  among  the  most  efficient  of  means  to  prevent  the 
re-appearance,  in  another  generation,  of  such  an  aggressive  and 
unscrupulous  opposition  as  the  Board  and  myself  were  suffer- 
ing under  in  this. 

After  years  of  endurance,  after  suffering  under  misconstruc- 
tions of  conduct,  and  the  imputation  of  motives  whose  edge  is 
sharper  than  a  knife,  it  was  at  my  suggestion,  and  by  making 
use  of  materials  which  I  had  laboriously  collected,  that  the 
Board  made  its  Eighth  Annual  Report,  — a  document  said  to  be 
the  ablest  argument  in  favor  of  the  use  of  the  Bible  in  schools 


REPORT   FOR    1848.  729 

anywhere  to  be  found.  This  Report  had  my  full  concurrence. 
Since  its  appearance,  I  have  always  referred  to  it  as  explana- 
tory of  the  views  of  the  Board,  and  as  setting  forth  the  law  of 
a  wise  commonwealth  and  the  policy  of  a  Christian  people. 
Officially  and  unofficially,  publicly  and  privately,  in  theory  and 
in  practice,  my  course  has  always  been  in  conformity  Avith  its 
doctrines.  And  I  avail  myself  of  this,  the  last  opportunity 
which  I  may  ever  have,  to  say,  in  regard  to  all  affirmations  or 
intimations  that  I  have  ever  attempted  to  exclude  religious 
instruction  from  school,  or  to  exclude  the  Bible  from  school, 
or  to  impair  the  force  of  that  volume,  that  they  are  now. 
and  always  have  been,  without  substance  or  semblance  of 
truth. 

But  it  may  still  be  said,  and  it  is  said,  that  however  sin- 
cere, or  however  religiously  disposed,  the  advocates  of  our 
school-system  may  be,  still  the  character  of  the  system  is  not 
to  be  determined  by  the  number  nor  by  the  sincerity  of  its 
defenders,  but  by  its  own  inherent  attributes ;  and  that,  if 
judged  by  these  attributes,  it  is,  in  fact  and  in  truth,  an  irreli- 
gious, an  un-Christian,  and  an  anti-Christian  system.  Having 
devoted  the  best  part  of  my  life  to  the  promotion  of  this  sys- 
tem, and  believing  it  to  be  the  only  system  which  ought  to 
prevail,  or  can  permanently  prevail,  in  any  free  country,  I  am 
not  content  to  see  it  suffer,  unrelieved,  beneath  the  weight  of 
imputations  so  grievous  ;  nor  is  it  right  that  any  hostile  system 
should  be  built  up  by  so  gross  a  misrepresentation  of  ours. 
That  our  public  schools  are  not  theological  seminaries,  is  ad- 
mitted. That  they  are  debarred  by  law  from  inculcating  the  pe- 
culiar and  distinctive  doctrines  of  any  one  religious  denomination 
amongst  us,  is  claimed  ;  and  that  they  are  also  prohibited  from 
ever  teaching  that  what  they  do  teach  is  the  whole  of  religion, 
or  all  that  is  essential  to  religion  or  to  salvation,  is  equally 
certain.  But  our  system  earnestly  inculcates  all  Christian 
morals  ;  it  founds  its  morals  ou  the  basis  of  religion  ;  it  wel- 
comes the  religion  of  the  Bible  ;  and,  in  receiving  the  Bible,  it 
allows  it  to  do  what  it  is  allowed  to  do  in  no  other  system,  — 


730  ANNUAL    REPORTS   ON    EDUCATION. 

to  speak  for  itself.  But  here  it  stops,  not  because  it  claims  to 
have  compassed  all  truth,  but  because  it  disclaims  to  act  as  an 
umpire  between  hostile  religious  opinions. 

The  very  terms  "public  school"  and  "common  school"  bear 
upon  their  face  that  they  are  schools  which  the  children  of  the 
entire  community  may  attend.  Every  man  not  on  the  pauper- 
list  is  taxed  for  their  support ;  but  he  is  not  taxed  to  support 
them  as  special  religious  institutions  :  if  he  were,  it  would 
satisfy  at  once  the  largest  definition  of  a  religious  establish- 
ment. But  he  is  taxed  to  support  them  as  a  preventive  means 
against  dishonesty,  against  fraud,  and  against  violence,  on  the 
same  principle  that  he  is  taxed  to  support  criminal  courts  as  a 
punitive  means  against  the  same  offences.  He  is  taxed  to  sup- 
port schools,  on  the  same  principle  that  he  is  taxed  to  support 
paupers,  —  because  a  child  without  education  is  poorer  and  more 
wretched  than  a  man  without  bread.  He  is  taxed  to  support 
schools,  on  the  same  principle  that  he  would  be  taxed  to  defend 
the  nation  against  foreign  invasion,  or  against  rapine  committed 
by  a  foreign  foe,  — because  the  general  prevalence  of  ignorance, 
superstition,  and  vice,  will  breed  Goth  and  Vandal  at  home 
more  fatal  to  the  public  well-being  than  any  Goth  or  Vandal 
from  abroad.  And,  finally,  he  is  taxed  to  support  schools, 
because  they  are  the  most  effective  means  of  developing  and 
training  those  powers  and  faculties  in  a  child,  by  which,  when 
he  becomes  a  man,  he  may  understand  what  his  highest  inter- 
ests and  his  highest  duties  are,  and  may  be  in  fact,  and  not  in 
name  only,  a  free  agent.  The  elements  of  a  political  educa- 
tion are  not  bestowed  upon  any  school  child  for  the  purpose 
of  making  him  vote  with  this  or  that  political  party  when  he 
becomes  of  age,  but  for  the  purpose  of  enabling  him  to  choose 
for  himself  with  which  party  he  will  vote.  So  the  religious 
education  which  a  child  receives  at  school  is  not  imparted  to 
him  for  the  purpose  of  making  him  join  this  or  that  denomina- 
tion when  he  arrives  at  years  of  discretion,  but  for  the  purpose 
of  enabling  him  to  judge  for  himself,  according  to  the  dictates 
of  his  own  reason  and  conscience,  what  his  religious  obligations 


REPORT  FOR   1848.  731 

are,  and  whither  they  lead.  But  if  a  man  is  taxed  to  support 
a  school  where  religious  doctrines  are  inculcated  which  he  be- 
lieves to  be  false,  and  which  he  believes  that  God  condemns, 
then  he  is  excluded  from  the  school  by  the  divine  law,  at  the 
same  time  that  he  is  compelled  to  support  it  by  the  human  law. 
This  is  a  double  wrong.  It  is  politically  wrong,  because,  if 
such  a  man  educates  his  children  at  all,  he  must  educate  them 
elsewhere,  and  thus  pay  two  taxes,  while  some  of  his  neighbors 
pay  less  than  their  due  proportion  of  one  ;  and  it  is  religiously 
wrong,  because  he  is  constrained  by  human  power  to  promote 
what  he  believes  the  divine  power  forbids.  The  principle 
involved  in  such  a  course  is  pregnant  with  all  tyrannical  conse- 
quences. It  is  broad  enough  to  sustain  any  claim  of  ecclesias- 
tical domination  ever  made  in  the  darkest  ages  of  the  world. 
Every  religious  persecution  since  the  time  of  Constantine  may 
find  its  warrant  in  it,  and  can  be  legitimately  defended  upon  it. 
If  a  man's  estate  may  be  taken  from  him  to  pay  for  teaching  a 
creed  which  he  believes  to  be  false,  his  children  can  be  taken 
from  him  to  be  taught  the  same  creed  ;  and  he,  too,  may  be 
punished  to  any  extent  for  not  voluntarily  surrendering  both 
his  estate  and  his  offspring.  If  his  children  can  be  compulso- 
rily  taken,  and  taught  to  believe  a  creed  which  the  parent  disbe- 
lieves, then  the  parent  can  be  compulsorily  taken,  and  made  to 
subscribe  the  same  creed.  And,  in  regard  to  the  extent  of  the 
penalties  which  may  be  invoked  to  compel  conformity,  there  is 
no  stopping-place  between  taking  a  penny  and  inflicting  perdi- 
tion. It  is  only  necessary  to  call  a  man's  reason  and  conscience 
and  religious  faith  by  the  name  of  recusancy  or  contumacy  or 
heresy,  and  so  to  inscribe  them  on  the  statute-book,  and  then  the 
non-conformist  or  dissenter  may  be  subdued  by  steel  or  cord 
or  fire  ;  by  anathema  and  excommunication  in  this  life,  and  the 
terrors  of  endless  perdition  in  the  next.  Surely  that  system 
cannot  be  an  irreligious,  an  anti-Christian,  or  an  un-Christian 
one,  whose  first  and  cardinal  principle  it  is  to  recognize  and 
protect  the  highest  and  dearest  of  all  human  interests  and  of 
all  human  rights. 


732  ANNUAL   REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

Again  :  it  seems  almost  too  clear  for  exposition,  that  our  sys- 
tem, in  one  of  its  most  essential  features,  is  not  only  not  an 
irreligious  one,  but  that  it  is  more  strictly  religious  than  any 
other  which  has  ever  yet  been  adopted.  Every  intelligent  man 
understands  what  is  meant  by  the  term  "jurisdiction."  It  is 
the  rightful  authority  which  one  person,  or  one  body  of  men, 
exercises  over  another  person  or  persons.  Every  intelligent 
man  understands  that  there  are  some  things  which  are  within 
the  jurisdiction  of  government,  and  other  things  which  are  not 
within  it.  As  Americans,  we  understand  that  there  is  a  line 
dividing  the  jurisdiction  of  the  State  governments  from  the 
jurisdiction  of  the  Federal  government,  and  that  it  is  a  viola- 
tion of  the  constitutions  of  both  for  either  to  invade  the  legiti- 
mate sphere  of  action  Avhich  belongs  to  the  other.  We  all 
understand,  that  neither  any  State  in  this  Union,  nor  the  Union 
itself,  has  any  right  of  interference  between  the  British  sover- 
eign and  a  British  subject,  or  between  the  French  government 
and  a  citizen  of  France.  Let  this  doctrine  be  applied  to  the 
relations  which  our  fellow-citizens  bear  to  the  rulers  who  have 
authority  over  them.  Primarily,  religious  rights  embrace  the 
relations  between  the  creature  and  the  Creator,  just  as  political 
rights  embrace  the  relations  between  subject  and  sovereign,  or 
between  a  free  citizen  and  the  government  of  his  choice,  and 
just  as  parental  rights  embrace  the  relation  between  parent 
and  child.  Eights,  therefore,  which  are  strictly  religious,  lie 
out  of  and  beyond  the  jurisdiction  of  civil  governments.  They 
belong  exclusively  to  the  jurisdiction  of  the  divine  government. 
If,  then,  the  State  of  Massachusetts  has  no  right  of  forcible 
interference  between  an  Englishman  or  a  Frenchman,  and  the 
English  or  French  government,  still  less,  far  less,  has  it  any 
right  of  forcible  interference  between  the  soul  of  man  and  the 
King  and  Lord  to  whom  that  soul  owes  undivided  and  supreme 
allegiance.  Civil  society  may  exist,  or  it  may  cease  to  exist. 
Civil  government  may  continue  for  centuries  in  the  hands  of 
the  same  dynasty,  or  it  may  change  hands,  by  revolution,  with 
every  new  .moon.  The  man  outcast  and  outlawed  to-day,  and 


REPORT   FOR    1848.  733 

to  whom,  therefore,  we  owe  no  obedience,  may  be  rightfully 
installed  in  office  to-morrow,  and  may  then  require  submission 
to  his  legitimate  authority.  The  civil  governor  may  resign  or 
be  deposed  ;  the  framework  of  the  government  may  be  changed, 
or  its  laws  altered  ;  so  that  the  duty  of  allegiance  to  a  temporal 
sovereign  may  have  a  succession  of  new  objects,  or  a  succes- 
sion of  new  definitious.  But  the  relation  of  man  to  his  Maker 
never  changes.  Its  object  and  its  obligations  are  immutable. 
The  jurisdiction  which  God  exercises  over  the  religious  obliga- 
tions which  his  rational  and  accountable  offspring  owe  to  him 
excludes  human  jurisdiction.  And  hence  it  is  that  religious 
rights  are  inalienable  rights.  Hence,  also,  it  is,  that  it  is  an 
infinitely  greater  offence  to  invade  the  special  and  exclusive 
jurisdiction  which  the  Creator  claims  over  the  consciences  and 
hearts  of  men  than  it  would  be  to  invade  the  jurisdiction  which 
any  foreign  nation  rightfully  possesses  over  its  own  subjects  or 
citizens.  The  latter  would  be  only  an  offence  against  interna- 
tional law ;  the  former  is  treason  against  the  majesty  of 
Heaven.  The  one  violates  secular  and  temporal  rights  only ; 
the  other  violates  sacred  and  eternal  ones.  When  the  British 
government  passed  its  various  statutes  of  prcemunire,  as  they 
were  called.  —  statutes  to  prevent  the  Roman  pontiff  from 
interfering  between  the  British  sovereign  and  the  British  sub- 
ject, —  it  was  itself  constantly  enacting  and  enforcing  laws 
which  interfered  between  the  Sovereign  of  the  universe  and  his 
subjects  upon  earth,  far  more  directly  and  aggressively  than 
any  edict  of  the  Roman  see  ever  interfered  with  any  allegiance 
due  from  a  British  subject  to  the  self-styled  defender  of  the 
faith. 

It  was  in  consequence  of  laws  that  invaded  the  direct  and 
exclusive  jurisdiction  which  our  Father  in  heaven  exercises 
over  his  children  upon  earth,  that  the  Pilgrims  fled  from  their 
native  land  to  that  which  is  the  land  of  our  nativity.  They 
sought  a  residence  so  remote  and  so  inaccessible,  in  the  hope 
that  the  prerogatives  of  the  Divine  Magistrate  might  no  longer 
he  set  at  nought  by  the  usurpations  of  the  civil  power.  Was  it 


734  ANNUAL   REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

not  an  irreligious  and  an  impious  act  on  the  part  of  the  British 
government  to  pursue  our  ancestors  with  such  cruel  penalties 
and  privations  as  to  drive  them  into  banishment  ?  Was  it  not 
a  religious  and  a  pious  act  in  the  Pilgrim  Fathers  to  seek  a 
place  of  refuge  where  the  arm  of  earthly  power  could  neither 
restrain  them  from  worshipping  God  in  the  manner  which  they 
believed  to  be  most  acceptable  to  him,  nor  command  their  wor- 
ship in  a  manner  believed  to  be  unacceptable?  And  if  it  was 
irreligious  in  the  British  government  to  violate  freedom  of  con- 
science in  the  case  of  our  forefathers  two  centuries  ago,  then  it 
is  more  flagrantly  irreligious  to  repeat  the  oppression  in  this 
more  enlightened  age  of  the  world.  If  it  was  a  religious  act 
in  our  forefathers  to  escape  from  ecclesiastical  tyranny,  then  it 
must  be  in  the  strictest  conformity  to  religion  for  us  to  abstain 
from  all  religious  oppression  over  others,  and  to  oppose  it 
wherever  it  is  threatened.  And  this  abstinence  from  religious 
oppression,  this  acknowledgment  of  the  rights  of  others,  this 
explicit  recognition  and  avowal  of  the  supreme  and  exclusive 
jurisdiction  of  Heaven,  and  this  denial  of  the  right  of  any 
earthly  power  to  encroach  upon  that  jurisdiction,  is  precisely 
what  the  Massachusetts  school-system  purports  to  do  in  theory, 
and  what  it  does  actually  in  practice.  Hence  I  infer  that  our 
system  is  not  an  irreligious  one,  but  is  iu  the  strictest  accord- 
ance with  religion  and  its  obligations. 

It  is  still  easier  to  prove  that  the  Massachusetts  school-sys- 
tem is  not  anti-Christian  nor  un-Christian.  The  Bible  is  the 
acknowledged  expositor  of  Christianity.  In  strictness,  Chris- 
tianity has  no  other  authoritative  expounder.  This  Bible  is  in 
our  common  schools  by  common  consent.  Twelve  years  ago, 
it  was  not  in  all  the  schools.  Contrary  to  the  genius  of  our 
government,  if  not  contrary  to  the  express  letter  of  the  law.  it 
had  been  used  for  sectarian  purposes,  —  to  prove  one  sect  to  be 
right,  and  others  to  be  wrong.  Hence  it  had  been  excluded 
from  the  schools  of  some  towns  by  an  express  vote.  But  since 
the  law,  and  the  reasons  on  which  it  is  founded,  have  beeu  more 
fully  explained  and  better  understood,  and  since  sectarian 


REPORT  FOR   1848.  735 

instruction  has,  to  a  great  extent,  ceased  to  be  given,  the  Bible 
has  been  restored.  I  am  not  aware  of  the  existence  of  a  single 
town  in  the  State  in  whose  schools  it  is  not  now  introduced, 
either  by  a  direct  vote  of  the  school-committee,  or  by  such 
general  desire  and  acquiescence  as  supersede  the  necessity  of  a 
vote.  In  all  my  intercourse  for  twelve  years,  whether  personal 
or  by  letter,  with  all  the  school-officers  in  the  State,  and  with 
tens  of  thousands  of  individuals  in  it,  I  have  never  heard  an 
objection  made  to  the  use  of  the  Bible  in  school,  except  in  one 
or  two  instances  ;  and,  in  those  cases,  the  objection  was  put  upon 
the  ground  that  daily  familiarity  with  the  book  in  school  would 
tend  to  impair  a  reverence  for  it. 

If  the  Bible,  then,  is  the  exponent  of  Christianity ;  if  the 
Bible  contains  the  communications,  precepts,  and  doctrines 
which  make  up  the  religious  system  called  and  known  as 
Christianity  ;  if  the  Bible  makes  known  those  truths,  which, 
according  to  the  faith  of  Christians,  are  able  to  make  men  wise 
unto  salvation  ;  and  if  this  Bible  is  in  the  schools,  —  how  can 
it  be  said  that  Christianity  is  excluded  from  the  schools  ?  or  how 
can  it  be  said  that  the  school-system  which  adopts  and  uses  the 
Bible  is  an  anti-Christian  or  an  uu-Christian  system?  If  that 
which  is  the  acknowledged  exponent  and  basis  of  Christianity 
is  in  the  schools,  by  what  tergiversation  in  language,  or  paralo- 
gism in  logic,  can  Christianity  be  said  to  be  shut  out  from  the 
schools?  If  the  Old  Testament  were  in  the  schools,  could  a 
Jew  complain  that  Judaism  was  excluded  from  them?  If  the 
Koran  were  read  regularly  and  reverently  in  the  schools,  could 
a  Mahometan  say  that  Mahometanism  was  excluded  ?  Or,  if 
the  Mormon  Bible  were  in  the  schools,  could  it  be  said  that 
Mormonism  was  excluded  from  them? 

Is  it  not,  indeed,  too  plain  to  require  the  formality  of  a  syl- 
logism, that  if  any  man's  creed  is  to  be  found  in  the  Bible,  and 
the  Bible  is  in  the  schools,  then  that  man's  creed  is  in  the 
schools?  This  seems  even  plainer  than  the  proposition,  that 
two  and  two  make  four ;  that  is,  we  can  conceive  of  a  creature 
so  low  down  in  the  scale  of  intelligence,  that  he  could  not  see 


736  ANNUAL   REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

what  sum  would  be  produced  by  adding  two  and  two  together, 
who  still  could  not  fail  to  see,  that,  if  a  certain  system  called 
Christianity  were  contained  in  and  inseparable  from  a  certain 
book  called  the  Bible,  then,  wherever  the  Bible  might  go,  there 
the  system  of  Christianity  must  be.  If  a  vase  of  purest  ala- 
baster, filled  with  myrrh  and  frankincense  and  precious  oint- 
ments, were  in  the  school,  would  not  their  perfumes  be  there 
also?  And  would  the  beautiful  vase,  and  the  sweet  aroma  of 
spice  and  unguent,  be  any  more  truly  there,  if  some  concocter 
of  odors,  such  as  Nature  never  made,  should  insist  upon  satu- 
rating the  air  with  the  products  of  his  own  distillations,  which, 
though  pleasant  to  his  idiosyncrasy,  would  be  nauseous  to  every- 
body else?  But  if  a  man  is  conscious  or  suspicious  that  his 
creed  is  not  in  the  Bible,  but  resolves  that  it  shall  be  in  the 
schools  at  any  rate,  then  it  is  easy  to  see  that  he  has  a  motive 
either  to  exclude  the  Bible  from  school,  or  to  introduce  some 
other  book,  or  some  oral  interpreter  in  company  with  it,  to 
misconstrue  and  override  it.  If  the  Bible  is  in  the  schools,  we 
can  see  a  reason  why  a  Jew,  who  disbelieves  in  the  mission  of 
our  Saviour,  or  a  Mahometan,  who  believes  in  that  of  the 
Prophet,  should  desire,  by  oral  instruction  or  catechism  or 
otherwise,  to  foist  in  his  own  views,  and  thereby  smother  all 
conflicting  views  ;  but  even  they  would  not  dare  to  say  that  the 
schools  where  the  Bible  was  found  were  either  anti-Christian 
or  un-Christian.  So  fur  from  this,  if  they  were  candid,  they 
would  acknowledge  that  the  system  of  Christianity  was  in  the 
schools,  and  that  they  wished  to  neutralize  and  discard  it  by 
hostile  means. 

And  further :  our  law  explicitly  and  solemnly  enjoins  it 
upon  all  teachers,  without  any  exception,  "  to  exert  their  best 
endeavors  to  impress  on  the  minds  of  children  and  youth  com- 
mitted to  their  care  and  instruction  the  principles  of  piety, 
justice,  and  a  sacred  regard  to  truth,  love  to  their  country, 
humanity,  and  universal  benevolence,  sobriety,  industry,  and 
frugality,  chastity,  moderation,  and  temperance,  and  those 
other  virtues  which  are  the  ornament  of  human  society,  and 


REPORT   FOR   1848.  737 

the  basis  upon  which  a  republican  constitution  is  founded." 
Are  not  these  virtues  and  graces  part  and  parcel  of  Chris- 
tianity? In  other  words,  can  there  be  Christianity  without 
them?  While  these  virtues  and  these  duties  towards  God  and 
man  are  inculcated  in  our  schools,  any  one  who  says  that  the 
schools  are  anti-Christian  or  un-Christian  expressly  affirms 
that  his  own  system  of  Christianity  does  not  embrace  any  one 
of  this  radiant  catalogue  ;  that  it  rejects  them  all ;  that  it  em- 
braces their  opposites. 

And  further  still :  our  system  makes  it  the  express  duty  of 
all  the  "  resident  ministers  of  the  gospel "  to  bring  all  the 
children  within  the  moral  and  Christian  inculcations  above 
enumerated ;  so  that  he  who  avers  that  our  system  is  an  anti- 
Christian  or  an  uu-Christian  one  avers  that  it  is  both  anti- 
Christian  and  un-Christian  for  a  "  minister  OF  THE  GOSPEL"  to 
promote,  or  labor  to  diffuse,  the  moral  attributes  and  excel- 
lences which  the  statute  so  earnestly  enjoins. 

So  far,  the  argument  has  been  of  an  affirmative  character. 
Its  scope  and  purpose  show,  or  at  least  tend  to  show,  by  direct 
proof,  that  the  school-system  of  Massachusetts  is  not  an  anti- 
Christian  nor  an  un-Christian  system.  But  there  is  still  an- 
other mode  of  proof.  The  truth  of  a  proposition  may  be  estab- 
lished by  showing  the  falsity  or  absurdity  of  all  conflicting 
propositions.  So  far  as  this  method  can  be  applied  to  moral 
questions,  its  aid  may  safely  be  invoked  here. 

What  are  the  other  courses  which  the  State  of  Massachu- 
setts might  adopt  or  sanction  in  relation  to  the  education  of  its 
youth  ?  They  are  these  four  :  — 

1.  It  might  establish  schools,  but  expressly  exclude  all  reli- 
gious instruction  from  them,  making  them  merely  schools  for 
secular  instruction. 

2.  It  might  adopt  a  course  directly  the  reverse  of  this.     It 
might  define  and  prescribe  a  system  of  religion  for  the  schools, 
and  appoint  the  teachers  and  officers,  whose  duty  it  should  be 
to  carry  out  that  system. 

3.  It  might  establish  schools  by  law,  and  empower  each 

47 


738  ANNUAL   REPORTS   ON  EDUCATION. 

religious  sect,  whenever  and  wherever  it  could  get  a  majority, 
to  determine  what  religious  faith  should  be  taught  in  them. 
And, 

4.  It  might  expressly  disclaim  and  refuse  all  interference 
with  the  education  of  the  young,  and  abandon  the  whole  work 
to  the  hazards  of  private  enterprise,  or  to  parental  will,  ability, 
or  caprice. 

1.  A  system  of  schools  from  which  all  religious  instruction 
should  be  excluded  might  properly  be  called  uu-Christian,  or 
rather  non-Christian,  in  the  same  sense  in  which  it  could  be 
called  non-Jewish  or  non-Mahometan  ;   that  is,  as  having  no 
connection  with  either.     I  do  not  suppose  a  man  can  be  found 
in  Massachusetts  who  would  declare  such  a  system  to  be  his 
first  choice. 

2.  Were  the  State  to  establish  schools,  and  prescribe  a  sys- 
tem of  religion  to  be  taught  in  them,  and  appoint  the  teachers 
and  officers  to  superintend  it,  could  there  be  any  better  defi- 
nition  or  exemplification   of  an    ecclesiastical    establishment? 
Such  a  system  would  create  at  once  the  most  formidable  and 
terrible    hierarchy    ever   established    upon    earth.       It    would 
plunge  society  back  into  the  dark  ages  at  one  precipitation. 
The  people  would  be  compelled  to  worship  the  image  which 
the  government,  like  another  Nebuchadnezzar,  might  set  up ; 
and,  for  any  refusal,  the  fiery  furnace,  seven  times  heated,  would 
be  their  fate.     And  worse  than  this.     The  sacerdotal  tyranny 
of  the  dark  ages,  aud  of  more  ancient  as  well  as  of  more  mod- 
ern times,  addressed  its  commands  to  men.     Against  men  it 
fulminated   its  anathemas.     On  men  its  lightnings  fell.     But 
men  had  free  agency.     They  could  sometimes  escape.     They 
could   always   resist.     They  were  capable  of  thought.     They 
had  powers  of  endurance.     They  could  be  upheld  by  a  sense 
of  duty   here,   and   by   visions   of  ti'anscendiug  rewards   aud 
glories  hereafter.     They  could  proclaim  truth  in  the  gaspiugs 
of  death,  —  on  the  scaffold,  in  the  fire,  in  the  interludes  of  the 
rack,  —  and  leave  it  as  a  legacy  and  a  testimony  to  others. 
But  children  have  no  such  resources  to  ward  off  tyranny,  or  to 


REPORT   FOR    1848.  739 

endure  it?  terrors.  They  are  incapable  of  the  same  compre- 
hensive survey  of  truth,  of  the  same  invincible  resolve,  of  being 
inspired  with  an  all-sustaining  courage  and  endurance  from  the 
realities  of  another  life.  They  would  die  under  imprisonment. 
Affrighted  at  the  sight  of  the  stake,  or  of  any  of  the  dread  ma- 
chinery of  torture,  they  would  surrender  their  souls  to  be  dis- 
torted into  any  deformity,  or  mutilated  into  any  hideousness. 
Before  the  process  of  starvation  had  gone  on  for  a  day,  they 
would  swallow  any  belief,  from  Atheism  to  Thuggery. 

For  any  human  government,  then,  to  attempt  to  coerce  and 
predetermine  the  religious  opinions  of  children  by  law,  and 
contrary  to  the  will  of  their  parents,  is  unspeakably  more  crimi- 
nal than  the  usurpation  of  such  control  over  the  opinions  of 
men.  The  latter  is  treason  against  truth ;  but  the  former  is 
sacrilege.  As  the  worst  of  all  crimes  against  chastity  are 
those  which  debauch  the  infant  victim  before  she  knows  what 
chastity  is,  so  the  worst  of  all  crimes  against  religious  truth 
arc  those  which  forcibly  close  up  the  avenues  and  bar  the  doors 
that  lead  to  the  forum  of  reason  and  conscience.  The  spirit  of 
ecclesiastical  domination  in  modern  times,  finding  that  the 
principles  of  men  are  too  strong  for  it,  is  attempting  the  seduc- 
tion of  children.  Fearing  the  opinions  that  may  be  developed 
by  mature  reflection,  it  anticipates  and  forestalls  those  opin- 
ions, and  seeks  to  imprint  upon  the  ignorance  and  receptiveness 
of  childhood  the  convictions  which  it  could  never  fasten  upon 
the  minds  of  men  in  their  maturity.  As  an  instance  of  this,  the 
••  Factories  Bill,"  so  called,  which,  in  the  year  1843,  was  sub- 
mitted by  Sir  James  Graham  to  the  British  Parliament,  may 
be  cited.  Among  other  things,  this  bill  provided  that  schools 
should  be  established  in  manufacturing  districts,  under  the 
auspices  of  the  nation,  and  partly  at  its  expense.  These 
schools  were  to  be  placed  under  the  immediate  superintendence 
and  visitation  of  officers  appointed  by  the  government.  No 
teacher  was  to  be  eligible,  unless  approved  by  a  bishop  or  arch- 
bishop. Any  parent  who  hired  out  his  child  to  work  in  a 
factory  for  half  a  day,  unless  he  should  go  to  this  sectarian  or 


740  ANNUAL   REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

government  school  the  other  half  of  the  day,  was  to  be  fined  ; 
and,  for  non-payment  of  the  fine,  imprisonment  was  the  legal 
^consequence.  So  any  overseer  or  factory  proprietor,  who 
should  employ  a  child  for  half  a  day  who  did  not  attend 
school  the  other  half,  was  also  subject  to  a  fine  ;  and,  of  course, 
to  imprisonment,  if  the  fine  were  not  paid.  It  did  not  at  all 
alter  the  principle,  that  in  a  few  excepted  cases,  owing  to  the 
peculiar  nature  of  the  work,  the  children  were  allowed  to 
prosecute  it  for  a  whole  day,  or  for  two  or  three  days  in  suc- 
cession ;  because,  just  so  long  as  they  were  permitted  to  work, 
just  so  long  were  they  required  to  go  to  the  school  after  the 
work.  Nor,  in  the  great  majority  of  cases,  was  it  any  mitiga- 
tion of  the  plan,  that,  if  the  parents  would  provide  a  separate 
school  for  their  children  at  their  own  expense,  they  might  send 
to  it ;  because  not  one  in  ten  of  the  operatives  had  either  time 
or  knowledge  to  found  such  a  school,  or  pecuniary  ability  to 
pay  its  expenses  if  it  were  founded.  The  direct  object  and 
effect,  therefore,  of  the  proposed  law,  were  to  compel  children 
to  attend  the  government  school,  and  to  be  taught  the  govern- 
ment religion,  under  the  penalty  of  starvation  or  the  poor- 
house.  Children  were  debarred  from  a  morsel  of  bread,  unless 
they  took  it  saturated  with  the  government  theology. 

Now,  to  the  moral  sentiments  of  every  lover  of  truth,  of 
every  lover  of  freedom  for  the  human  soul,  is  there  not  a  mean- 
ness, is  there  not  an  infamy,  in  such  a  law,  compared  with 
which  the  bloody  statutes  of  Elizabeth  and  Mary  were  mag- 
nanimous and  honorable?  To  bring  the  awful  forces  of  govern- 
ment to  bear  upon  and  to  crush  such  lofty  and  indomitable 
souls  as  those  of  Latimer  and  Cranmer,  of  Ridley  and  Rogers, 
one  would  suppose  to  be  diabolical  enough  to  satisfy  the  worst 
spirits  in  the  worst  regions  of  the  universe  ;  but  for  a  govern- 
ment to  doom  its  children  to  starvation  unless  they  will  say  its 
catechism,  and  to  imprison  the  parent,  and  compel  him  to  hear 
the  wailiugs  of  his  own  famishing  offspring,  —  compel  him  to 
see  them  perish,  physically  by  starvation,  or  morally  by  igno- 
rance, unless  he  will  consent  that  they  shall  be  taught  such 


REPORT   FOR    1818.  741 

religious  doctrines  as  he  believes  will  be  a  peril  and  a  de- 
struction to  their  immortal  souls,  —  is  it  not  the  essence  of  all 
tyrannies,  of  all  crimes,  and  of  all  baseness,  concreted  into 
one? 

Such  a  system  as  this  stands  in  the  strongest  possible  con- 
trast to  the  Massachusetts  system.  Will  those  who  call  our 
system  un-Christian  and  anti-Christian  adopt  and  practise  this 
system  a's  Christian  and  religious? 

3.  As  a  third  method,  the  government  might  establish  schools 
by  lu\v,  and  empower  each  religious  sect,  whenever  and  wher- 
ever  it  could  get  a  majority,  to  determine  what  religious  faith 
should  be  taught  in  them. 

Under  such  a  system,  each  sect  would  demand  that  its  own 
faith  should  be  inculcated  in  all  the  schools,  and  this  on  the 
clear  and  simple  ground  that  such  faith  is  the  only  true  one. 
Each  differing  faith  believed  in  by  all  the  other  sects,  must,  of 
course,  be  excluded  from  the  schools ;  and  this  on  the  equally 
clear  and  simple  ground  that  there  can  be  but  one  true  faith  : 
and  which  that  is  has  already  been  determined,  and  is  no 
longer  an  open  question.  Under  such  a  system,  it  will  not 
suffice  to  have  the  Bible  in  the  schools  to  speak  for  itself. 
Each  sect  will  rise  up,  and  virtually  say,  "Although  the  Bible 
from  Genesis  to  Revelation  is  in  the  schools,  yet  its  true  mean- 
ing and  doctrines  are  not  there  :  Christianity  is  not  there,  unless 
our  commentary,  our  creed,  or  our  catechism,  is  there  also.  A 
revelation  from  God  is  not  sufficient.  Our  commentary  or  our 
teacher  must  go  with  it  to  reveal  what  the  revelation  means. 
Our  book  or  our  teacher  must  be  superadded  to  the  Bible,  as 
an  appendix  or  an  erratum  is  subjoined  at  the  end  of  a  volume 
to  supply  oversights  and  deficiencies,  and  to  rectify  the  errors 
of  the  text.  It  is  not  sufficient  that  the  Holy  Ghost  has  spoken 
by  the  mouth  of  David  ;  it  is  not  sufficient  that  God  has 
spoken  by  the  mouth  of  all  his  holy  prophets  which  have  been 
since  the  world  began  ;  it  is  not  sufficient  that  you  have  the 
words  of  one  who  spoke  as  never  man  spake  :  all  this  leaves 
you  in  fatal  ignorance  and  error,  unless  you  have  our 


742  ANNUAL    REPORTS    ON   EDUCATION. 

'•addenda'  and  'corrigenda,' — our  things  to  be  supplied, 
and  things  to  be  corrected.  Nay,  we  affirm,  that,  without  our 
interpretation  and  explanation  of  the  faith  which  was  once 
delivered  unto  the  saints,  all  that  the  Holy  Ghost  and  God  and 
Christ  have  promulgated,  and  taught  to  men,  still  leaves  your 
system  an  uu-Christian  and  an  anti-Christian  system.  To  accept 
a  revelation  directly  from  Jehovah  is  not  enough.  His  revela- 
tion must  pass  through  our  hands ;  his  infinite  Mind  must  be 
measured  and  squared  by  our  minds :  we  have  sat  in  council 
over  his  law,  his  promises,  and  his  threatenings,  and  have 
decided,  definitively,  uuappealably,  and  forever,  upon  the  only 
true  interpretation  of  them  all.  Your  schools  may  be  like  the 
noble  Bereans,  searching  the  Scriptures  daily ;  but,  unless  the 
result  of  those  searchings  have  our  countersign  and  indorse- 
ment, those  schools  are  un-Christian  and  anti-Christian." 

Now,  it  is  almost  too  obvious  to  be  mentioned,  that  such  a 
claim  as  the  above  reduces  society  at  once  to  this  dilemma :  if 
one  religious  sect  is  authorized  to  advance  it  for  itself,  then  all 
other  sects  are  equally  authorized  to  do  the  same  thing  for 
themselves.  The  right  being  equal  among  all  the  sects,  and  each 
sect  being  equally  certain  and  equally  determined,  what  shall 
be  done?  Will  not  each  sect,  acting  under  religious  impulses, 
—  which  are  the  strongest  impulses  that  ever  animate  the 
breast  of  man,  —  will  not  each  sect  do  its  utmost  to  establish 
its  supremacy  in  all  the  schools?  Will  not  the  heats  and  ani- 
mosities engendered  in  families  and  among  neighbors  burst 
forth  with  a  devouring  fire  in  the  primary  or  district  school- 
meetings?  and,  when  the  inflammable  materials  of  all  the  dis- 
trict-meetings are  gathered  together  in  the  town-meeting,  what 
can  quell  or  quench  the  flames  till  the  zealots  themselves  are 
consumed  in  the  conflagration  they  have  kindled?  Why  would 
not  all  those  machinations  and  oppressions  be  resorted  to,  in 
order  to  obtain  the  ascendency,  it'  religious  proselytism  should 
be  legalized  in  the  schools,  which  would  be  resorted  to,  as  I 
have  endeavored,  in  a  preceding  part  of  this  Report,  to  explain, 
if  political  proselytism  were  permitted  in  the  schools?  Suppose, 


REPORT   FOR   1848.  743 

at  last,  that  different  sects  should  obtain  predominance  in  dif- 
ferent schools,  — just  as  is  done  by  different  religions  in  the 
different  nations  in  Europe  ;  so  that,  in  one  school,  one  sys- 
tem of  doctrines  should  be  taught  to  the  children  under  the 
sanctions  of  law  as  eternal  truth  ;  and,  in  the  neighboring 
schools,  other  and  opposite  systems  should  also  be  taught  as 
eternal  truth.  Under  such  circumstances,  perhaps  it  is  not  too 
much  to  suppose,  that  although  some  of  the  weaker  sects 
might  be  crushed  out  of  existence  at  once,  yet  that  all  the 
leading  denominations,  with  their  divisions  and  subdivisions, 
would  have  their  representative  schools.  Into  these,  their 
respective  catechisms  or  articles  of  faith  would  be  introduced. 
And  though  the  Bible  itself  might  accompany  them,  yet,  if  we 
may  judge  from  the  history  of  all  the  religious  struggles  by 
which  the  world  has  been  afflicted,  the  Bible  would  become  the 
incident,  and  the  catechism  or  articles  the  principal.  And  if 
these  various  catechisms  or  articles  do  declare,  as  is  averred 
by  each  party,  what  the  Bible  means,  and  what  the  Christian 
religion  is,  then  what  a  piebald,  heterogeneous,  and  self-con- 
tradictory system  does  Christianity  become  !  Suppose  these 
schools  to  be  brought  nearer  together,  within  hearing  dis- 
tance of  each  other,  how  discordant  are  the  sounds  they 
utter  !  Bring  them  under  the  same  roof,  remove  partition,  or 
other  architectural  barrier,  so  that  they  may  occupy  the  same 
apartment,  so  that  the  classes  may  sit  side  by  side ;  and  does 
the  spectacle  which  they  now  exhibit  illustrate  the  one  indivisi- 
ble, all-glorious  system  of  Christianity?  or  is  it  the  return  of 
Babel?  Would  such  a  system  as  this  be  called  Christian  by 
those  who  denounce  our  system  as  anti-Christian? 

Is  there  not,  on  the  contrary,  an  unspeakable  value  in  the 
fact,  that,  under  the  Massachusetts  system,  the  Bible  is  allowed 
to  speak  for  itself?  Under  a  system  opposite  to  ours,  this  right 
of  speaking  for  itself  would  never  be  vouchsafed  to  it.  And 
how  narrow  is  the  distance  between  those  who  would  never 
allow  the  Bible  to  be  read  by  the  people  at  all,  and  those  who 
will  allow  it  to  be  read  only  in  the  presence  of  a  government 


744  ANNUAL    REPORTS    ON   EDUCATION. 

interpreter !  If  government  and  teachers  really  believe  the 
Bible  to  be  the  word  of  God,  —  as  strictly  and  literally  given 
by  his  inspiration  as  the  tables  of  the  law  which  Moses 
brought  down  from  the  mount  were  written  by  his  finger,  — 
then  they  cannot  deny,  that,  when  the  Bible  is  read,  God 
speaks,  just  as  literally  and  truly  as  an  orator  or  a  poet 
speaks  when  his  oration  or  his  poem  is  rehearsed.  With  this 
belief,  it  is  no  figure  of  speech  to  say,  when  the  lids  of  the 
Bible  are  opened  in  school  that  its  oracles  may  be  uttered,  that 
the  lips  of  Jehovah  are  opened  that  he  may  commune  with  all 
his  children,  of  whatever  faith,  who  may  be  there  assembled. 
Is  that  a  time  and  an  occasion  for  a  worm  of  the  dust,  a  crea- 
ture of  yesterday,  to  rush  in  and  close  the  book,  and  silence  the 
Eternal  One,  that  he  may  substitute  some  form  of  faith  of  his 
own,  —  some  form,  either  received  from  tradition,  or  reasoned 
out  or  guessed  out  by  his  fallible  faculties,  —  and  impose  it 
upon  the  children  as  the  plainer  and  better  word  of  God? 
Or  when  the  allotted  hour  for  religious  instruction  comes,  or 
the  desire  arises  in  the  teacher's  mind  that  the  children  of  the 
school  should  hold  communion  with  their  heavenly  Father, 
suppose  that  Father,  instead  of  the  medium  of  the  Bible,  should 
send  an  angel  from  his  throne  to  make  known  to  them  his 
commands  and  his  benedictions  by  living  lips  and  in  celestial 
words.  Would  that  be  a  time  for  the  chiefs  of  twenty  differ- 
ent sects  to  rush  in  with  their  twenty  different  catechisms,  and 
thrust  the  heavenly  messenger  aside,  and  struggle  to  see  which 
could  out-vociferate  the  rest  in  proclaiming  what  the  visitant 
from  on  high  was  about  to  declare? 

I  hold  it,  then,  to  be  one  of  the  excellences,  one  of  the  moral 
beauties,  of  the  Massachusetts  system,  that  there  is  one  place 
in  the  land  where  the  children  of  all  the  different  denomina- 
tions are  brought  together  for  instruction,  where  the  Bible  is 
allowed  to  speak  for  itself;  one  place  where  the  children  can 
kneel  at  a  common  altar,  uud  feel  that  they  have  a  common 
Father,  and  where  the  services  of  religion  tend  to  create 
brothers,  aud  not  Ishmaelites.  If  this  be  so,  then  it  does  vio- 


REPORT   FOR   1848.  745 

lence  to  truth  to  call  our  system  anti-Christian  or  un-Chris- 
tian. 

Thus  far,  under  this  head,  I  have  supposed  that  the  different 
sects,  in  their  contests  for  supremacy,  would  keep  the  peace. 
But  every  page  in  the  history  of  polemic  struggles  shows  such 
a  supposition  to  be  delusive.  In  the  contests  for  victory,  suc- 
cess would  lead  to  haughtiness,  and  defeat  to  revenge.  Affini- 
ties and  repulsions  would  gather  men  into  bodies  :  these  bodies 
would  become  battalions,  and  would  set  themselves  in  hostile 
array  against  each  other.  Weakness  of  argument  would  re-en- 
force itself  by  strength  of  arm ;  and  the  hostile  parties  would 
appeal  from  the  tribunal  of  reason  to  the  arbitrameut  of  war. 
But  after  cities  had  been  burned,  and  men  slaughtered  by 
thousands,  and  every  diabolical  passion  in  the  human  breast 
satiated,  and  the  combatants  were  forced,  from  mere  exhaus- 
tion, to  rest  upon  their  arms,  it  would  be  found,  on  a  re-exami- 
nation of  the  controverted  grounds,  that  not  a  rule  of  interpre- 
tation had  been  altered,  not  the  tense  of  a  single  verb  in  any 
disputed  text  had  been  changed,  not  a  Hebrew  point  nor  a 
Greek  article  had  been  added  or  taken  away,  but  that  every 
subject  of  dispute  remained  as  unsettled  and  uncertain  as  be- 
fore. Is  any  system,  which,  by  the  law  of  the  human  passions, 
leads  to  such  results,  either  Christian  or  religious  ? 

4.  One  other  system,  if  it  may  be  so  called,  is  supposable  ; 
and  this  exhausts  the  number  of  those  which  stand  in  direct 
conflict  with  ours.  It  is  this :  Government  might  expressly 
disclaim  and  refuse  all  interference  with  the  education  of  the 
young,  abandoning  the  whole  work  to  the  hazards  of  private 
enterprise,  or  to  parental  will,  ability,  or  caprice. 

The  first  effect  of  this  course  would  be  the  abandonment  of 
a  large  portion  of  the  children  of  every  community  to  hopeless 
and  inevitable  ignorance.  Even  with  all  the  aids,  incitements, 
and  bounties  now  bestowed  upon  education  by  the  most  en- 
lightened States  in  this  Union,  there  exists  a  perilous  and  a 
growing  body  of  ignorance,  animated  by  the  soul  of  vice. 
Were  government  systems  to  be  abolished,  and  all  government 


746  ANNUAL   REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

aids  to  be  withdrawn,  the  number  of  American  children,  who, 
in  the  next  generation,  would  be  doomed  to  all  the  wants  and 
woes  that  can  come  in  the  train  of  ignorance  and  error,  would 
be  counted  by  millions.  This  abandoned  portion  of  the  com- 
munity would  be  left,  without  any  of  the  restraints  of  educa- 
tion, to  work  cut  the  infinite  possibilities  of  human  depravity. 
In  the  more  favored  parts  of  the  country,  the  rich  might  edu- 
cate their  own  children  ;  although  it  is  well  known,  even  now, 
that,  throughout  extensive  regions  of  the  South  and  West,  the 
best  education  which  wealth  can  procure  is  meagre  and  stinted, 
and  alloyed  with  much  error.  The  "  parochial  "  or  "  secta- 
rian "  system  might  effect  something  in  populous  places  ;  but 
what  could  it  do  in  rural  districts,  where  so  vast  a  proportion 
of  all  the  inhabitants  of  this  country  reside  ?  In  speaking  of 
the  difficulties  of  establishing  schools  at  the  West,  Miss  Beecher 
gives  an  account  of  a  single  village  which  she  found  there,  con- 
sisting of  only  four  hundred  inhabitants,  where  there  were 
fourteen  different  denominations.  "  Of  the  most  numerous 
portions  of  these,"  she  says,  "  each  was  jealous  lest  another 
should  start  a  church  first,  and  draw  in  the  rest.  The  result 
was,  neither  church  nor  Sunday  school  of  any  kind  was  in 
existence."  Of  another  place  she  says,  "  I  found  two  of  the 
most  influential  citizens  arrayed  against  each  other,  and  sup- 
ported by  contending  partisans,  so  that  whatever  school  one 
portion  patronized  the  other  would  oppose.  The  result,  was, 
no  school  could  be  raised  large  enough  to  support  any  teacher." 
And  again :  "  In  another  large  town,  I  was  informed  by  one 
of  the  clergymen  that  no  less  than  twenty  different  teachers 
opened  schools  and  gave  them  up  in  about  six  months." 

In  a  population  of  four  hundred,  there  would  be  about  one 
hundred  children  who  ought  to  attend  school ;  although  this 
proportion,  on  an  average  of  the  whole  country,  is  nearly  three*- 
fold  the  number  of  actual  attendants.  One  hundred  children 
would  furnish  the  materials  for  a  good  school,  but,  divided 
between  fourteen  different  schools,  would  give  only  seven  chil- 
dren and  one-seventh  of  a  child  to  each  school.  How  impossi- 


REPORT   FOR    1848.  747 

ble  to  sustain  schools  on  such  a  basis  !  The  more  numerous 
sects,  it  is  true,  would  have  a  larger  proportion  ;  but  just  so 
much  less  would  be  the  proportion  of  the  smaller  sects,  and 
doubtless  there  would  be  some  who  would  be  fully  represented 
by  the  above-mentioned  fraction  of  one-seventh  of  a  child.  But 
let  us  take  the  case  of  Massachusetts,  where  the  population  has 
a  density  of  five  times  the  average  of  the  other  States  in  the 
Union,  and  let  us  see  how  insane  and  suicidal  would  be  such 
a  course  of  policy  even  with  us.  Leaving  out  all  the  cities, 
there  are  three  hundred  and  five  towns,  in  Massachusetts  ;  and 
these  comprise  most  of  the  rural  and  sparsely-populated  portion 
of  the  State.  These  three  hundred  and  five  towns  have  an 
average  of  eleven  schools  (wanting  a  very  small  fraction)  for 
each.  Two  hundred  and  twenty-six  of  these  three  hundred 
and  five  towns  have  a  population,  according  to  the  last  census, 
of  less  than  twenty-two  hundred  each.  If  there  are  twenty-two 
hundred  inhabitants  and  eleven  schools  in  a  town,  each  school 
represents  an  average  of  two  hundred  inhabitants.  Including 
every  child  who  was  found  in  all  our  public  schools  last  year, 
for  any  part  either  of  the  summer  or  winter  terms,  they  would 
make  a  mean  average  for  those  terms  of  only  forty-eight  to  a 
school.  Now,  suppose  these  forty-eight  scholars  to  be  divided, 
not  between  "fourteen,"  but  only  between  fo ur  different  denom- 
inations, there  would  be  but  twelve  to  a  school.  Connect  this 
result  with  the  fact  that  Massachusetts  has  a  population  five 
times  as  dense  as  the  average  of  the  residue  of  the  Union,  and 
it  will  be  seen,  by  intuition,  that  only  in  a  few  favored  locali- 
ties could  the  system  of  "  sectarian  "  schools  be  maintained. 
This  obstacle  might  be  partially  overcome  by  a  union  of  two  or 
more  sects,  between  whom  the  repellency  resulting  from  some 
punctilios  in  matters  of  form  or  ceremonial  observance  would 
not  overcome  the  argument  from  availability ;  but  this  union, 
having  been  purchased  by  the  sacrifice  of  a  portion  of  what 
each  holds  to  be  absolute  truth,  why,  when  any  one  of  the 
allies  should  become  sufficiently  powerful  to  stand  alone,  would 
it  not  dissolve  the  alliance,  set  up  for  itself,  and  abandon  its 
confederates  to  their  fate? 


748  ANNUAL   REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

In  making  the  above  computation,  which  gives  an  average  of 
forty-eight  scholars  to  each  school,  it  will  be  observed  that  all 
the  schools  in  the  State  are  included,  —  the  numerously-attended 
schools  of  the  cities  as  well  as  the  small  ones  of  the  country. 
And  although  the  number  of  districts  in  the  two  hundred  and 
twenty-six  towns  whose  population  is  less  than  twenty-two 
hundred  each  may  be  somewhat  less  than  in  the  remaining 
seventy-nine  towns,  yet  the  fact  unquestionably  is,  that  an 
allowance  of  forty-eight  scholars  to  a  school  is  much  too  large 
an  average  for  the  schools  in  these  two  hundred  and  twenty-six, 
of  the  three  hundred  and  five  towns  in  the  State.  Of  course, 
twelve  scholars  to  a  school  would  be  much  too  large  an  average, 
if  the  schools  were  divided  only  between  four  different  sects. 
Nor  has  any  mention  been  made  of  the  large  numbers  who  con- 
nect themselves  with  no  religious  sect,  and  who,  therefore,  if 
united  at  all,  would  be  united  on  the  principle  of  opposition  to 
sect.  Surely  the  very  statement  of  the  case  supersedes  argu- 
ment in  regard  to  the  possibility  of  maintaining  schools  for 
any  considerable  portion  of  the  children  of  the  country  on  such 
a  basis. 

The  calamities  necessarily  resulting  from  so  partial  and  lim- 
ited a  system  as  the  one  now  under  consideration  would  in- 
flict retributive  loss  and  weakness  upon  all  classes  in  the  com- 
munity ;  but  upon  the  children  of  the  poor,  the  ignorant,  and 
the  unfortunate,  would  the  blow  fall  with  terrible  severity. 
And  what  class  of  children  ought  we  most  assiduously  to  care 
for?  Christ  came  to  save  that  which  would  otherwise  be  lost. 
All  good  men,  and  all  governments,  so  far  as  they  imitate  the 
example  of  Christ,  strive  to  succor  the  distressed,  and  to  re- 
claim the  guilty ;  in  an  intellectual  and  in  a  moral  sense,  to 
feed  the  hungry,  to  clothe  the  naked,  to  visit  the  sick  and  the 
imprisoned ;  amid  the  priceless  wealth  of  character,  to  find 
the  lost  piece  of  silver  ;  and,  amid  the  wanderings  from  the  fold 
of  truth,  to  recover  the  lambs.  Before  Heaven,  it  is  now,  to- 
day, the  first  duty  of  every  government  in  Christendom  to 
bring  forward  those  unfortunate  classes  of  the  people,  who,  in 


REPORT    FOR   1848.  749 

the  inarch  of  civilization,  have  been  left  in  the  rear.  Though 
the  van  of  society  should  stand  still  for  a  century,  the  rear 
ought  to  be  brought  up.  The  exterminating  decree  of  Herod 
was  parental  aud  beneficent  compared  with  the  cruel  sway  of 
those  rulers  who  dig  the  pit-falls  of  temptation  along  the  path- 
way of  children,  and  suffer  them  to  fall,  unwarned  and  unas- 
sisted, into  the  abysses  of  ruin.  What,  then,  shall  be  said  of 
that  opposition  to  our  system,  which,  should  it  prevail,  would 
doom  to  remediless  ignorance  and  vice  a  great  majority  of  all 
the  children  in  this  land?  Is  such  a  system,  as  contradistin- 
guished from  our  free  system,  Christian  and  religious? 

It  is  a  very  surprising  fact,  but  one  which  is  authenticated  by 
a  report,  made  in  the  month  of  July  last,  by  a  committee  of 
the  Boston  primary-schools,  that,  of  the  ten  thousand  one  hun- 
dred and  sixty-two  children  belonging  to  said  schools,  five  thou- 
sand one  hundred  and  fifty-four  were  of  foreign  parentage. 
Let  sectarianism  be  introduced  into  the  Boston  schools,  or 
rather  let  it  be  understood  that  the  schools  are  to  be  carried 
on  for  the  avowed  purpose  of  building  up  any  one  of  the  New- 
England  denominations,  and  what  a  vast  proportion  of  these 
five  thousand  one  hundred  and  fifty-four  children  would  be  im- 
mediately withdrawn  from  the  schools  !  Their  parents  would 
as  soon  permit  them  to  go  to  a  lazar-house  as  to  such  schools  ; 
aud  this,  too,  from  the  sincerest  of  motives.  The  same  thing 
would  prove  relatively  true  in  regard  to  no  inconsiderable  num- 
ber of  the  less  populous  cities,  and  of  the  most  populous  towns, 
in  the  State.  Now,  what  would  be  the  condition  of  such  chil- 
dren at  the  end  of  twenty  years  ?  aud  what  the  condition  of 
the  communities  which  had  thus  cruelly  closed  the  school- 
house-doors  upon  them?  Would  not  these  communities  be 
morally  responsible  for  all  the  degradation,  the  miseries,  the 
vices,  and  the  crimes  consequent  upon  such  expulsion  from 
the  school  ?  Aud  would  such  a  result  be  one  of  the  fruits  of  a 
Christian  and  a  religious  system? 

But  there  would  be  another  inseparable  accompaniment  of 
such  a  system.  In  Massachusetts,  the  average  compensation 


750  ANNUAL   REPORTS   ON  EDUCATION. 

paid  to  male  teachers  is  veiy  much  larger  than  that  which  is 
paid  in  any  other  State  in  the  Union.  It  is  nearly  double  what 
is  given  in  most  of  the  States  ;  and  yet,  even  with  us,  the  great 
body  of  ambitious  and  aspiring  young  men  pass  by  the  pro- 
fession of  teaching,  and  betake  themselves  to  some  other  em- 
ployment, known  to  be  more  lucrative,  and  falsely  supposed  to 
be  more  honorable.  How  degrading,  then,  must  be  the  effect 
upon  the  general  character  and  competency  of  teachers  as  a 
profession,  when,  on  the  abolition  of  the  public  schools,  and 
the  substitution  of  private  and  sectarian  schools  in  their  stead, 
the  wages  of  teachers,  for  the  poorer  classes,  shall  be  reduced 
to  a  pittance,  and  the  collection  of  even  this  pittance  shall  be 
precarious  !  What  will  be  the  social  rank  and  standing  of 
teachers,  when  their  customary  income  encourages  no  previous 
preparation  for  their  work,  doles  out  only  a  niggardly  subsist- 
ence even  while  they  are  engaged  in  the  service,  and  leaves  no 
surplus  for  the  probable  wants  of  sickness,  or  the  certain  ones 
of  age?  And  among  whom  shall  the  teacher  seek  his  asso- 
ciates, when  he  is  shunned  by  the  learned  for  his  want  of  cul- 
ture, and  ridiculed  for  his  poverty  by  the  devotees  of  wealth? 
Even  in  England,  where  the  population  is  so  dense  that  hardly 
a  spot  can  be  selected  as  a  centre,  which  will  not  embrace,  with- 
in a  circumference  of  convenient  distance,  a  sufficient  number 
of  children  for  a  school,  —  even  there,  the  voluntary  and  secta- 
rian system  leaves  at  least  two-thirds  of  the  agricultural  and 
manufacturing  classes  in  a  state  of  the  most  deplorable  igno- 
rance ;  supplying  them  with  teachers,  so  far  as  it  supplies 
them  with  teachers  at  all,  who  fulfil  the  double  oifice  of  per- 
petuating errors  in  school,  and  degrading  the  character  of  the 
profession  out  of  it. 

There  is  another  fact  of  fearful  significance,  which  no  one 
who  has  any  regard  for  the  common  interests  of  society  can 
be  pardoned  for  forgetting.  It  is  known  to  all,  that,  in  many 
parts  of  the  Union,  the  population  is  so  sparse,  and  can  com- 
mand so  little  of  ready  means  for  paying  salaries,  that  no  resi- 
dent clergyman  of  any  denomination  is  to  be  found  throughout 


REPORT   FOR    1848-  751 

wide  districts  of  country ;  and  many  of  those  who  do  devote 
themselves  to  the  spiritual  welfare  of  their  fellow-men  are  most 
scantily  provided  for.  If  unmarried,  they  can  barely  live  ;  if 
they  have  a  family,  there  is,  oftentimes,  a  real  scantiness  of 
the  comforts  and  necessaries  of  life.  They  have  neither  books 
to  peruse  ;  nor  leisure  to  read,  even  if  they  had  books.  They 
may  be  a  pious,  but  they  cannot  be  a  learned  clergy.  At  least 
in  one  respect,  they  are  compelled  to  imitate  St.  Paul ;  for  as 
he  wrought  at  his  own  "  craft "  for  a  subsistence,  so  must  they. 
And  now,  if  existing  means  are  too  scanty  to  give  a  respectable 
support  even  to  the  ministry,  how  disastrous  must  be  the 
effect  of  dividing  these  scanty  means  betwi/i-u  the  institution  of 
the  gospel  and  the  institution  of  the  school !  Will  not  the 
vineyard  of  the  Lord  be  overgrown  with  weeds,  will  not  its 
hedges  be  broken  down,  and  the  wild  beasts  of  the  forest  make 
their  lair  therein,  if  the  servants  who  are  set  to  tend  and  to 
dress  it  are  so  few  in  number,  and  so  miserably  provided  for? 
Is  not  this  another  criterion  by  which  to  determine  whether  our 
present  system  is  not  as  Christian  and  as  religious  as  that 
which  would  supplant  it? 

I  know  of  but  one  argument,  having  the  semblance  of  plausi- 
bility, that  can  be  urged  against  this  feature  of  our  system.  It 
may  be  said,  that  if  questions  of  doctrinal  religion  are  left  to  be 
decided  by  men  for  themselves,  or  by  parents  for  their  children, 
numerous  and  grievous  errors  will  be  mingled  with  the  instruc- 
tion. Doubtless  the  fact  is  so.  If  truth  be  one,  and  if  many 
contradictory  dogmas  are  taught  as  truth,  then  it  is  mathemati- 
cally certain  that  all  the  alleged  truths  but  one  is  a  falsity. 
But,  though  the  statement  is  correct,  the  inference  which  is 
drawn  from  it  in  favor  of  a  government  standard  of  faith  is 
not  legitimate  ;  for  all  the  religious  errors  which  are  believed  iu 
by  the  free  mind  of  man,  or  which  are  taught  by  free  parents 
to  their  children,  are  tolerable  and  covetable,  compared  with 
those  which  the  patronage  and  the  seductions  of  government 
can  suborn  men  to  adopt,  and  which  the  terrors  of  government 
can  compel  them  to  perpetuate.  The  errors  of  free  minds  are 


752  ANNUAL   REPORTS   ON   EDUCATION. 

so  numerous  and  so  various,  that  they  prevent  any  monster- 
error  from  acquiring  the  ascendency,  and  therefore  truth  has  a 
chance  to  struggle  forward  amid  the  strifes  of  the  combatants  ; 
but  if  the  monster-error  can  usurp  the  throne  of  the  civil  power, 
fortify  itself  by  prescription,  defend  its  infallibility  with  all  the 
forces  of  the  State,  sanctify  its  enormities  under  sacred  names, 
and  plead  the  express  command  of  God  for  all  its  atrocities,  — 
against  such  an  antagonist,  Truth  must  struggle  for  centuries, 
bleed  at  every  pore,  be  wounded  in  every  vital  part,  and  can 
triumph  at  last,  only  after  thousands  and  tens  of  thousands  of 
her  holiest  disciples  shall  have  fallen  in  the  conflict. 

If,  then,  a  government  would  recognize  and  protect  the  rights 
of  religious  freedom,  it  must  abstain  from  subjugating  the  ca- 
pacities of  its  children  to  any  legal  standard  of  religious  faith 
with  as  great  fidelity  as  it  abstains  from  controlling  the  opin- 
ions of  men.  It  must  meet  the  unquestionable  fact,  that  the 
old  spirit  of  religious  domination  is  adopting  new  measures  to 
accomplish  its  work,  —  measures  which,  if  successful,  will  be 
as  fatal  to  the  liberties  of  mankind  as  those  which  were  prac- 
tised in  by-gone  days  of  violence  and  terror.  These  new  meas- 
ures are  aimed  at  children  instead  of  men.  They  propose  to 
supersede  the  necessity  of  subduing  free  thought  in  the  mind 
of  the  adult,  by  forestalling  the  development  of  any  capacity 
of  free  thought  in  the  mind  of  the  child.  They  expect  to  find 
it  easier  to  subdue  the  free  agency  of  children  by  binding  them 
in  fetters  of  bigotry  than  to  subdue  the  free  agency  of  men  by 
binding  them  in  fetters  of  iron.  For  this  purpose,  some  are 
attempting  to  deprive  children  of  their  right  to  labor,  and,  of 
course,  of  their  daily  bread,  unless  they  will  attend  a  govern- 
ment school,  and  receive  its  sectarian  instruction.  Some  are 
attempting  to  withhold  all  means  even  of  secular  education 
from  the  poor,  and  thus  punish  them  with  ignorance,  unless, 
with  the  secular  knowledge  which  they  desire,  they  will  accept 
theological  knowledge  which  they  condemn.  Others  still  are 
striving  to  break  down  all  free  public-school  systems  where 
they  exist,  and  to  prevent  their  establishment  where  they  do 


REPORT   FOR    1848.  753 

not  exist,  in  the  hope,  that,  on  the  downfall  of  these,  their  sys- 
tem will  succeed.  The  sovereign  antidote  against  these  machi- 
nations is  free  schools  for  all,  and  the  right  of  every  parent  to 
determine  the  religious  education  of  his  children. 

This  topic  invites  far  more  extended  exposition  ;  but  this 
must  suffice.  In  bidding  an  official  farewell  to  a  system 
with  which  I  have  been  so  long  connected,  to  which  I  have 
devoted  my  means,  my  strength,  my  health,  twelve  years  of 
time,  and,  doubtless,  twice  that  number  of  years  from  what 
might  otherwise  have  been  my  term  of  life,  I  have  felt  bound 
to  submit  these  brief  views  in  its  defence.  In  justice  to  my 
own  name  and  memory  ;  in  justice  to  the  Board  of  which  I  was 
originally  a  member,  and  from  which  I  have  always  sought 
counsel  and  guidance  ;  aud  in  justice  to  thousands  of  the  most 
wise,  upright,  and  religious-minded  men  in  Massachusetts, 
who  have  been  my  fellow-laborers  in  advancing  the  great  cause 
of  popular  education,  under  the  auspices  of  this  system,  —  I 
have  felt  bound  to  vindicate  it  from  the  aspersions  cast  upon  it, 
and  to  show  its  consonance  with  the  eternal  principles  of  equity 
and  justice.  I  have  felt  bound  to  show,  that  so  far  from  its 
being  an  irreligious,  an  anti-Christian,  or  an  un-Christian  system, 
it  is  a  system  which  recognizes  religious  obligations  in  their 
fullest  extent ;  that  it  is  a  system  which  invokes  a  religious 
spirit,  and  can  never  be  fitly  administered  without  such  a 
spirit ;  that  it  inculcates  the  great  commands  upon  which  hang 
all  the  law  and  the  prophets ;  that  it  welcomes  the  Bible,  and 
therefore  welcomes  all  the  doctrines  which  the  Bible  really 
contains  ;  and  that  it  listens  to  these  doctrines  so  reverently, 
that,  for  the  time  being,  it  will  not  suffer  any  rash  mortal  to 
thrust  in  his  interpolations  of  their  meaning,  or  overlay  the  text 
with  any  of  the  "  many  inventions  "  which  the  heart  of  man 
has  sought  out.  It  is  a  system,  however,  which  leaves  open 
all  other  means  of  instruction,  —  the  pulpits,  the  Sunday 
schools,  the  Bible  classes,  the  catechisms,  of  all  denominations, 
—  to  be  employed  according  to  the  preferences  of  individual 
parents.  It  is  a  system  which  restrains  itself  from  teaching 

48 


754  ANNUAL   REPORTS   ON  EDUCATION. 

that  what  it  does  teach  is  all  that  needs  to  be  taught,  or  that 
should  be  taught ;  but  leaves  this  to  be  decided  by  each  man 
for  himself,  according  to  the  light  of  his  reason  and  conscience, 
and  on  his  responsibility  to  that  Great  Being,  who,  in  holding 
him  to  an  account  for  the  things  done  in  the  body,  will  hold 
him  to  the  strictest  account  for  the  manner  in  which  he  has 
"  trained  up  "  his  children. 

Such,  then,  in  a  religious  point  of  view,  is  the  Massachusetts 
system  of  common  schools.  Reverently  it  recognizes  and  af- 
firms the  sovereign  rights  of  -the  Creator,  sedulously  and  sa- 
credly it  guards  the  religious  rights  of  the  creature  ;  while  it 
seeks  to  remove  all  hinderances,  and  to  supply  all  furtherances, 
to  a  filial  and  paternal  communion  between  man  and  his  Maker. 
In  a  social  and  political  sense,  it  is  a  free  school-system.  It 
knows  no  distinction  of  rich  and  poor,  of  bond  and  free,  or  be- 
tween those,  who,  in  the  imperfect  light  of  this  world,  are  seek- 
ing, through  different  avenues,  to  reach  the  gate  of  heaven. 
Without  money  and  without  price,  it  throws  open  its  doors, 
and  spreads  the  table  of  its  bounty,  for  all  the  children  of  the 
State.  Like  the  sun,  it  shines  not  only  upon  the  good,  but 
upon  the  evil,  that  they  may  become  good  ;  and,  like  the  rain, 
its  blessings  descend  not  only  upon  the  just,  but  upon  the  un- 
just, that  their  injustice  may  depart  from  them,  and  be  known 
no  more. 

To  the  great  founders  of  this  system  we  look  back  with 
filial  reverence  and  love.  Amid  the  barrenness  of  the  land, 
and  in  utter  destitution  of  wealth,  they  coined  the  rude  com- 
forts, and  even  the  necessaries,  of  life,  into  means  for  its  gener- 
ous support.  Though,  as  laborers  by  day,  they  subdued  the 
wilderness,  and,  as  sentinels  by  night,  they  guarded  the  camp, 
yet  they  found  time  for  the  vigilant  aclmini.-tratiou  and  over- 
sight of  the  schools  in  the  day  of  their  infancy  and  weakness. 
But  for  this  single  institution,  into  which  they  transfused  so 
much  of  their  means  and  of  their  strength,  and  of  which  they 
have  made  us  the  inheritors,  how  different  would  our  lot  and 
our  life  have  been  !  Upon  us  its  accumulated  blessings  have 


REPORT   FOR    1848.  755 

descended.  It  has  saved  us  from  innumerable  pains  and  perils 
that  would  otherwise  have  been  our  fate,  —  from  the  physical 
wretchedness  that  is  impotent  to  work  out  its  own  relief,  from 
the  darkness  of  the  intellect  whose  wanderings , after  light  so 
often  plunge  it  into  deeper  gloom,  and  from  the  moral  debase- 
ment whose  pleasures  are  vices  and  crimes.  It  has  surrounded 
us  with  a  profusion  of  comforts  and  blessings  of  which  the 
most  poetic  imagination  would  never  otherwise  have  conceived. 
It  has  found,  not  mythologic  goddesses,  but  gigantic  and  tire- 
less laborers,  in  every  stream ;  not  evil  and  vindictive  spirits, 
but  beneficent  and  helping  ones,  in  all  the  elements ;  and,  by  a 
profouuder  alchemy  than  the  schoolmen  ever  dreamed  of,  it 
transmutes  quarries  and  ice-fields  into  gold.  It  has  given  cun- 
ning to  the  hand  of  the  mechanic,  keenness  to  the  artisan's  eye, 
and  made  a  sterile  soil  grow  grateful  beneath  the  skill  of  the 
husbandman.  Hence  the  absence  of  poverty  among  our  na- 
tive population  ;  hence  a  competency  for  the  whole  people,  the 
means  for  mental  and  moral  improvement,  and  for  giving  em- 
bellishment and  dignity  to  life,  such  as  the  world  has  never 
known  before,  and  such  as  nowhere  else  can  be  found  upon 
the  face  of  the  earth. 

How  divinely  wise  were  our  Pilgrim  Fathers  when  they 
foresaw,  that,  if  they  could  give  knowledge  and  virtue  to  their 
children,  they  gave  them  all  things  !  Wonder  and  admiration 
seize  us  as  we  reflect  upon  the  vastness  of  the  results  which 
their  wisdom  wrought  out  from  the  scantiest  of  resources. 
They  have  taught  us  the  great  lesson,  how  the  fiercest  elements 
obey,  and  how  the  most  obdurate  and  intractable  of  Nature's 
substances  bend  and  melt  before  the  power  of  knowledge,  and 
the  fervors  of  a  saintly  heroism.  Their  deeds  have  taught  us, 
not  only  that  the  race  is  not  to  the  swift,  nor  the  battle  to  the 
strong,  but  they  have  taught  us  that  the  swiftness  which  shall 
win  the  honors  of  the  goal,  and  the  strength  that  shall  triumph 
in  the  strife,  are  to  be  found  in  the  soul,  and  not  in  the  limbs, 
of  man.  But  though,  to  this  untitled  yet  noblest  ancestry,  we 
are  bound  to  pay  the  homage  of  our  gratitude,  and  to  accept 


756  ANNUAL   REPORTS   ON    EDUCATION. 

their  benefactions  with  a  filial  love,  yet  neither  the  compla- 
cency of  enjoyment,  nor  that  of  retrospection,  is  the  frame  of 
mind  that  best  befits  us.      We  have  our  futurity  as  they  had 
theirs,  —  a    futurity   rapidly    hastening    upon   us,  —  a  futurity 
now  fluid, — ready,  as  clay  in  the  hands  of  the  potter,  to  be 
moulded  into   every  form  of  beauty  and  excellence  ;   but    so 
soon  as  it  reaches  our  hands,  so  soon  as  it  receives  the  impress 
of  our  plastic  touch,  whether  this  touch  be  for  good  or  for  evil, 
it  is  to  be  struck  into  the  adamant  of  the  unchanging  and  un- 
changeable past.     Into  whose  form  and  likeness  shall  we  fash- 
ion this  flowing  futurity, — of  Mammon,   of  Moloch,   or   of 
Jesus?     Clear,  and  more  clear,  out  of  the  dimness  of  coming 
time,  emerge  to  the  vision  of  faith  the  myriad  hosts    of  the 
generations  that  shall  succeed  us.     These  generations  are  to 
stand  in  our  places,  to  be  called  by  our  names,  and  to  accept 
the  heritage  of  joy  or  of  woe  which  we  shall  bequeath  them. 
Shall  they  look  back  upon  us  with  veneration  for  our  wisdom 
and  beneficent  forecast,  or  with  shame  at  our  selfishness  and 
degeneracy?     Our  ancestors  were  noble  examples  to  us  ;  shall 
we  be  ignoble  examples  to  our  posterity?     They  gave   from 
their  penury,  and  shall  we  withhold  from  our  abundance  ?     Let 
us  not   dishonor  our  lineage.      Let   us  remember  that  gener- 
osity is  not  to  be  measured  by  the  largeness  of  the  sum  which 
a  man  may  give,  but  by  the  smalmess  of  the  sum  which  re- 
mains to  him  after  his  gift.     Let  us  remember  that  the  fortunes 
of  our  children,  and  of  their  descendants,  hang  upon  our  fidelity, 
just  as  our  fortunes  were  suspended  upon  the  fidelity  of  our 
fathers.     Deeds  survive  the  doers.     In  the  highest  and  most 
philosophic  sense,  the  asserted  brevity  of  human  life  is  a  fiction. 
The  act  remains,  though  the  hand  that  wrought  it  may  have 
perished.     And  when  our  spirits  shall  have  gone  to  their  ac- 
count, and  the  dust  of  our  bodies  shall  be  blown  about  by  the 
winds,  or  mingled  with  the  waves,  the  force  which  our  life  shall 
have  impressed  upon  the  machinery  of  things  will  continue  its 
momentum,  and  work  out  its  destiny  upon  the  character  and 
happiness  of  our  descendants. 


REPORT   FOR    1848.  757 

But  not  the  fortunes  of  our  children  alone,  or  of  our  chil- 
dren's children,  are  dependent  upon  us.  The  influences  of  our 
conduct  extend  outward  in  space  as  well  as  onward  in  time. 
We  are  part  of  a  mighty  nation,  which  has  just  embarked  upon 
the  grandest  experiment  ever  yet  attempted  upon  earth,  —  the 
experiment  of  the  capacity  of  mankind  for  the  wise  and  right- 
eous government  of  themselves.  Fearful  are  the  issues  which 
hang  upon  the  trial,  but  few  and  simple  the  conditions  that 
predestine  its  result.  The  firmament,  though  pillared  upon 
rottenness,  shall  be  upheld,  and  the  light  of  day  shall  continue 
to  revisit  the  earth,  though  the  sun  be  blotted  out,  sooner  than 
a  republic  shall  stand  which  has  not  knowledge  and  virtue  for 
its  foundations.  Yet  are  we  not  braving  the  results  of  this  ex- 
periment, in  impious  defiance  of  the  conditions  on  which  Heaven 
has  decreed  that  the  trial  shall  turn  ?  Within  a  brief  period  of 
time,  our  population  has  spread  itself  westward  from  the  Atlan- 
tic, through  more  than  twenty  degrees  of  longitude.  It  has 
erected  thirty  States,  and  given  to  each  a  republican  frame  of 
government.  Yet,  in  more  than  one-half  of  these  States,  no 
provision  worthy  of  the  name  is  made  for  replenishing  the 
common  mind  with  knowledge,  or  for  training  the  common 
heart  to  virtue.  Surely,  to  the  people  of  these  States,  a  dif- 
ferent mental  and  moral  culture  must  come  speedily,  or  it  will 
come  too  late  ;  and  the  sower  who  would  scatter  the  elements 
of  knowledge  and  virtue  amongst  them  must  press  forward 
with  gigantic  strides,  and  cast  his  seed  with  a  gigantic  arm. 

Nor  is  this  all.  Beyoud  our  western  frontier,  another  and 
a  wider  realm  spreads  out,  as  yet  unorganized  into  govern- 
ments, and  uninhabited  by  civilized  man.  The  western  is 
still  broader  than  the  eastern  expanse.  It  stretches  through 
thirty  degrees  of  longitude,  —  one-twelfth  part  of  the  circum- 
ference of  the  globe.  Half  the  population  of  Continental  Europe 
might  be  transplanted  to  it,  find  subsistence  on  it,  and  leave 
room  to  spare.  It  is  now  a  waste  more  dreary  than  desolation 
itself;  for  it  is  filled  only  with  savage  life.  Yet  soon  will 
every  rood  of  its  surface  be  explored  by  the  centrifugal  force  of 


758  ANNUAL   REPORTS    ON   EDUCATION. 

the  Saxon  soul ;  and  whatever  of  vegetable  wealth  is  spread 
upon  it,  or  of  mineral  wealth  is  garnered  beneath  it,  will  be 
appropriated  by  the  vehemence  of  Saxon  enterprise.  Shall 
this  new  empire,  wider  than  that  of  the  Ptolemies,  and  almost 
as  extensive  as  that  of  the  Caesars,  be  reclaimed  to  humanity, 
to  a  Christian  life,  and  a  Christian  history?  or  shall  it  be  a 
receptacle  where  the  avarice,  the  profligacy,  and  the  licentious- 
ness of  a  corrupt  civilization  shall  cast  its  criminals  and  breed 
its  monsters?  If  it  is  ever  to  be  saved  from  such  a  perdition, 
tiie  mother  States  of  this  Union,  those  States  where  the  insti- 
tutions of  learning  and  religion  are  now  honored  and  cher-  ( 
ished,  must  send  out  their  hallowing  influences  to  redeem  it. 
And  if,  in  the  benignant  providence  of  God,  the  tree  of  Para- 
dise is  ever  to  be  planted  and  to  flourish  in  this  new  realm ;  if 
its  branches  are  to  spread,  and  its  leaves  to  be  scattered  for 
the  healing  of  the  people,  —  will  not  the  heart  of  every  true  son 
of  Massachusetts  palpitate  with  desire  —  not  a  low  and  vain- 
glorious ambition,  but  such  a  high  and  holy  aspiration  as 
angels  might  feel  —  that  her  name  may  be  engraved  upon  its 
youthful  trunk,  there  to  deepen  and  expand  with  its  immortal 
growth  ? 


THE   END. 


Prew  of  Geo.  C.  Rand  *  Avery,  Cornhill,  Boston. 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY,  LOS  ANGELES 


This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below. 


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